Reflective Writing by KOH SONG LAM U2004001/1

你好吗？How are you? Hello everyone, I hope that you are doing great! My name is Koh Song Lam. I am currently taking a course called Social Engagement. We are Nos Amis from group 3(c). My team and I had done a project by spending a day with the children at Persatuan Kanak-Kanak Istimewa Insan (PKKII). Persatuan Kebajikan Kanak-Kanak Istimewa Insan (PKKII) is a non-profit organisation established in 1998 which has been operating for 23 years. PKKII have adopted 65 brain-injured children staying in PKKII home taken care by full-time staff 24 hours daily. That’s a little bit about the background of PKKII. In this blog, I will write about my reflections based on the project I did. So, scroll down for more information.

Picture of Me (Right side) and Ja Son (Left side)

Planning stage:

After the briefing by the lecturers, we had a meeting a few days after that. During the meeting, we had an ice breaking session to get to know each other. Luck was on my side, all my group mates are very active and friendly. I feel very comfortable even when discussing ideas with them. They have succeeded in influencing me, who is an introvert, to talk much during the meeting. A leader is a dealer in hope. —Napoleon Bonaparte. Undoubtedly, a leader will be selected among ourselves to lead the whole project. Somehow, I was the one who got voted in by my groupmates. At first I was reluctant to accept the position as I am scared that I might not lead them well in this project. After some persuasion from my groupmates, I decided to take the challenge and to be the leader for this project. I would like to thank them for giving me this golden opportunity to improve my skills such as leadership skills, communication skills and others. In addition, in our group we decided to give each other different roles such as public relation supervisor, multech and others. So, everybody including myself will have a role and carry out their responsibilities. I had the multech role who is responsible for all the posting in social media as well as creating videos for the project. Although I had my own role, I am still the leader for this project. Therefore, I basically assisted everyone in the project. I also encourage my group members to voice out if they are in need of help with anything.

After a few meetings, we had come up with an idea to go to for a volunteering project at an orphanage or something related. Next, we started contacting different organisations that we searched on the internet. There are lots of organisations out there which we could visit. However, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, most of the organisations rejected us as they are concerned that the children might get affected by the virus. Hard work pays off, PKKII accepted our proposal and let us carry out our project at their place. I feel very thankful that the person in charge of PKKII gave us the opportunity to carry out this project there with a condition where we need to do covid-19 tests before going to their place. At the same time, I feel very happy and excited to carry out this project.

Physical meeting with the group members

After carrying out several weekly meetings with the group members, every group member did a great job in carrying out their responsibilities. For example, Jason, one of our group members contacted the person in charge of PKKII and discussed the activities that we proposed with them. As a leader, I had assisted them in completing their responsibilities. I had helped Shekinah, who is in charge of logistics, to buy all the things needed for the project. Since we collect donations from the public, we used the donation to buy the needs of PKKII. There is a person worth mentioning who is Jian Hong. He accompanied me in buying the items for donation despite the fact that this semester is very packed with assignments as well as lab reports. In addition, Syadzilin also did a great job in finding funds for our project. To sum up, everyone completed their responsibilities flawlessly. I really appreciate how supportive they are in this project. From the bottom of my heart I would like to thank them for what they have done. Also, I would like to thank Dr. Suhana, who is the lecturer in charge of our group, for the donation as well as the ideas that you had given us.

On going stage:

On that project day, we reached PKKII around 9.30 a.m. We unpacked everything we brought there and also we passed the donation items to the person in charge. Then we followed our tentative schedule by starting off with an ice breaking session. Then, activities like musical chairs which is the children’s favourite activity is carried out. From the smile of the children’s face, I can see that they are enjoying the activity. Besides, I also enjoyed playing musical chairs with them. Next, we prepared a colouring session for the children there as they also like colouring. During the colouring session, I observed that they enjoyed colouring especially those who requested different templates for colouring. I would like to point out that Syadzilin did a great job guiding the children in the colouring session. She is very caring and has patience with the children although some of them might run around. Next, we had a small hygiene talk by Jason who teaches the children how to wash their hands and keep themselves clean during this pandemic. After that, we had a sandwich making session with the children and gave them the sandwich as a tea break. Then, we made glutinous rice balls with the children. Last but not least, we sing songs and dances with the children. Our project ends with the children and our laughter. We really enjoyed spending time with the children there.

I am making the dough for glutinous rice ball.

During this stage, I had learnt some valuable lessons such as patience. As the children are having disabilities, there might be some communication problems during the project. I learnt to be patient with them and try to communicate with them with a different kind of approach. Besides, I learnt to be more caring. I had been looking after the children’s safety while playing games and other activities. It is not an easy task to do so as some of the children are very active. I sincerely thank the workers there who are taking care of the children there. I also learn to be flexible with the plans. Sometimes things just do not go as planned, there might be something that happened in the middle of the activities. All in all, we managed to complete our project well.

After stage:

After completing the project, I had learnt lots of things. Firstly, I had improved my leadership skills. I would like to thank my group members for trusting me in this project. I really learn alot from the planning stage until the whole project ends. “Communication – the human connection – is the key to personal and career success.” —Paul J. Meyer. In this project I learnt to communicate well with my group members. I learn to listen and accept others’ opinions and thus come out with an outcome which everybody is satisfied with. 

I was a person who did not know how to express my feelings. Some of my friends even called me poker face. From this project, I learnt to express my feelings more. I feel empathy for the children there. Nobody wants to be born like them. By putting myself in their shoes, I can feel that some of them might be sad or depressed to have disabilities. Therefore, our project had made them feel happy and accompanied. I sincerely hope that they are able to live a happy life even after our project ends.

Lastly, I am glad that I took this course and had this opportunity to complete this project at PKKII. This is a memorable experience for me and also the children there. I believe that these memories will always remain vivid even after many years. I would also like to thank my lecturer and group mates for their guidance and help in completing this project.

Group Photo

Thank you for reading!

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