Gratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul

Assalamualaikum and hello!

Thanks to everyone at Yayasan Chow Kit for the opportunity to run this program. Thanks a lot to all kids, great staff and my fellow friends for making this Tautan Kasih Program so memorable! Special thanks to our advisors Dr. Anisah and Dr. Siti for your kind assistance throughout this program. We wish you a best of luck for your future and don't forget us.

Congratulation to everyone for the great memory..!

Aida Farzana Binti Mohamad
Bureau of Programme and Protocol

Be thankful of what you have, you'll end up having more

Assalamualaikum and hello!

I couldn't be more blessed to know all of you thanks to everyone at Yayasan Chow Kit for giving your big support during this program. Thanks a bunch to all adorable kids, great staff and my lovely friends for making this Tautan Kasih Program so memorable! Appreciate it so much and honoured to work together with all of you. Not forgotten, special thanks to our advisors Dr. Anisah and Dr. Siti for your kind assistance throughout this program.

Congratulations everyone..we finally made it!

Syarranur Binti Ahmad Zaim
Bureau of Sponsorships

Good habits formed at youth make the difference

Pusat aktiviti kanak-kanak chow kit merupakan salah satu pusat jagaan yang amat bagus bagi pembesaran kanak-kanak. Sepanjang menjalankan program jalinan masyarakat di sini, saya dapat melihat sendiri bagaimana kanak-kanak ini diasuh oleh guru mereka. Meskipun sesetengah daripada mereka tidak dapat belajar di sekolah seperti kanak-kanak lain, namun mereka diterapkan diterapkan dengan pelbagai 'soft skill' seperti kemahiran memasak, pertahankan diri dan lain-lain. Meluangkan masa bersama mereka turut membuatkan saya rasa bersyukur dengan apa yang ada pada diri saya. Di samping beraktiviti dan bergelak ketawa bersama mereka, saya juga dapat belajar cara-cara untuk mengawal karenah mereka dengan lebih baik. Saya berasa amat seronok sepanjang aktiviti berlangsung di sana. Semoga lebih banyak pihak yang datang dan menghulurkan bantuan dan sumbangan kepada mereka.

Belajar baik-baik. Dengar cakap ibu bapa dan cikgu. Semoga menjadi manusia yang berguna kelak.

Syafawati Adlina Binti Nor Adzman
Biro Tajaan

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