Teacher Ahmad Saidin Mohd Idris travelling through the muddy road on his ‘kapcai’ motorcycle to reach his school among the Orang Asli settlements in Lipis, Pahang. — Picture courtesy of www.generosity.com

KUALA LUMPUR, July 5 ― It took over a month, but the RM12,000 crowdfund to buy teacher Ahmad Saidin Mohd Idris a dirt bike for his daily135km commute through jungly Pahang is now safely in his bank account.

Hazim Nordin, who helped coordinate the online campaign, confirmed the successful wire transfer of funds with Saidin on Monday.

“We are very lucky everything went through fine,” he told Malay Mail Online when contacted.

In just two days in May, the online crowdfunding campaign on Generosity had both hit and exceeded its one-month collection target of US$2,500 (RM10,734). Non-Malaysians also donated to the cause. Hazim closed the crowdfunding drive on May 21.

The nett amount of funds sent by US-based Indiegogo's free crowdfunding platform Generosity to Saidin after deducting credit card processing fees and wire transfer fees is US$2,805.11 or around RM12,061.

“I was actually quite relieved that it went through smoothly,” Hazim said, noting that it took some time for the crowdfunding company to carry out background checks to verify the campaign's legitimacy and to coordinate the wire transfer.

Hazim said however that there was no risks to donors as the donations pledged would have been refunded if the verification stage had been unsuccessful.

According to Hazim, Saidin has visited several motorcycle shops and will be getting the scrambler in a couple of weeks.

Saidin, a science teacher in SK Lenjang in Lipis, Pahang with a student population of 456 from 17 Orang Asli settlements, was reported to travel two-hour across hilly terrain from his house.

Saidin’s kapcai commute was first highlighted by local daily New Straits Times and picked up by other media, leading to the crowdfunding campaign.

The 40-year-old father of two young children told Malay Mail Online then that he opted to make the daily commute instead of staying at the school quarters so he could take care of his family.

On May 22, Department of Orang Asli Development director-general Mohd Jamalludin Kasbi lauded Saidin's dedication in performing his duties as a teacher to the Orang Asli students.

In the report by national news agency Bernama, Mohd Jamalludin said the existing road linking Pos Betau and Pos Lenjang was also used by loggers, noting that the government had previously allocated RM15 million to build a new 30km road to connect these two places.

The new road which will be built this July by the Armed Forces will benefit teachers from both SK Lenjang and SK Titom, he said.