Readers would have remember about SJKT Lauderdale which appeared in this blog last April. Today, Dr Sree updated us (via email) on the progress (or should I say success of this project):

Dear MI Club Members and Friend ,

Ear ly this year in January , The headmaster from the Ladang Lauderdale Tamil school called me requesting for sponsorship for their school annual sports day function . Due to lack of funds they were not able to proceed with their plans to have their sports day .

I went to the school to see the condition of the school which appeared to be depressing .

The school was build in 1947 . Over the years the number of students increased but the school building remained the same . 64 children were accomondated into this small building by dividing this building into 6 classroom , a computer room and school office . In the summer the whole building felt like sitting in an oven .

As most of you know , I brought up this matter in MI Club after my visit . We had several discussions regarding this matter . Many kind members from all over Malaysia , Singapore , Kuwait , Japan and even Germany responded in kindness . Some Sponsored all the new tables and chairs , Some sponsored new cabinets , Some in the form of revision books and also paid the schools fees of several students .

We managed to raise some amount of money in order to sponsor the sports day and it was more then enough . Members of MI Club gathered in the school somewhere at the end of march during the school sports day . We handed the money to the headmaster . It was also understood that the school requires extra classrooms to ease the congestion .

It was decided that we will proceed to raise funds for building of the classroom .

I met the berkat share holder who owns the estate for permission to build extra classrooms on their land . Their responded immediatedly by clearing the land making way for the building . The PPD was also generous by providing extra funds for the building of the classroom .

With just sufficient funds and with the moral support from all the MI club members we proceeded to build the classroom which began in early MAY . We were hoping to complete the building by JUNE but due to the weather condition , the work was delayed and eventually work finished at the end of JULY and the children moved to their new classroom in AUGUST .

The current classroom was designed with higher ceilling and the roof build in such a way to provide cooling effect to the classroom . Further the floors were layed with marble tiles to add addition cooling effect .

When I walked into the room , it felt cool and fresh .

The previous building which had 6 classrooms are now spaced out to 3 classrooms . We do hope in future we will be able to build another 3 similar classrooms in order to accomodate more students . The land for another 3 more classrooms has already been allocated to the school .

Taking such a huge responsibility was a huge task for me . It continously worried me .

I would like to thank all my friends especially MI Club moderator Jega and others like Poobalan , Sathia and Shamalan who continously adviced me on the proper procedures and also all the MI CLub members who never failed to give moral support .

Thank you dear friends . Without all of you this would not have happen .

Dr.SREEDHARAN PHF , MBBS, FAGE