COMMUNITY SERVICE INITIATIVE

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For the children for the future

This is a module that helps us students to engage in doing community projects thus reaching out to the disadvantaged groups of the society and asking them about the problems they face and then we try to find solutions to their problems as stated to our best extent.

WEEKLY ACTIVITIES

Week 2

I was bit late to register for this module so I had missed the activities that took place in this week, however in this week my colleagues formed a group of 8 people and they as well started looking for a community organisation that we could help

Week 3

In this week my colleagues had chosen an organisation that we would deal with which was Agathian shelter, an orphanage with 38 boys located in Seksyen 8, Petaling Jaya. They as well went for their first site visit so as to inquire the information and swell to take some measurement of the necessary spaces that had problems to be solved.

They went on the 14th of April and they were welcomed and shortly briefed about the shelter by their host Ms. Inthira. They also explained to them about our project and how we wanted to help in solving the problems they had. However Ms. Inthira was concerned of the quality of the customer made things due to past failed experiences.

Week 4

This is the week that I was finally able to catch up with the rest of my colleagues for as I got a group. In this week the group proposed a welded standard dish rack so as it could help put the plates in place.

Week 5

In this week we went for another site visit and here we got. further inside of the situation the boys were living swell as the current status of the shelter. After the founder of the shelter Sivabalan passed away the shelter has been a complete stand-alone organization not being subsidised by any religious, government, or charity organisations. And this makes things alot harder to run in the organisation.

From this site visit we had identified a few issues that had to be addressed this included:

1. Safety and privacy issues - the shelter had experienced total 7 break-ins since the establishment because of the lack of privacy in office.

2. Hygienic conditions - due to heavy usage in kitchen area, mosses are grown in kitchen area and hard to be remove.

3. User's safety - the kitchen open area are always wet due to dish wash and cause slipping while walking at that area.

In our opinion, we realise that the Shelter need items such as CCTV camera, curtain blind, water pressure gun machine and anti-slip floor mat more rather than custom made furniture such as tables, chairs, white/black boards and cupboards which the shelter already have most of it and some is still in well condition

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Week 7 (proposal submission)

In this week we came up with solutions from the problems that we saw from our second site visit. The following were the necessary items we listed that the shelter needed regarding to the problems they were facing:

1. Roller blinds

2. Water pressure gun

3. Anti-slip floor mat

Besides that, we have also discussed and came out with the idea of how to engage more with the children at the shelter. We then listed down some of the potential activities and games that we can carry out on our next site visit to the shelter.

Week 8 & 9

After the proposal submission, we informed Ms. Inthira about our final proposal and briefed her about the future activities to carry out in the shelter. Then, we arranged the next visit to the shelter for the installation and set up. At the same time, some of the group members started to purchase items that needed to be installed for the shelter.

Other than that, we decided to sponsor and carry out lunch time with the boys. We also came out with a game call "Defend The Egg" and the mission is to protect the egg from cracking using teamwork, creativity, and a good design. The boys will have to drop each structure at one floor height, and so the goal is for each structure to be able to withstand such a fall. Each team of boys will only be given limited resources, and so they must be wise with what they have.

WEEK 10

We went to Agathians shelter on the 2nd of June for our final visit. The schedule of the visit is as below:

11.30am : The team arrived and meet and we were greeted by the care takers of Agathians shelter.

12.00pm : We have our lunch with 38 of the children and the care takers. They showed their discipline by washing the dishes after the meal.

12.45pm : Games are carried out with 15 young boys from the shelter. At the moment, me and my friend started our task to install the roller blinds in office. I have the chance to communicate with the some of the boys as I needed their help in installing the roller blind.

1.15 pm : The game is still going on and each of the kid seems to enjoy the game as they keep giving opinions in building the perfect structure to protect the eggs. Me and my friend have finished installing the first curtain blind and we are ready to install the second one.

1.30pm : Prizes are given to the kids to compliment their team work and creativity. Afterwards, some of the team members start washing the kitchen area with water pressure machine and install anti slip floor mat at the kitchen open area.

2.30 pm : The curtain blinds and anti slip floor mat have been installed. We proceed with a small interview with the person in charge, Ms. Inthira about our overall community service. She feels grateful to have us in contributing the shelter and she stated that the items that we installed will definitely improve the living condition of the boys and caretakers. We then ended our visit with a group photo.

Week 11 : Video submission

Reflection

As a student this project has generally helped me understand not every help you want to offer is what is really needed, so the fact that we took the initiative to ask for the challenges faced and that is when we got better answers and so we managed to give something that would really help the shelter.

I also learned that the kids in the shelter were very well disciplined and it was very Nice to see how they corporate in doing every little thing. This reminded me of how team works important in accomplishing any task and its was beautiful to be reminded that by how the kids behaved.

And as we played the game of making sure the egg doesn't break we had to make egg shelters that would protect the egg from breaking. This made me realise how talented and sharp minded the kids were and it felt even greater when I thought of how we as a team were encouraging them to become even more creative through such silly game.

All in all this was one f the best experiences and it was an amazing time well spent, but none of this wouldn't happen if we didn't have a corporative team and understanding leaders as well