Imagine one day you were stripped of everything you have, from your culture to your iPhone and even the MacDonald that you love to eat. What will you do? How will you live?  The Penan people are a group of indigenous people living in the Sarawak rainforests of Malaysia. For centuries they lived and fed off these forests and saw it their responsibility to preserve it. However, since the 1970s, the government has been sending logging companies there and started to build infrastructures that destroyed Penan villages. Multiple renowned newspaper sources have validated this action, most notably the BBC. The lifestyles of the Penan have been affected by overlogging, establishment of plantations and construction of dams in their lands.  
 
The rainforests are what the Penan depend on to survive. It has taught them the ways of life, from observing climate cycles to knowing the plant and animal distribution in every part of the forests. Journalists from National Geography have visited the forest and learnt their way of life. Penan people hunt wild boars and barking deer as well as animals of smaller size, including squirrels and lizards. Their unique hunting tool, the blowpipe, is made from poisonous latex from trees in that specific area, which they use as small arrows to shoot. Plants are used as medicine. The hide, skin, fur, and other parts of an animal are utilized for clothing and shelter. According to documentary maker Ian Mackenzie, who lived among the Penan people himself, the myths and language of the Penan ties strongly to its surrounding as well. Many of the more settled Penan plant rice and other crops but continue to rely on the forest for most of their needs. However, the Malaysian government’s action had turned their peaceful lifestyle upside down.
 
Starting from the 1970s, the government has allowed commercial logging to take place on the tribal lands. According to journalist Nandini Balakrishnan, the Penan wishes to be given the right and chance to decide what happens on their land, but the government refuses to recognize this need and calls them “underdeveloped”. Audiences, think of the Penan lifestyle heavily reliant on the forest aforementioned. The consequences of “development” are literally lethal. Documentarian Bruce Parry observed that wood shreds produced from overlogging pollutes the rivers and scares away animals, depriving the Penan of their natural resources of both fresh water and food. Barren plots of land are made for palm oil and acacia plantations, which lay unusable for the Penan people and a disturbance for their hunting routes. Animals habituating the cleared land escaped as well, leaving less prey for the Penan. The government has also built hydroelectric dams on their land, flooding many Penan villages and interrupting their normal life, forcing them to relocate without any compensation. Investigations by the Borneo Research Council have shown that these actions result in more and more Penan people being forced to abandon their nomadic lifestyle and adapt a domestic farming life. The loss of culture and that comes with this transform in their community is world-changing to the Penan, and when they asked for their old life back, they were met with absolute horror.
 
The Penan's protests and demands have been ignored, often brutally banned from happening by the Malaysian government and timber companies. Al Jazeera, an international news channel, has featured Penan committee member Aling Nguk, who told the media about how they wrote numerous letters to the district office, only met with silence. However, this doesn't stop NGOs and more concerned groups to help them. For instance, the reforestation program launched by Adventure Alternatives and its charity branch Moving Mountains Trust is working to conserve trees in the Borneo forests. Organizations including The Borneo Project, Bruno Manser Funds and Survival International aims to provide support to the Penan as well. Further efforts made by the Penan community be seen in Environmental journalist Jeremy Hance’s reports on how they opened a ‘Peace Park’ and embraced tourism as milder methods to reclaim their land. Currently, the Penan is still struggling in a fight for their homeland, but as more attention are brought to this rising international issue, they have been achieving progress as well. But after all, there’s only so much that a tribe can do, which brings the subject onto every individual sitting here today.
 
As young citizens of the world, we have the responsibility to help communities in need, not just because we should, but because we are capable of doing so. We are privileged enough to remain the lifestyle we chose, so why watch and stand to the side when the Penan’s rights to their home and their lives are being stripped from them? Start by spreading awareness of this issue. Share information about the Penan, keep updated on their campaigns, donate to funds if you wish. You may think that all this is somewhat meaningless, but making impacts start from these small actions. You’ll be surprised at the ways we can help an entire unfamiliar community across the globe.