Cambodian Video of Child Floating to School Garners Attention of Malaysians

Recently, a Facebook video circulated online depicting a child’s daily commute to school. The video showed a boy in school uniform floating on a steel dish drifting through the water to reach his destination.

Commentors assumed the video to be from Sabah due to similar conditions having happened in the region before. However, the video was of a schoolchild in a floating village in Cambodia.

The comments section was flooded with netizens sharing their sympathy for the child, praying for his wellbeing, and being concerned about his safety while quoting the presence of crocodiles in the water, despite a lack of presence of crocodiles in the video.

Others insisted that relevant authorities take the initiative.

Cambodian Floating Lake

Nonetheless, many failed to probe the background of the video and its source. The original video comes from a YouTube channel that illustrates the lives of residents in Cambodia’s floating village on Tonle Sap Lake.

The original poster, @mienpov4039, shares videos of people and critters living in the floating village. In the original post’s comments section, they shared that the life of the schoolchild is one that they are all used to, and there is no threat from aquatic wildlife on the freshwater lake; especially not crocodiles.

Parallel Conditions in Sabah

The commentors’ assumption that the video was from Malaysia was not entirely wrong, in reality.

Such a commute to school is not unheard of in Malaysia’s Sabah state. Ziplines, rafts, and boats are common modes of crossing rivers for Sabah school students. Additionally, trudging through muddy roads for days to reach school is a grim reality faced by Sabah children during rainy weather.

A 2022 story from Nangkawangan, Sabah, emerged of villagers using bamboo rafts to cross a river as the bridge connecting the shores had been washed away by floodwaters after heavy rain. In the same village, children and adults alike had to then resort to using ziplines to cross the stretch of the river.

Next, school children were seen crossing a river by boat to reach their school after a bridge was washed away because of floods, as reported in 2022. No safety measures were existent on the boat and some of the children had to make their journey without the use of life jackets.

In a more recent story from January of this year, two boys were seen in a video covered in mud as they recounted the story of making it to school to their teacher, who was recording them. The children narrated that while they were initially on the way to school via a villager’s car, the vehicle broke down, causing the children to continue their journey by foot, even having to stop at another villager’s house for the night.

Authorities involved in these cases then proposed giving the villagers proper boats while bridges and roads were being constructed, urging them to remain patient and use safer methods in the meantime.

How to Help Those in Sabah

In Kota Belud, children put themselves at risk of injury by crossing dilapidated bridges between rivers – bridges with missing planks, in dire need of repair caused over time due to bad weather and floods. A donation campaign hosted on ‘Give Asia’ by Hopes Malaysia raises funds to aid in repairs of these bridges to ensure the safety of the locals.