For Sarawakians and Malaysians in general, food is a subject that is close to the heart.

It was no surprise then that in each of the workshops organised under the Youths Engaged in Social Innovation, Service, Education and Enterprise (YES I SEE) project last year and this year, at least one participant would come up with an idea related to food.

The YES I SEE workshop held in Mukah was no exception, as several youths presented their own ideas on how to promote local delicacies or develop projects related to food.

However, among the groups from Sibu, Mukah, Kapit and Sarikei attending that particular workshop, it was the group from Sarikei that was chosen to work on a food-related project.

The group’s idea revolved around a humble snail, which the members referred to as siput sedut (Cerithidae obtuse), that can be found in abundance near the place where they live.

The group calls itself 3S, short for Siput Sedut Sarikei, and its representative Mohd Azlan Mat Bunut explained that their idea is to focus on producing the snails commercially, as a food item and for creating handicraft.

“What we hope to achieve through this project is to establish the siput sedut as a profitable source of income and more importantly to establish it as a Sarawak ‘food icon’.

“Apart from that, we hope this project will help generate income for those who decide to embark on a business career, especially the youths of Sarawak,” said Azlan.

When Angkatan Zaman Mansang (Azam) Sarawak conceptualised the YES I SEE project idea last year, its main agenda was to provide youths the opportunity to think of ways to start a project that would benefit the state.

The group 3S, made up of 10 youths aged between 17 and 25, believe their idea would be able to help the local community in Sarikei, particularly those living in the coastal and rural areas to generate more income.
On its part, 3S plans to promote the snail as a culinary delight to a larger market and also introduce more ways to cook siput sedut.

“For us, the most gratifying part of the process so far has been our success in breeding the siput sedut, even though we did not have the luxury of a guidebook on how to do it, due to the lack of research material we could find.

“We were also very happy to have succeeded in creating handicraft from the snail shells and to come up with various recipes,” said Azlan, who added that it was a major challenge for the group to find resource materials for them to learn more about the snail and its lifecycle.

Another major challenge for the group was coordinating its members, who were often busy with their own activities or who were overcoming personal problems.

“However, in the process of achieving success for this project, the spirit of solidarity, cooperation and commitment from all our members started to emerge bit by bit; driven by the sense of responsibility to ensure that we meet our objective,” said Azlan.

He believes that working on the project has helped to develop his personal character by becoming more independent and willing to sacrifice his time and energy alongside his group members to achieve their common goal.

“I have learnt a lot about myself; learnt to think in a more mature way and to become more farsighted about what I want to achieve in life.

 

“I believe this (YES I SEE project) can unleash our potential and talents, to allow us to help the development of our local community and our state in general. All of us feel very fortunate to have been picked to join this project and to be given the opportunity to do something meaningful for Sarawak,” he said.

SIPUT SEDUT SARIKEI (3 -S)