Help Communities in Borneo Protect their Heritage

As construction of the first stage of the Biocultural Heritage Centre in Buayan village comes to an end, we would like to send a special thank you to those who supported this project.

This Centre is not just a building. Original plans laid out a few years ago defined the Centre as ‘a communally owned and managed resource centre’; it was ambitious, yes, but the progress since then has shown us it is something that can be achieved. Enthusiastic youth from Buayan are now taking steps to reenergise a legally registered community entity that will provide formal grounds for the community to take matters into their own hands. For example, a legal entity enables the community to effectively engage with individuals and organisations who believe in and will support the upholding of their traditional values.

A collaboration already exists between the Buayan community with Gakushuin University in Japan under the Dissolva Borneo Project. With their third annual visit being planned for the later part of this year, a team of community collaborators sanctioned by Tungkusan (the name of the community body in Buayan) could play a much greater role in all aspects of the visit. This includes designing community outreach programmes for the Japanese students to take part in; engaging with service professionals such as Arkitrek, which currently leads all aspects of design and build of the Centre, to create an extension to the current project; and collaborating with educational institutions such as Universiti Malaysia Sabah, which played a key role in promoting Ulu Papar to the Japanese university. Beyond that, as an officially recognised entity, the community can also seek further support by developing and managing fundraising campaigns for the long-term continuity of community-driven initiatives to improve their livelihoods while protecting their precious heritage.

Progress is well underway, with ongoing encouragement, both locally and from abroad, and with on-site developments, both tangible (the construction of the Centre) and intangible (community capacity building in conducting workshops; read this blog post by one of the participants on the first workshop, a second workshop is being planned for 22^nd February).

Today (Wednesday, 12^th February) is GlobalGiving’s first Bonus Day this year. If you’d like to consider making another donation to boost community action in Buayan, please do take advantage of the 30% in matching funds offered by GlobalGiving. Matching is available from 9 am EST (http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?iso=20140212T09&p1=263 or until funds run out or 11:59 pm EST (http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?iso=20140212T2355&p1=263).