Woman fighting for her own citizenship giving education to undocumented children

No one except Methodist Pilley Institute (MPI), who believed that by giving education to people like Lily, not only would it change her life but also the lives of the people who suffer the same fate as Lily.

Sure enough, after graduating with a Diploma in Social Work in 2023, Lily felt the calling to provide education to children from her own community in Long Singut; children who faced the same issues as hers – undocumented.

“Diploma in Social Work had opened a door of opportunities for me; considering the uncertainty of my status now, I never thought that I would become a teacher,” she said.

Despite facing the same circumstances, Lily considered herself lucky because she was able to attend classes at the national school, sit for the public examination, earn her Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) and later, a Diploma certificate from MPI.

The children she is teaching right now, however, are not so fortunate – their undocumented status prevents them from entering school.

But Lily was determined not to deprive them of education.

“This issue has been there for a long time and not going to school has become a norm in the community and that education is secondary. I do not want them to keep ‘normalising’ this, so I had to do my part,” she said.

Lily was accepted into MPI in 2020 after a recommendation from a priest from the Catholic Church who understood her passion for education but was limited due to circumstances.

Despite being disadvantaged, her dream was not limited and she always believed that she would further her tertiary education.

The question was, where?

“After completing my Form 5, a lot of my friends got accepted into public universities or applied for government jobs. I just kept quiet because I could not do any of those.“

“Yes, I was disappointed, and I was unemployed for about a year before enrolling into MPI. However, I never gave up hope that one day I would go to university. Then the priest found that MPI could offer me a place despite not having an Identification Card (IC),” she said.

With such an opportunity, Lily’s first thought was to enrol in the Diploma in Business Management while her cousin, who is also undocumented, had already set her eyes on the Diploma in Social Work.

She said at that time, she saw social work as volunteering work instead of a profession.

After some thinking, Lily decided to join her cousin and try out the Diploma in Social Work.

“It was when I studied social work that I realised that Social Work is not just about volunteering work but also a profession.“

“We studied a lot of things – mental health, persons with disabilities. I can say that we learned about community and how social work helps us in our daily lives and we learn to fight for our rights.“

“It was only through the Diploma in Social Work that I had the idea to help the undocumented children in my area,” she said.

According to her, it all started with the change of perspective towards social work. First being that there are a lot of job prospects associated with social work.

Among others include teacher, counsellor, hospital staff and even work with non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

“I think social work suits me and we learned a lot of things. Most importantly, it taught me about life, what is good for people, and I learned to be more aware of my surroundings,” she said.

She added that the Community Service Project (CSP) – a compulsory subject for all MPI students – also helped her to see her responsibility to society.

With the real-life exposure to the problems in society, Lily was given some tools and knowledge to advocate for the unfortunate and fight for their rights.

One of the problems she found out was the stateless children and undocumented people like herself. From there, she narrowed it down to her own family.

“You can say that I was called to help these children because three of my younger siblings are undocumented and not attending school and I feel sad just to think about it.“

“I wanted them to know how it feels like to go to school, and they must love it if they are able to experience it.“

“I linked those problems to my community, and I found out there were a lot of them facing the same problem,” she said.

After graduating, Lily got support from her local church in Kapit town to use one of its halls to teach the children.

She said most of the residents of Long Singut resided in Kapit town for work. Thus, there was no point in opening classes in the village as most of the children are in Kapit town.

They only go back to the village during holidays.

With the need to support herself and to give a token to the church for allowing her to use the hall, Lily had to impose very minimal fees for this education.

“When you are in the town area, you need some financial means to get by. I had no choice but to impose certain fees for my service,” she said.

Lily opened her classes every day. Despite imposing the fees, she still faced financial difficulties due to inconsistent income.

She said the income depended on the number of children. In certain months, she could earn about RM400 or RM600 or, if she was lucky, RM1,000.

“Usually if there are not enough children, I would tell the parents that I cannot open classes for this month or the next few months because I need to find work. Only when we could guarantee enough children, I would open classes again,” she said.

She said, despite the passion for these children, sometimes it could get tiring as not only did she need to teach, but she also needed to find children to be able to continue her classes.

Lily could not impose higher fees because some parents could not afford it, and some were just not willing to pay for it.

Usually, there was an increase in the number of students when she reopened the class, but it would dwindle gradually.

Sometime in 2024, a company approached her to be part of their corporate social responsibility (CSR) programme to provide education to the undocumented children in Kapit.

Delighted with the opportunity, she sent her resume, and the programme finally kicked off early this year.

She is now engaged as one of the teachers for the programme and receives monthly tokens. Although she is not an employee, that was her taste of being employed with the qualification that she had.

“I am not an employee. The company gives me tokens every month and they are enough for me to get by every day. I don’t have to find a job outside and am extremely delighted that I am able to continue to teach these children,” she said.

With this new opportunity, Lily only teaches two days a week. She teaches the children the alphabet.

While she is delighted that she has been given such an opportunity, she still wishes that the children could go to school.

“Or at least, this programme will go on for a long time because they really do need this programme. It is their only access to education,” she said.

Asked what difference it would make if she had taken a Diploma in Business Management, she said she would only focus on herself and fight for her own benefits.

“If I had taken Business Management, I would only think about what I can get. With social work, it changed my perspective, and I am more aware of the people around me.”

“I look at those who are less fortunate and I learn more about life and understand that all of us are people regardless of our circumstances. It certainly helped me to become a better person,” she said.

Lily is still currently fighting for her citizenship.

The Diploma in Social Work is 2.5 years programme. The programme provides extensive knowledge covering professional social work theories and methods, as well as social work principles, values, and ethics. The curriculum is designed based on the National Competency Standards for Social Work Practice (2010).

Students will explore Psychology, Sociology, Entrepreneurship, Interpersonal and Counselling Skills.