When opportunity knocks, open the door. We, the committee members of the SCASFT (Spastic Children’s Association of Selangor and Federal Territory) visit 2016 decided to take up the responsibilities during the election to continue the “legacy” of this project. Of course, taking over a project from pioneers is no easy task as there are certain expectations to be met. Working in the face of constant deadlines for our lab reports and having a packed schedule, the IMU biomedical science students hardly have time to commit themselves in extracurricular activities. However, the SCASFT visits became one bright spot in our semester and despite the hectic schedule, we enjoyed doing all the planning and preparation work for the underprivileged cerebral palsy children. In fact, we even had the same participants who never missed all the 3 visits that we organised.
I was fascinated that although we often complained about having too much on our plates, we never entertained the idea of giving up our project even when unexpected problems emerged out of the blue. It was the one place that we got to use our strengths and contribute to those less fortunate, forget our daily concerns and hardships, to paint some smiles on these children’s faces.
After every activity, we had a vision of a better way, a clearer picture of what we could do to provide better hospitality to these children. As the project leader of this project, I am more passionate about providing engagement between the children, teachers, parents and volunteers although donation is much more needed in every charity programme. We also decided to organise a psychology talk for the teachers, parents and caretakers to educate the mass on how to approach spastic related matters physically and mentally besides having the similar past activities such as games, arts and crafts sessions which were madly loved by the children. Certainly, we could not have taken on this project without the constant support and guidance from our project advisor, Dr Anil Philip Kunnath and our ex-committee members from BM113. Not the mention the team cohesion that developed over time among my committee members that helps create a stronger sense of commitment to this project. Most importantly, this project wouldn’t be a success without participations from volunteers, lecturers, MDL staffs and various parties who have contributed directly and indirectly. We are grateful to be given such chance to lead such a meaningful project and be able to learn various soft skills and human values. This project makes us all more aware of the stark differences between the haves and the have-nots. It provides a platform to bridge that gap between different groups of beings and serves as a constant reminder on how lucky we are.
This article is written by Project Leader of SCASFT Visit 2016, Joanne Wong.
