Projek Library STAR Ipoh

Setahun kemudian di OBW 2009

2009-07-01T10:03:00.000+08:00

Saya sempat menghadiri OBW 2009 pada 27-28 Jun 2009 baru-baru ini.Sedar tidak sedar, sudah hampir setahun saya tidak dapat menumpukan perhatian kepada usaha kecil ini kerana kesibukan tugas.

Ketika sampai di STAR pada lewat senja hari Sabtu (27 Jun 2009), saya amat gembira kerana dapat bertemu seorang bekas pelajar STAR, junior saya di Rumah Hitam dahulu,yang menjual 'magnetic bookmarks' bagi meraih dana untuk perpustakaan STAR.Saya benar-benar bangga dengan usahanya yang kreatif itu.Saya fikir kalau semua orang berusaha sepertinya,dengan mudahnya kita boleh beli buku-buku baru untuk perpustakaan STAR.

Agak ironis apabila dalam masa setahun ini, saya dan rakan-rakan sukarelawan Islamic Relief Malaysia sudah berjaya menubuhkan dua buah perpustakaan rumah anak yatim di negeri Perak ini,namun sebagai bekas pelajar STAR saya tidak mampu untuk melakukan sedemikian untuk perpustakaan sekolah sendiri. Perpustakaan-perpustakaan di rumah anak yatim itu tersebut rata-rata mempunyai koleksi buku bernilai hampir RM20,000 hasil sumbangan orang ramai, sedangkan untuk sekolah sendiri untuk mendapatkan dana sebanyak itu begitu sukar sekali. (Peruntukan kerajaan untuk membeli buku-buku untuk perpustakaan STAR ialah sebanyak RM7000 setahun - berdasarkan pengalaman, saya boleh menganggarkan dengan agak tepat berapa buah buku yang boleh dibeli dengan peruntukan sebanyak itu)

Walau bagaimanapun, saya tidak gemar untuk berpolemik lanjut mengapakah ia sukar dan ia terjadi atas alasan-alasan tertentu dan sebagainya.. Apa yang saya tahu, saya harus membantu dengan apa cara sekalipun bagi mendapatkan buku-buku yang baik untuk perpustakaan STAR.

Pagi Ahad lepas (28 Jun 2009), sebelum meninggalkan Sekolah Tuanku Abdul Rahman (STAR), saya sempat meninggalkan beberapa buah buku di tepi pintu perpustakaan. Buku-buku itu saya ambil daripada perpustakaan peribadi saya untuk disumbangkan kepada Perpustakaan STAR. Buku Pengembaraan Ibnu Battutah itu pula disumbangkan oleh Br.Aman Shah yang telah mendermakan baucar buku MPHnya tidak lama dahulu.

Insya Allah blog ini akan kembali aktif semula demi gedung ilmu di sekolah tercinta.

Dirgahayu STAR!

Kutipan Terkini & OBW 2008

2008-07-24T15:36:00.000+08:00

Saya ke STAR Ipoh hujung minggu lepas untuk menghadiri OBW 2008. Saya sempat bertandang ke perpustakaan untuk menghantar buku-buku yang sempat saya capai daripada perpustakaan peribadi saya.Antaranya ialah:

Malaysia: A Pictorial History, 1400-2003 (Hardcover)by Wendy Khadijah Moore.
Archeology in Malaysia by Dr. Zurainah Majid.
Memoir Shamsiah Fakeh.
Tun Razak dalam Kenangan.

Alhamdulillah kutipan dana sudah mencecahi RM3163.10. Jumlah terkini ini termasuklah 'pledge' daripada Tuan Tigerlaneboy sebanyak RM200 + sumbangan batch 93 (dan beberapa orang oldboys dari batch lain) sebanyak RM1000 dan kutipan kilat semasa OBW 2008 yang berjaya mengumpul RM716.20 (separuh daripada jumlah ini akan disalurkan kepada projek F1 STAR Ipoh,manakala separuh lagi akan disalurkan untuk perpustakaan STAR).

Semasa di perpustakaan STAR,saya sempat melihat kebocoran yang agak teruk di siling perpustakaan. Air menitik jatuh ke lantai.Maklum sahajalah di atasnya, tandas guru.Bangunan pula sudah lebih 50 tahun. Kesian pelajar pelajar STAR yang terpaksa menghidu bau yang kurang enak apabila berada di perpustakaan!

Saya tentu sahaja mengalu-alukan pledge Presiden STAROBA, YBhg Datuk Hamzah untuk membaikpulih keadaan infrastruktur STAR dalam masa 2 tahun semasa ucapan aluan di Majlis Makan Malam OBW 2008 yang lalu.Eloklah begitu.Namun saya harap ia tidak sekadar menjadi retorik kata-kata ahli politik semata-mata. Harapan saya kata-katanya itu diperkotakanlah seberapa segera.

Batch 1996 (36)'s contribution

2008-07-07T14:55:00.000+08:00

Alhamdulillah. Fivers 1996 have contributed RM1605 to our library funds.Thank you my fellow brothers from 1996.

By the way, I still waiting for some response from my batch (1993) to add in to the collected amount.So far we have raised around RM1000 ++.

Officially, we just need to raise RM4415.00. It is so doable.

Managed to speak to Cikgu Ainun Maziah the other day. She told me about the leaking problem of the teacher's toilets on the upper floor of the library block.The water frequently seeps in and the smell, Pheww! The school administration is looking into it, I was told. Hopefully it can be resolved soon.

Updates #1

2008-06-23T22:07:00.001+08:00

Got another RM100 today from one fellow of STARian 90.

Fund update: RM150.00 raised so far.

MPH Book voucher via credit card redemption : RM50.00 (1 voucher)

(Pix: Precious collection of old books in the library.Some of it dated back in 1957, the year STAR was established)

Donate Book Vouchers

2008-06-21T21:31:00.000+08:00

Do you know that you can redeem your credit card points for RM50 MPH Book Vouchers?Citibank and Maybank do offer such redemption program.

And that's one of the 'cheapest' way to help buy books for our school library.

Do let me know if you are interested to help through this way.

1st RM50!

2008-06-21T21:11:00.000+08:00

I just received the first ever RM50 donation for STAR's Library Appeal leaving RM5070 to go.

Batch 94 has responded the calling here.

Batch 99 and 95 (thanks Robot for calling me this morning) have also responded to the appeal.

One of our boys won the state's NILAM Reading Competition last year.(NILAM program's objective is to encourage reading habit among the students).

Can we have more STARian to win NILAM's award?Yes we can, if only if we can get more interesting books to replace the old books in the library. That's the 2nd phase of this appeal - to get good books for our library.

This very first phase will concentrate on getting the fundings for the basic needs of our library.

Our Library: Photo Essay (1)

2008-06-19T21:47:00.001+08:00

No funds this year to buy these........

No...no..we haven't touch yet on getting new books to replenish these 'nadir' books dated back to 1957!

Never-ending problem of leaking ceiling of this former Green House.

Raising funds for STAR's library

2008-06-19T21:47:00.000+08:00

Salam.

The sole reason why this blog is set up is to raise funds for our beloved school library or Pusat Sumber Bestari STAR Ipoh.

How it was started

During the last OBW 07, I dropped by at the library to send a box full of my old Reader Digest's to the library.I left a note together with the box in front of the library and little I know,that's was not the end of the story.

Few days later the library coordinator, Cikgu Ainun, called me and during this conversation, I found out the real story of our library.

At first I thought I just wanted to get new good books to replenish the old ones.Only after Cikgu Ainun explaining to me on the actual situation they were facing, only by then I knew that the problem was bigger that I thought.

The Problem

Our library is in a serious financial difficulties.We are not yet talking about getting new books to replenish the old books stacked on the shelves. We are talking about the basic necessities of running the library such as library cards, newspaper subscriptions,maintenance of the photocopy machine,stationeries etc.

They don't even have funds this year for that after the SUWA/KHAS funds allocated annually by the government was cut off for 2008 onwards due to budget constraints (Ask Pak Lah why?). I am not going to talk about it as it is something we can cry out aloud yet we can't can't do anything about it. Let's talk on something that we can do instead.

Although the library still receive funds from the government to buy books and some funds from PIBG, it is still not enough.

Government funds for 2008 is RM10644.38 and according to the budget, all of these will be used to buy reference books, English & Malay storybooks,etc. (Believe me brothers, RM10644.38 with the current price of books, you can only buy 500 books or so if we take the average of RM20 per books). Come on, 500 books per year for STAR,Ipoh?

The costing

Ok, Ok let us go to the crude of the problem.Sorry for 'melilau' a lil bit. Talking about the 'basic necessities', these are the detail breakdown of what need to be covered this year due to the loss of Yuran SUWA/Khas. I got it from Cikgu Ainun during my visit to Pusat Sumber Bestari in late April 2008:

1. Keceriaan Pusat Sumber Bestari - RM100

2.Alat Tulis (stationery) - RM450

3.Magazines - RM250

4. Printer Ink,Laminating papers,

Colored paper and Files - RM300

5. Newspaper subscriptions - RM1745.00

6. Kad-kad pinjaman,pusat sumber,catalog -RM1500.00

7. Sijil dan Lencana NILAM - RM450.00

8. Photocopy machine (maintenance) - RM450.00

9. Hadiah Minggu Pusat Sumber Bestari - RM450.00

10. Buku Nilam - RM325.00

Total RM6020.00

The Solutions

It is so obvious that we need to raise RM6020.00 as soon as possible.

I sincerely think that to raise that amount to address the urgent needs of the library is so doable.

Here are some suggestions of what we can do;

1. Contribute individually.

2.Contribute your own batch (just like we did not so long ago to buy ceiling fans, remember?).Collect a little amount from your batch mates.But need one good 'kepala' to do it.Ah,I think you know who is the best person to do that, right?

If everybody chip in we can solve this problem within days......I sincerely hope.

How to give?

Ah, I know, I know that you are going to ask this question. I have talked to Cikgu Ainun and due to the interest of time, you can bank-in to :

Akaun Maybank Panitia Bahasa Jepun STAR Ipoh: 558172009534

Ah, the next question you are going to ask, "Why this akaun pulak?"

Cikgu Ainun is also the Head of Panitia Bahasa Jepun and she also looking after the library as the Library Coordinator.Our library don't have its own bank account and after discussing this issue with her during my last visit, this is the best solution so far.

Kalau nak bank in thru school bank account also can do, but you have to inform someone about it. So for the purpose of records, we agreed on this solution ( for now lah). And don't worry, hardly any other funds goes into the Panitia Bahasa Jepun currently - so senang nak monitor any transactions.

Oh by the way, Maybank2u.com transactions doesn't work for this account as this is a joint account under the names of Cikgu Ainun and GPK, Cikgu Zulkarnain. So either you have to go to the Maybank counter or Cash Deposit Machine to contribute. Or you can go personally to the school to pass your contributions.

Does the school knows about this?

The new H.M, Cikgu Gufri, is aware of this.So don't worry. This is not somekind of black money scheme.

Important contact numbers

Cikgu Ainun Maziah can be reached at 019-3818245 or thru school phone number should you want to clarify further.

I can be reached via email adabi99@yahoo.com for pledges from you or your batch.

Sincerely,

Iskandar Syah Ismail

STARian 93

Head of Fund Development (Institutional)

Islamic Relief Malaysia

http://drbubbles.blogspot.com/