For and with the rural communities of Sarawak
An urban-rural partnership to bridge the divide.
Our story began in 2011, borne out of love for our homeland, as a response to the increasing disparity evident between urban and rural communities in Sarawak. In particular, living standards diverged widely with some of our rural communities lacking access to basic amenities such as clean water supply, electricity, medical services, transportation, telecommunications connectivity and education, thus remaining isolated from the wider Malaysian society.
Our vision was that we, a group of concerned citizens, could bridge this divide, working in partnership with these communities in meaningful and impactful ways. And thus, Barefoot Mercy was born.
We are grateful to have our vision validated, as proud recipients of the Star Golden Hearts Award and the Gamuda-Star Inspiration Award in 2017.
Practical Assistance
Our founding belief is that it is possible to make a difference in the form of simple, practical assistance to our rural communities. Our initial projects were small-scale, such as the distribution of water tanks to drought-prone communities with no piped water supply. In our earliest project, our recipients were indeed barefoot.
Shortly after we began this initiative, the Sarawak government began a similar initiative to distribute 1Malaysia water tanks. We shifted our focus to larger village-based projects under our two main pillars of The Gift of Light and subsequently, The Gift of Hope. We also remained open to other requests for assistance from communities and collaboration from partners in other areas.
The Gift of Light
Micro-hydro systems harness the power of streams or small rivers with significant vertical drop to generate electricity. Sarawak's terrain and climate provides much possibility for such small-scale village-wide systems to allow off-grid communities to enjoy lights and other basic amenities such as food refrigeration and television, as well as affording them a chance to establish cottage industries.
We have since 2012 completed 10 micro-hydro projects under our Gift of Light initiative. We have also distributed solar lamps and lights to communities not suitable for micro-hydro systems.
The Gift of Hope
Our Gift of Hope initiative provides education support to rural communities. In 2019, we completed the build of a new pre-school building including boarding and dining facilities in Long Lamam, a Penan village, to support the provision of education, the first experience for many in this community.
A pre-school at its doorstep allows the community to understand what education is and to build a basic level of reading, writing and mathematical skills amongst the youngest generation. This in turn will hopefully reduce the current level of drop-out rates when the children enter government primary boarding schools a distance away from the village.
“Barefoot Mercy demonstrates outstanding and selfless contribution in building bridges among different communities and promoting racial harmony and unity.”
— Star Golden Hearts Awards 2017 citation by the Star Foundation
Contact
Feel free to contact us with any questions.
Email
barefootmercy@gmail.com
Phone
(60) 082-235331