KOTA KINABALU: Lena (not her real name) has only just tied the knot, but her vision for the future already stretches far ahead, especially when it comes to her future children.

“I want them to be free to choose their own path. Not everyone is born to be an engineer or a scientist. If my children choose to work on farms or plantations, I won’t stop them. But education must come first,” says the 29-year-old who comes from a small village in Telupid.

Through a recent project, villagers like Lena learns that education and rejecting child labour is important.

Lena was raised in a modest household shaped by the rhythm of rural life and quiet resilience.

Originally from Ranau, her family moved to Telupid in 1998 to settle on her father’s land. Life, as she remembers it, was tough, but they had enough to get by.

She recalls trekking through two to three hills just to reach their kebun (farm), growing up without electricity, and helping with oil palm and paddy planting.

Now helping her father manage the family’s plantation, her contentment lies in the simplicity and honesty of the land.

“There is something deeply satisfying about watching your own crops grow. It is hard work, but fulfilling,” she said.

Her mother is a skilled handicraft maker who sells her creations at Pekan Nabalu, sending them to Ranau by charter car.

 If she has one regret, it would be not learning her mother’s craft.

“She is so good at it. I should have picked it up,” Lena reflected.

In 2017, Lena briefly took a different path, working as a clerk. However, the experience was marred by workplace bullying, eventually leading to a diagnosis of depression. She left after just a year.

“It took me a while to handle my depression. Somehow, coming back to the land helped. I feel at peace here,” she shared during a recent Tuai Cerita fellowship visit to her village.

Lena said she had very little understanding about child labour before Tuai Cerita’s visit, but now everything has become clear to her.

“Back then, my parents never forced us to work on the farm. It was us who wanted to help them. But now, I know better, and I will be more aware of the fine line between helping and being burdened with responsibility too early,” she said.

She had enrolled in early childhood education, reaching her fifth semester before stepping away from her studies.

Yet, her passion for children has not faded. Today, she volunteers in Sunday school and speaks with quiet conviction about the importance of nurturing and protecting childhoods.

“I will always encourage my children to pursue their education. It opens doors. But I also know the world needs farmers and plantation workers too, people who grow food for the rest of us. That is dignity too,” she said.

Lena’s story resonates with broader concerns about child labour in rural Sabah, particularly within oil palm plantation communities, where poverty and lack of access to education remain significant barriers.

“Child labour is more than a child rights violation. It is a symptom of deeper, structural injustices that deny children their rights to education, safety, and opportunity,” said Unicef Malaysia deputy representative Sanja Saranovic in a recent statement.

In Malaysia, available data suggests that nearly 60% of reported child labour cases in oil palm plantations occur in Sabah.

These numbers reveal how children like Lena once was, and the future children she now dreams about, may still be at risk of falling through the cracks if systemic support is not strengthened.

The Tuai Cerita fellowship, through which Lena’s story is told, seeks to rewrite this narrative.

This initiative is designed to amplify the voices of Sabah’s most vulnerable children by shining a light on the root causes of child labour in and around oil palm plantations.

The programme is driven by local partners ANAK and Global Shepherds, and implemented by Project Liber8, in partnership with the European Union, the International Labour Organisation (ILO), and Unicef.

Through voices like Lena’s, that are rooted in the soil, in faith, and in hope, the promise of a protected and dignified childhood becomes clearer.

“I guess I am fated to work here. Still, I will not give up … and I will keep challenging myself to be better,” Lena said simply.

And in doing so, she is already planting the seeds of change for the next generation.