Students raise funds to publish own book
KOTA KINABALU: A class of 16-year-olds and their English teacher from SM St Francis Convent successfully launched their book, The Gifts of Life, here yesterday.
Spurred by the challenge made by teacher Tok Fen Fen, the 30 students not only wrote and illustrated the book but also raised around RM7,000 in funds needed to publish and print the 1,000 copies of their short stories collection.
"The girls lived up to the challenge of writing all the stories in this book, defying all belief that ordinary girls who are still in school could actually publish their work. They amazed themselves with the quality of writing they could produce, but it was not just that," said Tok at the book launch and book presentation ceremony to the National Library and Sabah State Library at the Sabah State Library Headquarters yesterday.
"Everyone came together to support us in our fund-raisers. You bought our waffles, ice-lollies and cookies. You supported our jumble sale. You even participated in our song dedication program and created memories at our photo booth.
"Most of all, we witnessed with our very own eyes the impact the girls' parents created when they came on board to discuss how they could support us," she added.
Tok said parents created opportunities for the students to raise the funds needed for publishing by providing transport in their moving services and opportunities to clean a house, secret recipes for selling chocolate chip cookies and even a project presentation to a CEO in a prominent company.
The Gifts of Life also provided the students with the opportunity to give back to the community.
"We are also honoured to be able to partner with World Vision Malaysia; opening our eyes to the world beyond us and showing us how we can make a huge difference with the little that we have," said Tok.
However, the journey is not the end for the teacher and 16-yearolds.
The students not only have the task of selling all the 1,000 copies, RM15 per book, but are also up for the challenge of grabbing a national award to spur others to take on more similar projects.
"This project has not come to an end yet. In a few weeks, this project will be made known to even more people as I will be presenting a paper about it at the 26th MELTA (Malaysian English Language Teaching Association) International Conference. By doing this, I hope that many others will be inspired projects with their students," said Tok.
"And finally, I'm proud to announce that this project has been nominated for the MELTA President Outstanding School ELT Project Award. This is an award presented to schools that have organized and implemented creative and interesting English language projects on a schoolwide scale," she added.
At the ceremony, the students also presented a RM12,000 mock cheque to World Vision Malaysia program coordinator Joseph Lai.
Sabah State Library director Wong Vui Yin, Sabah State Education Department representative Muarifin Sufianto Mochoeri, and Kota Kinabalu District Education Office representative Cynthia James were also at the ceremony.