Minister for Women, Early Childhood, and Community Wellbeing Development for Sarawak, Dato Sri Hajah Fatimah Abdullah, said that the initiative is part of Sarawak’s commitment to ensuring children’s right to education, including the children of migrants who work in the fields.
“We come to learn and do benchmarking of many best practices implemented by the Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection Ministry (KemenPPPA), particularly to improve the quality of women and children’s lives,” Abdullah added in a statement received here on Saturday.
She said that workers from overseas often bring their children to Sarawak, despite the law prohibiting this.
Therefore, the Malaysian government has established a community learning center to educate the children of such workers, she added.
According to the Malaysian minister, the state has been focusing on ensuring the inclusive and sustainable development of social life, particularly after the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We are committed to addressing poverty issues, violence toward women and children, to nationality issues among children due to unregistered marriages,” she said.
From next year, Sarawak residents will get free education, she disclosed.
The government’s initiatives include special skills improvement and capital disbursement to women to help them start businesses, she added.
She said that her bilateral meeting with Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection Minister Arifah Fauzi resulted in several insights, particularly in promoting gender equality in politics and reinforcing women’s prominence in many aspects of life.
Minister Fauzi said that the bilateral meeting is expected to pave the way for collaborative and sustainable efforts in Asia to handle such issues.
“Your presence uplifts spirit and adds value to KemenPPPA. There’s great hope that this meeting can inspire exchanges of best practices between Indonesia and Sarawak," she told Abdullah.
Fauzi said that her ministry is open to suggestions for collaboration, and expressed hopes of strengthening bilateral relations.
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Translator: Anita Permata Dewi, Mecca Yumna Ning Prisie
Editor: Azis Kurmala
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