Access

Increasing accessibility by building and repairing of basic roads and jeep tracks for the rural and marginalised communities.

Roads form the backbone of a country’s infrastructure, on which a country’s economic development rests. To date, there are still many areas in rural Sabah and Sarawak that do not have roads for automobile access. For these villages unconnected by roads, school-going children, the sick, elderly and expectant mothers have to walk to the nearest road before being able to get on vehicles to get to places beyond their villages. Some have to walk for hours. Road access can mean the difference between life and death, especially for those in need of emergency medical care.

Impian Sabah and Sarawak have seen first-hand how villagers have had to hike uphill for many hours, hauling bags of their agricultural produce to the market to sell. School-going children who aren’t admitted to the hostel have to make the treacherous journey to and fro every day.

To ease the burden of these villagers, we have supported and worked on three road projects; two in Sarawak and one in Sabah. Together with the volunteers and local villagers, we toiled under the sun and delivered the roads, complete with connecting bridges and reinforced concrete pipes to form culverts to channel away water from the roads.

No longer do they need to walk for hours just to get to the market, school or nearest clinic. Today, their journeys are shorter in time and less strenuous.