Her model was crushed, now Lisa is role model for campaign
KUALA LUMPUR: When she was in Year Six, she created a model of a kampung with her father. “The next day it was in the tong sampah, smashed.”
The model, said actress Lisa Surihani, was destroyed by her classmates in an act of bullying.
Tearing up while telling the story, she said the first thought that came to her mind then was: “This was something I worked on with my dad.”
She said she was in shock.
“I was too surprised to react. I just looked at my project on top of the rubbish bin.
“It was almost as if my classmates were saying: ‘ We want you to see that we smashed your project’.
“What they did was not nice,” she said.
Lisa was speaking publicly about her experience of being bullied during the launch of # StandTogether, a campaign launched yesterday that called for the first week of April to be designated as an annual bullying pre- vention week in the country.
Lisa said her experience and being a young parent led her to speak up and support the campaign.
“To shape our kids to become decent human beings, we need to guide them at an early age.
“As a parent, I want to make sure I am not raising bullies. I don’t want to raise victims as well,” said the mother of two, adding that combating bullying in society required a collective effort from everyone.
“We have to stand together in protecting one another.”
YouTube personality Jenn Chia, 25, was drawn to the campaign by its positive message.
“I believe that it is all about the environment.
“This is about creating an environment where bullying is nonexistent,” said Chia, who teared up when she remembered how a schoolteacher helped her when she was bullied in secondary school.
“My teacher was there for me.”