WHY MY FIRST IMPRESSION IS WRONG! (self- reflection) by SULFIKA BT ABDUL KARIM (KIL160093)

                   Social Engagement? Personally, after hearing about this course from so many mouths I don't think this course will give such a 'WOW' impact on me. Fortunately, starting from the first day until the last day of our project I can say that my first impression is totally WRONG!. Why????

                   First thing first, I have such an amazing team stand side by side with me. Cannot ask for more ( I'm a sweet person right guys? Haha). After went through all the discussion with my team member and Dr. Badrul (our great advisor), we decided to participate in the volunteering work that organized by National Cancer Council Malaysia (MAKNA) that held an exhibition themed "The Uncommon Good" at KLCC.

WAIT! Things become more interesting when we found another volunteering project through our involvement in this exhibition which is at Pertubuhan Pusat Kebajikan Destiny at Taman Chi Liung, Klang.


"The Uncommon Good"

As MAKNA's volunteer, the experience and the input that I get from "The Uncommon Good" project on 24 and 25 Nov 2017 are priceless. As this event featured many NPOs that come from different clusters such as education, environment, welfare, and healthcare. Other than helping the NPOs rising the awareness to the society, I, myself actually learned and gain much new information from this event such as a program to equip Malaysian with the first world thinking by altering attitudes and mindsets to match the country's progress called SPARK by Malaysian Global Innovation & Creativity Centre (MaGIC) plus it is for free. Isn't it interesting? That is only from one NPO.

In this event, we actually have 75 NPOs and 15 corporate exhibitors. Can you imagine how much info that we can earn? Moreover, from this project, I also learned how to interact with different generations as we are given the chance to explain about the activities that the NPOs do to the youngsters like students and the adults.
In my humble opinion, I think that our society should aware of all the activities that the NPOs do as we grow closer to become a developed nation.

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Explaining about Viva Starfish Project to the visitor

Visiting one of the NPOs booth (Paws Animal Welfare Society)

My beloved team <3

After all the fun the days

"Pertubuhan Pusat Kebajikan Destiny"

I will never forget the day when I went here. My team and I went to Pertubuhan Pusat Kebajikan Destiny on 01.12.2017 after we had some light breakfast early in the morning as it takes roughly 40 minutes from University of Malaya (UM) to Klang. We were warmly welcomed by the teachers and the kids seem very excited to have us in the house that made us very happy to be there. There is actually a total of 70 kids that are registered but unfortunately, there were only 30 kids (2 to 7 years old) in the house that day. I feel really grateful for the fact that I can meet Miss Irena (the person in charge) who I think a very amazing woman. She basically told us how can this house exist and told us that even though these children are refugee children they need the same basic things like us as a human and there is no such thing as they should be treated differently. Her words really open my mind as I can actually see in this world we are living in there is some society that treated badly because of their origin.

We held few activities with the kids that emphasized the basic moral values that we usually use in our daily routine such as saying thank you, say sorry when you made mistakes and take care of your behavior anywhere you go using fun approach so its easy for them to understand such as using the visual aids. We also did some fun activities to relax our mind such as dancing and singing with the kids before we go into the classroom to do class activities.
Even though it's only a day with them, I learned a lot of things here. We should be more grateful for what we have because not everyone will have it even though its just small or simple things. We also should not discriminate! As we can see here, even though they are refugee children they are also a human being that needs to survive in this world and of course, need the all the basic things to survive.

Dancing with the kids

Teaching the alphabets to the kids

Good time with the kids

See you again brothers and sisters 

From completing this course I believed that good things can lead to other good things such as our journey that start from volunteering in 'The Uncommon Good' to our next stop which is to Pertubuhan Pusat Kebajikan Destiny. Two different kinds of volunteering work that gives big impact to myself and the society. So where next?