Community Project Brings Hope to Orang Asli Community

Six IMU Student Ambassadors with their Advisor conducted an Orang Asli Community Outreach (OACO) Project 2019 in  Kampung Ulu Chemperuh at Janda Baik, Pahang in April. One of the Student Ambassadors, Abdousamad, relates their experience here. Pre-visit- 12 April 2019 On the Friday of 12 April, 6 Student Ambassadors, Kimberly, Andrew, Abdousamad, Hans, Joelynn and Wei Hang, together with their  Advisor, Archana Divi, embarked on a volunteer project to help out an Orang Asli community in  Kampung Ulu Chemperuh at Janda Baik, Pahang.  The event was organised by Global Peace Foundation, an organisation who conducts community engagement programmes at various villages with the aim of observing the development of a community. Global Peace Foundation organises two visits to these villages in a month. At every visit, the changes in the village will be observed, from the surroundings to the very details of their youth progress in education. This details will then be documented by a trained personnel. Based on this record, a meeting will be called to discuss on   improvements to be made in subsequent visits. The pre-visit was a half day activity and it involved various fun interactive activities. To check on the progress of each child, the children were divided into several mini groups based on their age groups. The youngest of all group (aged 2-4) were involved in activities such as singing, reading stories, painting, colouring and building LEGOs to gain more insights into their cognitive behaviour and their creativity. The slightly older kids (aged 5-10) and the oldest kids (aged 10-15) had different activities. These activities involved painting and interacting with the Student Ambassadors. The volunteers will check their progress in education via conversations revolving around this. At the end of the programme, every group were allowed to play games and have interactive sessions. Playing badminton and hula hoops, eating together and a very fun Quidditch game from the fictional movie “Harry Potter” were the highlights of the session. This was a great opportunity for Student Ambassadors to gain new insights as well as reach out and interact with communities further away. This visit has also formed several bonds between the IMU Student Ambassadors with the villagers in Chemperuh. This made it easier for future events or projects to be organised with this villagers. One recent project organised by the Student Ambassadors was carried out on 27 and 28 April 2019. Day 1- 27 April 2019 Committee members together with 6 volunteers along with the volunteers from Global Peace Foundation  carried out the Orang Asli Community Outreach (OACO) project. This project is an outreach programme that strives for self discovery and empowerment, as well as to increase awareness on the importance of health to the local community in the village. The OACO project was inspired by the previous batch of Student Ambassadors who led the Orang Asli Community Outreach Project, to which great success was achieved. The activities throughout the project was intended to provide awareness in taking care of the health and hygiene while discovering and cultivating each individual’s personality. Furthermore, for the younger generations, role-playing and career exploration activities were carried out to widen the horizons as well as to inspire the youth in pursuing careers that is from the confines of the village and beyond.

On the first day of the visit, an introduction to the activities was given out by our partner, Global Peace Foundation, volunteers and their project leader, Kimberely, followed with a kindness oath instructed by the volunteers. A simple ice breaking game was then carried out  to lighten up the mood and create a bond between the participants and the villagers. After the games were carried out, the next activity was the oral and health talk. In this activity, the children were divided into 2 groups:  primary school and the preschool students. The primary school group had storytelling, a workshop explaining the teeth using a model and a hands-on workshop involving brushing teeth ,whereas the preschool group had storytelling, colouring and a hands-on workshop involving brushing teeth. The children were also given a talk on hygiene,  followed by a step to step handwashing session with a tutorial from the members. The members and the children were given a lunch break so they can have a rest and revitalise for the second half of the day. It was a very meaningful break as both groups forgot their cultural differences and sat down together to have fun while eating and talking together. First aid workshop was carried out after the break. In this session the children were divided into 3 groups: preschool, primary school and secondary school. A simple introduction were given to the children involving first aid. In this workshop, the various groups moved around to various stations to learn more about the type of first aid administered. These stations include how to make slings, wound cleaning, transportation and how to provide CPR. After his workshop, the children went out to play with the members outdoors. The types of games carried out include chicken eagle and pepsi cola for the preschool students, captain ball and frisbee for the primary school students and the secondary school students. The day ended with the volunteers cleaning up and heading back to prepare for the next day. Day 2- 28 April 2019 The second day started with the volunteers gathering the children and playing a simple game to lighten up the mood. The first activity carried out on this day was personality assessment and discovery session. This activity was facilitated by the project advisor and was more inclined towards the secondary school students. This session was to allow the participants to understand and discover more about themselves and to serve as something new and interesting for them to learn. After this activity, lunch break was provided so that the children could relax before proceeding to the next session.

The next session carried out was a career booth game and talk. This session expands the vision of the younger children and allow them to understand more about various job opportunities. A few booths were set up with the organisers dressed up as a Doctor, Lawyer, Sports instructor, Businessman and an Artist.

To make the session more interactive, the children were divided into their usual groupings. The preschool students were given an introduction to the careers with storytelling and puppet making while the primary school students visited the booth and played mix and match cards. The secondary school students visited the booth, played charades and heard fascinating stories. The project  ended with a speech given by the Global Peace Facilitators and Gift Presentation Ceremony. A goodie bag including toothbrushes and toothpaste from our sponsors, Jordan and notebooks from Koncent were handed out to the participants. Following this was the taking of a group photo of all who attended the event, marking the end of the event. Through this event, the participants have not only learnt the value of oral health and hygiene but also more about themselves from the personality assessment and discovery session. The various types of careers has also served as a clue or guide for them to consider when it comes to job opportunities.