Nur Efarina binti Aznan (MIC170028)

SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT

Reflective writing

NUR EFARINA BINTI AZNAN (MIC 170028)                                                Date: 7^th of May 2018

Life will rise with us,
or fall with us-
Create a destiny,
Or create a ghost town.
Win or lose it’s up to us.

-G. Boston

            As the poem mention, whatever you do in your life, whether it go well or bad, it is all up to you. To be accepted or to be mock by peoples, that is all how you live up your life. As the words go on, a tingling feeling touch my heart. Did I walk on the right path? Did I choose the right thing? Can I excel well on this? I am bombarded with many questions as it reflect upon my decision to become the secretary of one of University compulsory course, Social Engagement. It was never in my plan to accept such a heavy responsibility. To become one of the high committee. To write endless report. To be updated with all of the progress made throughout the project. All of these are very new to me. However, on the very first day of social engagement class, somewhere within my inner self calling out to me, giving me courage to volunteer myself as the secretory of the project.

            Cleaning the beach? Distributing foods to the needs? Volunteer work at the Zoo Negara? All of this activities play in mind when social engagement is mentioned. Click. The sound of Dr. Puah Suat Moi opening the slides. There she mentions about the real social engagement project that must be handled by all of us, the biomedical science students. The new paradigm by Centre for the Initiation of Talent & Industrial Training (CITra) make me pondered for a while. Long term impact project and knowledge transfer based concept. So, no more 8 hour of volunteer work. We must work on a project that will give a good effect on society and community!

            At the end of our first meeting, we are all agree upon Fatin Nabihah’s idea of doing a project on sharing knowledge of science and hygiene to the child of Orang Asli at one of Kampong Orang Asli in Selangor. Throughout the whole weeks we search and tried to find the contacts of any Kampong near our campus, but not once we able to contact them. Later, we learn that it is not that easy to penetrate to any of the Kampong without going through the right procedure. We contact Jabatan Kemajuan Orang Asli (JAKOA) and start our progress with sending them our Kertas Kerja Projek (KKP) to get JAKOA confirmation to run a project in Kampong Orang Asli. Here, I learn how to prepare a paperwork with the help of Alice Lee Ern Ern, the head of external relation bureau. On 8^th of March we finally get the permission to do our project at Desa Temuan Bukit Lanjan, Damansara. JAKOA suggested us that place as they believe we would able to change the mind-set of the villagers there. Despite living at the centre of city, they lack exposure about the importance of higher education level to improve their family status.  Instead of pursuing their studies, they would rather work to help their family gain some money. Our mission is to share to them about the importance of education and tell them the pathway they will go through for studying.

            Within the progress of our project, we meet with many peoples that are so helpful in making sure our project going smoothly. The one that I would like to mention here is Encik Nor Azman, the Pengerusi JKK and YDP PIBG SK Kg Temuan. He is the one that is responsible to take care of Desa Temuan Bukit Lanjan needs. From the very first meeting with him, he welcomes and greets us nicely. He gives us many suggestion and never hesitate to give us a helping hand whenever we need. I learn a lot from Encik Azman about the ethic of Orang Asli and some rules that we must obey when dealing with Orang Asli such as we should not mention the word ‘sakai’ as that is considered rude to them.

            After months of preparation, the day that I’m pretty sure everyone is waiting for finally come. It is such a one in the blue moon that I got up very excited early in the morning. That day, we gather at 7.15am and go to Desa Temuan Bukit Lanjan minutes later. Upon arriving at the Kampong, activity bureau begin to set up their explorace checkpoint while food bureau begin with boiling the eggs for the sandwich preparation. Since I’m not in any bureau, I become the floor manager or people always call a runner of an event. On a second I am at the hall and another second I join the explorace with activity bureau. The kids are very excited and approachable too. To be honestly, even though I am eldest daughter of my four brothers, I am not really good with kids and not really sure on how to handle them. However, being here, somehow I am able to play with them and go on with their pace. That is not long until there are two boys fighting and cause a lot of worries from our side. One of the boys injured his eyes and with the quick response from my batch mates things settled down. It was lucky that his eyes is not infected by bacteria or things could get worse. Any other that the event end successfully with our objective I believe do reach the children even though it’s not hundred percent.   

            People might think that once the event end, the job end as well. Not for me, for sure. As the secretary, I need to finish the reports regarding our project. It thus take a lot of effort and sleepless night to make sure the report I do include all the details so that it will be a good guidance to our junior next batch. I am thankful that I made the decision to be the secretary as the poem mention, I think I win this one.

                                                                                                                        (1006 words)