Bro. Peter in discussion with Heartians Asrama Butitin, located in Nabawan, Sabah is a hostel facility for underprivileged rural boys and girls to enable them to attend school regularly.The project was engineered by Brother Peter Phelan FSC in 1991 when he saw the acute urgency to provide living accommodation for good but poor and needy village students studying in Nabawan to give them a better chance to success in life. It is a hostel complex consisting of nine buildings of various sizes, two games courts and two fish ponds. Construction of the project started in early 1999, completed 12 months later and occupied some three months after that. The official opening took place on 27th April 2002.
The hostel is open to students of all races and religious beliefs. It was built and equipped at a cost of approximately RM1.4 million with the government providing a grant of RM500,000.00 and the rest of the funds were raised through donations.
There are on average about seventy boys and girls (approximately equal in number) staying at the hostel. All of them come from remote villages near Nabawan. Only those who pass a simple test will be taken in because the hostel is not enabled to cater to those who have learning difficulties. The hostel provides a conducive environment for them to study which is not the case if they were to stay at their homes, due to distance from the school. It is hoped that the discipline of hostel life will help to develop a regular routine of work, play and study which is important if they were to do well in their studies in school. Towards this end, the Brothers who run the hostels help to provide whatever tuition is needed in their studies. Besides these, the boys and girls are taught simple computer skills that will be of help to them when they leave school.
Asrama Butitin is largely dependent on public donations. A number of alumni of the Lasallian School in Kota Kinabalu and well-wishers contribute towards the running of the hostel plus providing sponsorship programmes which cover a year’s stay for those in the hostel. The Brothers-in-charge of Asrama Butitin are Brother Peter R. Phelan FSC and Brother Joikul Egbertus Severin |
