Matric No.: 2018862

Team: CCUB 2163 Section 68, Crees-P “Tales to Tell” Rumah Anak Yatim Darul Ilmi

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim.

Assalamualaikum Dr and my fellow classmates.

First of all, I would like to thank Dr Ricca and this team for making this a success. I learned many new things and at the same time also enjoy doing this beneficial activities that is not only benefiting myself but also others around me. I had so much fun preparing and planning for our visit, and also had fun during the visit. 

We, as a team, of course with advices from Dr Ricca, managed to plan everything by ourselves. I am so happy that my teammates are all cooperative and responsive. We were so good in dividing the tasks and everyone did their parts very well. We did everything as a team, helping each other and listen to each others opinion regarding the tasks, from buying what was needed, preparing the proposal, searching for the place to visit, considering the transportations, and many more.

On the day of presenting to sejahtera council, Usrah In Action Symposium, we also did divide the tasks properly. I was one of the members who presented in front of the councils. I was really happy that they love our project and they said that they can see our spirit which what they hope to be seen in every projects. They hope that we can continue this project, helping the kids to learn and read as this is a very serious matter.

I really love this project. I will never regret choosing this project for my usrah in action course. I did not see any limitation. Or perhaps, the time limit. I believe we can plan more big impact activities if we have more time. We can discuss and agree on more fun things to do. But yet, even with this time limitation, our team, did a very good job and all went very well, thanks to the team of course. 

All in all, I, Hanan Sofiyyah, love this team so much! Everyone was really cooperative and fun to work with. Shout out to group 2, Hanan, Zahirah, Hafizah, Natasya, Amira, Hadzran, Adib, Shafaque, Sofena, Nabihah and Najwa. And also to all group 1 members. We all did our best and we learned many new things together! Thank you once more to our awesome Dr Ricca. Congratulations to all of us for winning the silver medal project. Can’t wait to see all of you next semester for more great plans to give benefits to all, rahmatan lil ‘alamin inshaAllah.

https://youtu.be/WPSZLQjNNVg

Though we think that our group’s project proposal was already very detailed, we still spend lots of time modifying it, especially the budgeting and forms section. I realised the difference between dealing with children and adults in things like how do we need to come up with more engaging activities in order to keep their interest in check.  Despite successfully holding our story-sharing session with the kids from Raudhatul Nur Jannah, I think there is still a lot of room for improvement. For instance, I do wish we will become more productive in dealing with the preparation for the event since we finished discussing and finalising the preparation a day before the event takes place. It’s safe to say that preparing and planning every single thing diligently is an essential component of a job well done. This is the main reason why early preparation is crucial. Starting any project on the right foot will also allow us to reduce any amount of issues that may haunt us later. Overall, I learned and gathered many things from our pre-project and even from the kids of Raudhatul Nur Jannah. It truly gives me a learning experience that allows me to grow academically and as a person. 

By, 
Elaina binti Sabirin (2017244)
Group 1

In addition, I never thought that reading can be assisted by another activity such as drawing, in order to make it more interesting for children, and this course has opened my eyes that such activity is possible and can enhance the reading experience even more. I am glad that we have conducted the profiling project during this semester instead of solely focusing on proposing for the real project as I get to see and experience it myself on how to deal with children and keeping their interests in check throughout the whole storytelling session. Reading the story to the children from Raudhatul Nur Jannah has piqued my interest in children because of all the good feedback that they gave to us, for instance, the majority of the children from the group that I handled with a few of my friends said that they are now more interested in reading because of the fun activity that we included in the storytelling. Despite the fact that some of them could not even read simple sentences in English, they still tried their best to understand the storyline and participate in the activities from the beginning until the end. Some of them even put a lot of effort in drawing in their own distinctive styles, claiming that doing so enhanced their readinge experience by helping them to visualise the story. 

Plus, I am so happy that I get to work together with my group members in organising everything from the start until the end throughout this whole semester. I think that working with them has made this whole project bearable to cope with as everyone took part and involved themselves equally. I am glad that we get to have several physical meetings to get to know each other as well as discuss our plans to meet and share our knowledge with the children. Attached above are some pictures during our physical meetings. 

Working hand in hand with my group members has taught me to critically think when our plant went south because of the changes made in a short period of time. The strong sense of cooperation in our teamwork has made it possible to move through with the project rather than abandoning it in the face of last-minute changes from the parties we were working with during that time. 

Thus, I am grateful that this course gave me the chance to manage the project with my group members as well as gain experience in handling and engaging with children in storytelling. I am also eager to continue spreading knowledge and assisting them in the following semester with the same dedication and even greater effort. 

At first, I always taught that this issue is only a small matter because having a habit of reading takes time, so it is normal for the kids to feel uninterested in reading. However, after doing the project, I realized that this issue must be taken seriously when I learned that not only they were uninterested in reading, basic things such as knowing the simple English word, spelling, and reading fluently were already challenging for them, even though it is the basic. Thus, learning this course make me want to create a storybook that can at least pique the interest of the children since I like writing stories.  

Learning in this section, also make me realize my weaknesses, where I’m not really good at leadership. Although, I’m not exactly the leader per se, more like the assistant of the leader so that we help each other. I know my limits but I still insist on acting like a leader because if no one wanted to lead, then who can? But there are setbacks such as, if things do not go my way, I will feel frustrated but I will try to stay calm as much as I can so I would not panic and have a mental breakdown. Other than that, having low self-esteem is one of the things I realized about myself when learning in this course because even though I volunteer, I do not believe in myself that I can do it because I keep thinking that everyone else would be better than me.

The limitation of this course and project is probably the credit hour and the students’ availability because I’m sure most of them are too busy with their main course. Which results in us rushing in everything. But then again, for this section, I think the time for an online meeting is fine since it’s flexible. For face to face meeting, I think it would be better if we meet on a day we are free. Preferably Friday afternoon at least because I’m sure on weekend everyone would like to rest.

I chose CCUB 2163 Section 68 as this project is centralized around underprivileged children, books, and reading which piqued my interest. To be able to share the pleasure and significance of reading books with others is my passion. Particularly, for the children whereby their future depends on accumulated knowledge from reading. The reading project by my group went to Raudhatul Jannah Orphanage to read English storybooks created by us. 

Creating one’s own storybook is a challenging task given by Dr. Ricca. Each student is given an opportunity to create their own story for the underprivileged children. Truthfully, creating my own storybook is challenging, but this task allows me to diverge my way of thinking to the children's perspectives instead of an adult's. Moreover, I need to include suitable activities if my story were to be read, in order to sustain the children’s attention span. Also, how do I get comfortable with the children to maintain our interaction?

 If I were the kid, what kind of story I will like?

I ask myself this question and decided on a horror-themed book. It is a part of the plan to get the children curious about my story. The activities I included are asking for their opinions and encouraging them to draw. I believe, by asking questions generates critical thinking, courage, and freedom of expression in children to voice out their opinions. In addition, drawing will help me to see the children’s way of thinking which is nearly beyond expectations. This task is not impossible but surely designated efforts and time must be given to complete it. Hence, I was amazed by various creativity in storylines, attractive visuals, and various morals of the story from each of my classmates. 

The next task given by Dr. Ricca is to conduct a profiling visit to the targeted orphanage. The first step to the profiling visit is a proposal presentation to Dr. Ricca. My group decided quickly on dividing the tasks at an online meeting and had a physical meeting to further discuss at HS Cafe. I acknowledged no problems in deciding who does what as all members are freely given the chance to pick their own positions. The work rate in completing their tasks for my group is acceptable as I understand that we all are trying to make time for this subject. Therefore, I am as grateful as I can be whenever my teammates managed to complete their parts. 

However, I and most of my teammates are frustrated with the changing of orphanages due to the lack of cooperation from all orphanage sides before Raudhatul Jannah. We had to keep on looking for new places when everything else has been set up. It is undeniable that adjusting our terms to Raudhatul Jannah’s conditions is challenging as the financial budget is put on the line. For example, we must pay for the Kami Prihatin facilities and prepare lunch for the children. Other than that the range of age of our participants is slightly older than what we had expected. Hence, the budget is adjusted yet again, and changed the storybooks which are more suitable according to their age. 

After the program, I realized some issues regarding our participants. Although I have some predictions of what conditions the underprivileged children would be, being able to see them with naked eyes hit me differently. This is what I observed from the children I took care of; some of them are illiterate. Such as knowing nothing about writing the alphabet, and a lack of basic vocabulary of English words for an eleven years old. Therefore, we have to assist the children to understand the story by using Bahasa Melayu along the way. In the end, the profiling visit is a success despite such great challenges in the last minutes. I am proud of my teammates. I believe, my team can do even better if the time allows more of us to concentrate on this project alone. As students, I acknowledge my teammates have done their best, giving full efforts they can contribute. I am thankful for every member who is involved. 

For future references, communication between team members, and also between Dr. Ricca as the instructor, should be improved as I believe we can get a better result for this project. Also, as we are getting along and able to see each other strengths, it is more suitable to appoint someone regarding certain tasks. This is for the group’s efficiency rate. Last but not least, I support this reading project as I recognize it will bring fortunes to underprivileged children. However, in my opinion, this subject is challenging the student with their time management. Although there is no fixed period for this subject should be flexible, it comes out as hard too. This is because students are from different kuliyyah and schedules. Maybe, having fixed lesson periods on weekdays is much preferable. 

From the pre project, there are some improvements and limitations that can be observed. Firstly the target participants was satisfactory. Initially, our target is focusing on the underprivileged children, but there are some participants aged 13 and above, which does not meet the criteria of the participants. Perhaps in the future we could find a welfare centre that has more members in the group of children aged 7-10 years old. Next, the limitation is that we are unable to do more activities due to the venue of the event and this programme is only a half-day programme. Perhaps in the future we could do a 2-days programme with better venue so that we can add more outdoor activities, for example in IIUM or any other places, as well as to allow the children to enhance their creativity and critical thinking through the exposure of the environment.

All in all,  i am so delighted and thankful to join the community engagement together with my group mates, in hopes that there will be more knowledge-based community service provided for underprivileged children in the future. May God bless our program with abundant sustenance and his Mercy, hoping it can benefit the Ummah especially to the unprivileged community.

First and foremost, I learnt to be a better leader given my role as the program manager of the group. Since it was my first time being a leader, it gives me great anxious to give instructions and organise meetings. Regardless of the nerve-wrecking process, everything turns out to be fine. In fact, it has been amazing. As a program manager, I learnt to delegate the work between the group members and most importantly, I learnt to lead with confidence. Before this, I had a hard time in giving instructions to others thinking that people will get annoyed with me. But, through the process of leading my ‘Tales to Tell’ group, I believe that the choices a leader made will never satisfy all parties. There will be some upset feeling and all, but those things are indeed unavoidable. At the end of each meeting, I always try to reach my group members and encourage them to tell what they are really feeling – and it helps a lot. Alhamdulillah, my group members are very open in sharing their perspectives; and due to that, as a leader, I am beyond proud that the group managed to have a strong bond. What started with working together ended with beautiful friendship.

Next, the storytelling project helps me to understand underprivileged children in a better way. Since this program is focusing on the orphans, my expectation revolves around the unbiased ideas. I thought that there is no need to have different approaches in telling stories to them. But little did I know that the situation is opposite to what I expected. The kids do not know how to read – even clueless on spelling alphabets. What’s worrying is that some older children aged 6 and above, cannot differentiate on the letter ‘A’ and ‘B’. Since I have a younger sister aged 7 who are able to read and write in both Malay and English language, seeing these children breaks my heart. It makes me so ambitious to make changes and help the underprivileged children. Had I not be part of the project, I would have keep my sight so narrow. By ‘Tales to Tell’, I believe that I can start the change, perhaps little by little but one day it will sprout to something beneficial for the society.

In conclusion, I believe that the initiative by CREES-P and the development of ‘Tales to Tell’ group will bring forth enormous benefit to the community. Stories are the basis of one’s dream. Hence, I want to be part of the contributor to shine some light in the world of underprivileged children. May Allah ease everything for all of us.

To highlight certain details that need to be considered is that on transportation. At the beginning, STADD has mentioned they can provide us with the transportation; however, we end up dealing with it on our own. Apart from that, we have witnessed the true situation of the kids today not being able to enjoy readings to the fullest due to some unavoidable obstacles. I sincerely hope the kids can enjoy reading with the help of people around who are able to donate storybooks and other reading stuff, and also build a small decorative reading corner just to make them feel pleasant with and wont to reading. Last but not least, maybe perhaps this project can grow bigger to an extent of being able to collaborate with the National Library of Malaysia or Kuala Lumpur Library in achieving the mission of flourishing and instilling the value of interest in reading in younger generations.