The final forming of a person's character lies in you own hands

Good boys and good girls, this may be the last time you see me. I will miss you all. Every child matters (as YCK says). Every child is special and can't be replaced. When I look at you, I see unlimited potential of you. You are the best! I also learned a lot from you. I wish all of you have a bright and happy future. I also won't forget the time I spent here, it will be my sweet memory.

Also, I want to say thank you to my team members. They usually have a meeting the night before we go to YCK, I skipped many of the meetings as my KK is too fqar from their KK, luckily they have updated the important information for me.

 Good bye YCK! Good bye good kids!

Tan Qi-Quan
Bureau Programme and Protocol

At last, the wheel comes full circle

Assalamualaikum dan hai adik-adik, ribuan terima kasih abang-abang dan kakak-kakak ucapkan kepada semua atas kerjasama yang diberikan, semoga apa-apa yang telah kami kongsikan bersama dapat memberikan manfaat kepada adik-adik.

Semoga berjaya dalam hidup dan semoga berjumpa lagi.

Nur Afifazri Bin Nazaruddin
Biro Program dan Protokol

The starting point of all achievement is desire

We've reached the end of the semester, which also marks the end of this Social Engagement course.

I've attended all the activities, sacrificing my Friday and sometimes, weekends for this course. Social engagement course is like another volunteer programme for me, as I've experienced volunteering during secondary school time, except that during secondary school, I helped the elders and now, it is the kids' turn.

Thank you secretary for finding Yayasan Chow Kit and PAKK as our "basement" for this course. The children over there are mostly Malay, some of them are even children of foreign workers. Being a Chinese, I've face some difficulties communicating with them as my BM language skills are not that good. But once, I'm surprised that they knew some simple Chinese words such as number one to ten, etc. And many times, they approaches me and my Chinese friends to seek for the pronounciation for a certain words. I'm so happy that they are willing to learn languages other than their mother tongue language. In Malaysia, we should all do the same.

I've understood that Kuala Lumpur is a busy city, with full of foreign workers, some even illegal, thus they might bring some negativities and spread them around. Children that are still not mature enough with less critical thinking skills should not be exposed to them. Yayasan Chow Kit had built a platform for them, to protect them from all the negativities, and to teach them a lot of soft skills which could not be learn in the classroom. This is a thing that I'm impressed with.

Working with the team, with all coursemates had been a blessing for me. We've no longer strangers since then because of that we stick with our race group during class and meals. I've known a good side of them and I know that we could have a strong bonding between coursemates throughout our university life. I've understand that teamwork is very important to make things work.

I never really thought of community service as a movement. But it is.

Thank you.

Chan Xin Jo
Bureau of Publicity and Public Relations

Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile

Hi…Yeah, it’s me Danson Lee! Our Tautan Kasih project has just come into the end officially last Saturday on 16^th May 2015. It seems like everything just come and go so fast that now is almost the end of the second semester. I would like to take the opportunity here to thank all my Tautan Kasih project members for their responsibility and commitment for the past two months. Not to forget our supervisors, Dr. Anisah and Dr. Siti Suzlin for their kind guidance on the project flow.

I have been assigned to lead the team for this Tautan Kasih project right from the first week the idea is discussed and presented. Right at that time, we focus our target to be orphans or kindergarten kids who are keen looking for schooling experience. With the thinking that we, as university students should and have the ability to give better experience to them especially in early mathematical abilities. After searching and contacting with some organisations, finally we fixed our target to kids from Pusat Aktiviti Kanak-kanak (PAKK), Chow Kit.

For the very first week we went to PAKK, things seems going to be very tough for us where we are facing 60 over kids age ranging from 5-12 years old. 14 of us are going to take care 60 over of them. Ohhh…sounds like mission impossible! But we did it in the end, how I feel about that? Hmmm…I think I have to describe it this way------SUPER DUPER TIRED! I have to say, it is really a brand new experience to me as a university student. For years I did volunteer service under Ops Selamat during festival seasons, but this volunteer service to engage and to take care of kids are really my first try.

The second visit to PAKK brought a different feel. Why I say so? This time we have had a chance to do a “not so formal” interview with some of the teachers there. From there, we get a better glance of the history of Yayasan Chow Kit and some relevant information. In general, Yayasan Chow Kit provides shelter to the homelessness and education support to those who are not able to go into government school. From what we observed, the kids there are coming from various background having their not so happy story behind. All these can be observed along the way to PAKK where the whole Chow Kit Street are full of foreigners from Bangladesh, Indonesia etc. The surrounding environment is just not conducive for a child. Take a visit to Chow Kit Street via PWTC LRT service station then surely you will agree with me. Why there is no one who sounds and raise up the issue?

Activities at PAKK go on as usual for few weeks until a big carnival at Kelab Sultan Sulaiman on 25^th April 2015. We been responsible for the game slot with parents during that day. We are well-planned for that but due to some delay with the ceremony, our game slot is postponed to one hours later. The games are carried out so efficiently and we also get a lot of support from the parents which motivate us under the hot and sunny day. Overall is fun and quite a success event but the lesson learnt is that we shall be more prepared in term of item preparation although other party has taken charge for the preparation of item as they may not know what exactly we wanted to do.

At the end of this project, I learnt to appreciate the things that are given to us. As we are from a better family I suppose, that formal education isn’t a big deal for most of us, we tends to take it as granted, not going to care about that. But to some of them outside, they are struggling and urgently looking for a place for their children’s’ education. Who knows whether they are having some financial problem or not able to obtain the pass to go into government school. So, we should feel lucky that basic necessities are provided to us as we live in a stable and developing country.

Besides, I also learnt to be more patient and thinking at different viewpoints. Try to think from a different angle and understand how ones feel about a certain issue, put yourself in their place, then you are able to better understand them. A better understanding gives an idea of what should be done to have something improved. As a team leader, I am now better able to distribute tasks and have all my members participate actively as a team. Together we are StatPower!

Thank you so much for reading. 

Lee Kain Sheng
Director

Caring has the gift of making the ordinary special

Assalamualaikum dan salam sejahtera, seronok dapat menyertai khidmat masyarakat bersama kanak-kanak di Yayasan Chow Kit.

Mereka sangat aktif dan kreatif. Walaupun mereka berasal dari latar belakang keluarga yang berlainan tetapi mereka seronok tiggal bersama. Sepanjang aktiviti di sana banyak pengalaman yang saya dapat terutamanya pengalaman macam mana hendak mengawal kanak-kanak yang sangat aktif, walaupun agak sukar tetapi ia adalah pengalaman dan satu cabaran untuk saya.

Selain itu, melalui program ini dapat mengajar saya untuk berkomunikasi baik dengan pihak di sana terutamanya dari segi aturan tarikh dan masa untuk program bersama kanak-kanak. Tambahan pula untuk menjayakan aktiviti ini, kerjasama antara kumpulan memainkan peranan yang sangat penting, masing-masing perlu memberi komitment yang tinggi terhadap tugas masing-masing. Ini dapat mengajar saya untuk bekerjasama dalam satu kumpulan agar sesuatu program berjalan lancar walaupun berlainan kaum.

Jadi saya harap dapat melibatkan diri dengan aktiviti kemasyarakatan sebegini lagi untuk menghiburkan masyarakat dan memahami mereka. Sekian.

Nur Syazwani Binti Ismail
Secretary

Tiada apa-apa yang pernah menjadi kenyataan sehingga ia dialami

Pertama sekali saya berasa sangat gembira kerana projek ini dapat dijayakan dengan jayanya. Semua berjalan lancar dan segala masaalah yang dihadapi dapat dihadapi dengan baik . Pengalaman bersama-sama adik-adik Yayasan Chow Kit merupakan pengalaman yang tidak dapat dilupakan. Banyak perkara yang saya belajar apabila bersama masyarakat terutamanya dalam memperbaiki kemahiran berkomunikasi sesama masyarakat dan menyelami kekurangan yang mereka alami.

 Pertama kali kami berjumpa adik-adik Yayasan Chow Kit terpamer wajah-wajah riang mereka dalam menyambut kedatangan kami. Mereka sangat suka apabila mereka disantuni dan diambilberat akan kebajikan mereka. Terpalit rasa kemanusiaan apabila kita sendiri merasai pengalaman bersama masyarakat yang hidup dalam serba kekurangan. Kami banyak melakukan aktiviti yang bertujuan menghiburkan adik-adik Yayasan Chow Kit. Senyuman yang terukir di wajah mereka sangat menyenangkan kami. Pelbagai teletah mereka sepanjang kami bersama mereka, ada yang menangis,berkejar-kejaran dan ada yang petah bercakap.

Perkataan letih memang tidak dapat disangkal tetapi melihat adik-adik Yayasan Chow Kit gembira dapat melegakan keletihan yang kami rasai. Sekadar itu refleksi saya. Terima kasih kepada pensyarah iaitu Dr Anisah dan Dr Siti serta rakan-rakan sekumpulan.

Siti Mazzura Binti Marzuki
Biro Teknikal dan Logistik

Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny

Through this program, we can understand the hardships of their lives. They cannot live like normal children because of family problems. Although the Pusat Asuhan Kanak-kanak ( PAKK ) Chow Kit has given completely to their needs, but they still need more love from others.

From my own experience, we face difficulties to control the children because they are very active. Although we were tired, we feel very happy that they still follow what has been planned by us.

We love you PAKK

Noor Afifah Binti Saifullah
Vice Secretary