Silang Budaya Sana Sini: Weekend With ASLI SUMMER CAMP

I still remember during one of the weekend in IIUM, I spent my time with Orang Asli students for a special programme. The programme is known as Asli Summer Camp 2.0 was focusing on the children of aboriginal people in Malaysia who are mainly schooling in Selangor as our participants. The students involved were 70 peoples and the range of age are from 7 years old to 11 years old, which can be categorized as students of primary school. They come from various school as they have been selected by JAKOA which is the organization that we are collaborate with. The program were handled by 4 clubs in IIUM which are JASA, PERKIM, TITIAN ASLI, and COMRADE. The total of the IIUM student who are participating in the programme as the committee and facilitators are 36 people, including me.

The program of "Asli Summer Camp 2" is a community project by IIUM students that aim to integrate the sense of awareness on the importance of knowledge and education in the aboriginal children and to tone up the skills that they having in themselves. These children will be exposed to the environment of the university and they will do some activities that can make them interested to learn more passionately and we are also focusing on shapping their moral and akhlak. Our main objectives are as follows :

To improve overall education level of Asli students and to heighten their awareness about the importance of knowledge.
To integrate the Asli students who come from different ethnicity of Orang Asli in Malaysia.
To develop self-potential and leadership skills of Asli students for the betterment of their lives as well as to assist them to achieve life goals.
To boost up their self-confidence and self-esteem.
To expose Asli students to university environment and encourage them in furthering their studies pursuing their ambitions.
To show Asli students that study can be fun and very important and useful in life.
To broaden Asli students’ views on life and the prospective futures that they have in realizing their dreams.
To incorporate the Islamic way of life among students.

One of the reasons that make me feel like I want to join this programme is because I think that I can get involved directly with the Orang Asli community throughout this programme. In other words, I am not just learning their culture by theory in class or reading it via websites or books, but I could apply my knowledge and challenge myself to deal with them. Just to be honest, it is challenging but yet very meaningful. If I were given another chance to have more programmes later on, I will take the opportunity. Anyway, here is the full report for the programme. It is highly encouraged for you to read so that you can get the view on the programme.

Our program were held on 17^th of April (Friday) until 19^th of April 2015 (Sunday) at our beloved university which is Islamic International University Malaysia (IIUM) and also at Petrosains Negara on the the last day of the programme. The events were started at 3 PM which is after Jumaah prayer. Upon the arrival of the students and accompanied by their teachers as their guardians, the programme are started its opening ceremony in the mosque at the ground floor as the booked venue were occupied with another event. After the briefing made by the representative of the mosque regarding the do’s and don’ts as the rooms in the mosque will be used as the accommodation . After several opening remarks by the Programme Manager and speech by a representative of the teachers who are they, our programme were officially started at 4 PM.

After the opening ceremony, we continued the programme by dividing the participants into 7 groups and the kids are divided randomly which means in a group there will be students from different schools and ages. After dividing them, we took a break for Asr prayers, self-preparation, and dinner until Maghrib prayers. Some of the committees were assigned to take over the muslim and the rest will take over non-muslim students as the ratio of non-muslim students is more than muslim students by 2/3 more that the muslim students.

Each prayers were performed together with the committees and the facilitators .The dinner were prepared by committees of catering and when the dinner are ready the kids will were instructed to be in line as that is one of the rules appointed for the kids in order to shaped their disciplines. Other than that,it will help us in controlling their movement. As for dinners and every eating time, the kids were taught to wait for others before they start to eat. As the kids were no taking any meals yet before they come to IIUM and we were not informed about the situation, the kids eat right after the opening ceremony and Asr Prayer.

After dinner, they proceed with self-preparation and Maghrib prayers before they separate the muslim students’ for “Smart Wudhu’”. Smart wudhu’ is the slot conducted by bureau of Dakwah and Welfare. Eventhough there were lacking here and there but overall the slot are well conducted but there are some improvement that still can be done by the responsible bureau. After Isya’congregational prayers, all of them were moved to square of education department for LDK 1 which were held by the module bureau.

Upon arrival to the place, non-muslim students were handled by the committee and facilitators . They watch several short stories that contained elements of morality and most of it are cartoons that are suitable for the kids. The kids were in their best behaviour as they are enchanted by the screen in front of them. After that, LDK 1 were officially started and the module for LDK 1 are ice- breaking. It is a module where the facilitators and the students need to introduce themselves and the session were accompanied by the games that they need to accomplish while introducing themselves. During that time also, the theme song for the program were introduced and the kids are notably likes it.

Before the end of day , the kids, committees and facilitators had their suppers at the café of educations and after al-Mulk reading session, all the kids were shown to their rooms. The committees take turn to sleep because they need to watch over the kids and also to makes sure everyone are fine. As the night goes well the report on the welfare of the students are also receiving by the bureau of welfare such cases are, there is a kids who fell from the upper level of double decker bed . The committee were worried to handled her and decided to treat her next morning. There are also several of students who were not sleeping until 3am as they were too excited meeting new friends.

Second days arrived and the first things to do after subuh prayer was morning exercise. The exercise were held at HS riverside. The exercise were handled very well by the sport bureau that the kids are enjoy it so much . After exercise for one hour, finally, the student, committee and facilitators took their frst breakfast together. After the breakfast, all the activities were held at the seminar room in CCAC LDK 2 are started at 8.30 and continue until LDK 6 which end at 4.30PM and during the LDK time, the only time that are they stop playing their LDKs are during tea-break time and lunch cum Zohor prayer.

After tea-break and Asr prayer, they proceed with explorace before they stopped for dinner and self-preparation. During the gap between maghrib time and Isya’ prayer, the muslim student were taught on how to perform prayer in the right way, step by step . Isya’ prayer were performed together. The programme then continued with culture night from the participants, committees and the teachers. They went to sleep after having their supper.

On the next morning, the programme were started with Qiammullail with the participants. All of them are required to wake up early and as the kids is usually are wake up early in the morning so, it seems to be easy for them . Then after Subuh prayer, just like the day 2, they are required to do morning exercise before taking their breakfast. The module continued until 10.30 AM as there are closing ceremony that been held at the CCAC. All the participants, committees and facilitators are wearing the official clothes that they are receiving and the closing ceremony ended after distribution of prizes to the students. After the closing ceremony, the kids are bought to Petrosains and KLCC for a study trips and accompanied by their teachers and several committees and facilitators.

In conclusion, the program are progressing smoothly according to the tentative. Eventhough, the programme are running successfully, but we do have problems with the venue, as during the first day of the student to sleep in the mosque, the air-conditioner are not functioning but they are still charging us and the same thing happen in the next day, when the seminar room also don’t have the air-conditioning when we already books the venue beforehand. For the internal problems, it seems that we are lacking the committees of welfare as many kids are sick during the second and third day, especially on the second day. After all, the event is considered as successful.