Transformative Journal of Wan Najwa Raihani Mohd Nazri

BEFORE THE PROGRAM

During my first semester in UM, I was told that there is one subject that is compulsory for students to take and we are needed to do any kind of voluntary works as long as it contributes to the society. The moment I am informed about this subject, I am curious about how it should be prepared, the procedures and so on. After the lecture about social engagement project, our group had our first meeting and election for position. So, I choose to be the Secretary and Treasurer II of our Social Engagement project. Soo Xian and I are required to do the minutes of meeting for every formal meeting of our group.  After that, we need to brainstorm a name for this project and I suggest it as “UM Cares, Enhancing Humanity”

            After several meetings, we had several places in mind for our social engagement project which is Rumah Kasih Harmoni, SKPK Shah Alam, Selangor, SKPK Setapak Kuala Lumpur and Pusat Perlindungan Keluarga Besar Norlina Alawi Berhad(KBNA). I did the proposal project for SKPK Shah Alam, Selangor and Rumah Kasih Harmoni, Kuala Lumpur while Soo Xian are required to do the proposal for the SKPK Setapak, Kuala Lumpur and Pusat Perlindungan KELUARGA Besar Norlina Alawi.

            After some interaction with all the four organisations, only SKPK Shah Alam, Selangor and Rumah Kasih Harmoni accept our proposal to organize an event with them while the other two rejected maybe due to some safety factors. So, we make a meeting and discuss whether to choose SKPK Shah Alam or Rumah Kasih Harmoni. Most of us suggest SKPK Shah Alam because Rumah Kasih Harmoni is an orphanage that have more new-born babies so it is a bit hard for us to run events with small cute babies.

Then, we start to do some preparations for SKPK Shah Alam. I manage to get 100 small mineral bottles from Muhly, a senior in PEMASHOR group that want to sponsor the mineral bottles to be given to SKPK Shah Alam students.

DURING THE PROGRAM

SATURDAY & SUNDAY, 1^ST & 2^nd APRIL 2017

I get really sad because despite of all the preparations, I am not able to attend our social engagement event for both day because I caught a bad chicken pox fever at that time. It is my 7^th day of chicken pox and I already manage to walk but I still experience some itchiness problem all over my body. At first, I really think of going. However, due to the advice from a doctor at a clinic in my hometown, it is better for me to not attend the project because most of my chicken pox blister are still appearing and it might infect the children of SKPK Shah Alam because they are still small and their immune system might be low. So, I decide to not go because I am afraid if other people might get infected because my roommate are also infected from me because I went back to my hometown a bit late when I first got this fever.

            Then, I wish my group members all the best and good luck through Whatsapp group and I also ask my supervisor, Dr Yazkhiruni bt Yahya regarding this problem because there is no other social engagement event for our group. It is really tough for me because I get sick at this time and it saddens me a lot because it is really beyond my control. Dr give me two options which is first, I need to prepare the report and the blog for our group and the second option is to join other group activities which I still need to complete 30 hours of Social Engagement. At that time, I did think of joining other group because I will not get the objective of social engagement which is contribute back to the society because I did not experience the social engagement event.

However, I choose the second options which is to do the blog and report because basically, I did not know any accounting group that have not start their social engagement project, I just know finance groups. Dr Yazkhiruni also recommended me to do the report and blog because it is quite inappropriate for me to join other group since most of the group have started their social engagement activities. I am really disappointed to not get the chance to join so I just see the videos and photos that my group have sent through the Whatsapp group.

AFTER THE PROGRAM

After the event finished, it is my duty to do the report and blog for our group. At first, it is really hard for me because I did not have enough information. I meet Ashraaf and Soo Xian to ask more details regarding the social engagement such as the materials that we bought, the budget, the challenges and many more. Hawa also give me more information regarding the items. It is really glad to know that our social engagement project is a success and the students of SKPK Shah Alam also had a lot of fun with our team.

            Even though I did not manage to join our group social engagement, I did know that the objective is to encourage volunteering program among UM students to give back to the society. So, I know that I also did join other project that are giving back to the society such as we teach orphanage and do many kind of various activities with them and also teach Mathematics and Additional Mathematics subject to various school. It is really fun and I would join many more volunteering program in the future.

To conclude, seeing the videos of the students and the stories about the social engagement from our group members, it is really touched that even they have limited hearing, vision and some of them cannot talk, they are really motivated to learn. They just have low self-esteem because they are really shy. That moment, I also realized that it is our duty as a normal people to help them raise their confidence level up and make them feels accepted and loved by the society because I know that the special students like them has many more uniqueness that we did not have. I also can see that they enjoy our  program so much, I would love to go there to do volunteering service one fine day. I would also love to encourage SKPK Shah Alam as a place to do volunteering programs because I think we need to spare some our attention to this special students.

 I want to take this opportunity to thank all my group members for willingly to cooperate with me to give information and consent for me to do the report and blog thus being understanding when I had the chicken pox fever.  I also wanted to thank our advisor which is Dr. Yazkhiruni Yahya for helping us in making this program a success. Although being an advisor, Dr Yazkhiruni had done a lot of thing to help ease our burden such as donated RM200 for this event, help us to get the approval from Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia and many more. Thank you again Dr Yazkhiruni. A lot of memorable things and new experiences which can be used to help in future event are gained from this program especially regarding on how to make a report and blog. Thank you, “UM Cares, Enhancing Humanity”.