The dreams of a group of Sabahan teenagers representing their state in an international Taekwondo tournament in Kuala Lumpur were seemingly over after they missed their connecting flight from Sandakan to Kuala Lumpur after their flight from Kota Kinabalu to Sandakan was delayed.
However, after their story went viral, Malaysians, especially from Sabah and Sarawak banded together to help crowdfund new tickets to get to Kuala Lumpur in just a short amount of time.
Missed their connecting flight to Kuala Lumpur as the first flight was delayed
As shared by the team’s head coach and manager Safuan Fathy Amran on Facebook, the team’s travel plans were separated into two as some of the team’s parents purchased the flight tickets earlier.
A group of 5 tournament participants and 1 manager was supposed to take the Kota Kinabalu to Sandakan flight and then the Sandakan to Kuala Lumpur flight to join the Hwa Rang Warrior International Open Championship 2024 in Kuala Lumpur taking place from 29 February until 3 March 2024.
However, they ended up being late for their Sandakan to Kuala Lumpur flight and were unable to board. The 6 individuals then took a flight from Sandakan to Kota Kinabalu to catch the next available flight from Sabah to Kuala Lumpur to make it in time for the weighing session which starts today.
Safuan added that these teenagers are not from wealthy families and that some of their parents spent over RM3,000 for the flight tickets and RM1,500 per person for entry into the tournament.
A fellow Sabahan started a crowdfunding campaign and raised RM18,000 in 4 hours!
The team’s struggles then went viral online and caught the attention of Sabahan digital creator Riniejene Anthony who immediately started a crowdfunding campaign to help pay for the last-minute flight tickets for the team.
Taking to her Facebook page, the campaign was incredibly successful and she was able to raise over RM18,000 in just 4 hours at around 1am today to pay for the 6 tickets!
4 of the participants ended up taking the 7am flight to Kuala Lumpur while another two took the 11am flight, as they weren’t enough available seats on just one flight.
In fact, the public crowdfunding campaign was so successful that Riniejene had to tell Malaysians to stop transferring money to her account as the target goal had been reached.
In a post, Riniejene played down her part in the effort, saying that it wasn’t her alone that helped as there were many people who donated money without prejudice and that she only opened the way for people to help the Sabah teens.
So wholesome! Thank you Malaysians for your act of kindness and let’s hope that this tremendous support will be a catalyst for the Sabah Taekwondo team to achieve success in the future.
