GIG 1005 SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT
Reflective Writing
A One-Day Program with the Children
at Desa Temuan, Bukit Lanjan
Hew Yan Xin
(MIC170014) Date: 5 May 2018
The GIG 1005 Social Engagement course
is a compulsory subject for all the students of University of Malaya. This
course requires us to contribute to the society. I have never been exposed to
volunteer work before this. Therefore, I was really excited about the event
that we were going to do. Our advisor, Dr. Puah Suat Moi, had met us in the
last semester to introduce us to this new course. Then, after several
discussions between us and our coordinator, we have decided to do volunteer
work in Orang Asli village. Also, the
committees had been chosen to lead the others in making this program a
successful one. Farhan had been assigned as the president, Efa as our
secretary, Syafa as the treasurer, Alice as the head of Public Relation Bureau,
Lai as the head of Marketing Bureau, Choo as the head of Protocol and Activity
Bureau, Yen Yee as the head of Logistic and Multimedia Bureau and lastly Deon
as the head of Food Bureau. I had entered the Protocol and Activity Bureau as I
wanted to gain experience in organizing activities and preparing the schedule.
We had our first meeting on 9th
March 2018 to discuss about the activities to be carried out there on 25th
March 2018 and 29th April 2018. However, we had already started our
discussion through Whatsapp group whenever the face to face discussion was not
necessary. Then we shared our thoughts with our colleagues to get some feedback
from them. Our coursemates were very cooperative as they had participated
eagerly in the discussion to give out their opinions on our ideas. This really
helped us a lot. Then, we had decided to conduct a few mini games on 25th
March 2018. As for the activities to be carried out on 29th April
2018, which was our main event day, we had decided to conduct the activities as
follows: Zumba, explore race, gotong
royong, career talk and an awareness campaign. We then discovered that some
students from Faculty of Law, University of Malaya had been carried out Social
Engagement event every Sunday morning. It happened to be on the same date as
ours. Therefore, we had a collaboration with the students from the Faculty of
Law. They were willing to help us and they volunteered to take over the Zumba
as they had already done the Zumba with the children there several times. Then,
we asked help from other bureaus to conduct the gotong royong and career talk. To ensure everything will be fine on
the actual day, we carried out a test run on the night of 28th April
2018 at the hall of our residential college. We invited our coursemates to
participate in the test run. We were glad and relieved that the test run was a
successful one.
On 29th April 2018, we
gathered at KK1 bus stop at 7.15 a.m. for our bus to pick us up. The bus
arrived at 7.30 a.m. After a 20 minutes bus ride, we arrived at the village at
8.00 a.m. Upon our arrival, the person in charge, En. Azman greeted and
welcomed us warmly. Then we started setting up our things before the program
starts at 8.30 a.m. The members of Protocol and Activity Bureau started to set
up the stations for the explore race which will begin shortly after the Zumba
session. There were four stations and the places for each station had been
decided yesterday morning when some of our members went there to have a site
visit. Choo and I were in charge of the “Sinking Bowl” station in the explore
race. The program began at 8.30 a.m. sharp with the Zumba session led by the
students from Faculty of Law. During the Zumba session, we had ice breaking
with the children to get acquainted with them. After the one-hour Zumba
session, we brought the children to canteen to have light breakfast. Then, Choo
divided the children into eight groups and each group was led by two
facilitators. Then the explore race kicked off at 10.00 a.m. sharp. During the
explore race, the children seemed to be delightful and excited and we were
really glad about that as we thought our games would be boring at first.
Luckily, the children enjoyed playing the games we prepared. The gotong royong was conducted by our other
couremates at the same time as the explore race. Then we had lunch at 12.00
p.m. and we rested for 30 minutes before the next session began. The next
session would be the awareness campaign regarding the disadvantages of smoking
and the importance of drinking clean water. We hoped that our messages could be
conveyed through this awareness campaign so that the knowledge could benefit
them. After that, the program continued with the career talk session. The
session was requested by En. Azman so that the children could get some ideas
about the pathway of the career they wanted to be in the future. Last but not
least, our program ended with a closing ceremony where there were prize giving
session and lucky draw. The plaque of appreciation had been given to the
authorities in helping us to conduct this event. In addition, prizes were given
to the winners of the explore race and lucky draw.
After a hectic day, we went back to
our residential college by bus at 4.30 p.m. We were really delightful even
though we were tired as the kids were really enjoyed the time with us. It was
such a great experience for me and I would treasure this moment throughout my
life. I hope that the children are able to learn something beneficial through
this program. Through this project, I have learnt the importance of teamwork in
a group. Besides that, everyone should perform their roles effectively in a
group so that the group work can progress smoothly. Lastly, we must learn to
share and contribute as happiness is doubled when shared.
(992 words)
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