Volunteering in Buku Jalanan by IOJ

Greetings from PAC Club!

It has been awhile since we last updated you on our activities. Finally, we are able to tell you about our Volunteering with IOJ! On 4 selected Friday nights in the months of March and April, the PAC Committees have chosen to volunteer this year instead of holding a charity event! We were tiny bit unsure at first about how this would go but it all turned out well in the end. Unfortunately, we were not able to get some pictures with the kids as their identities were to be protected.

Please read on if you're interested or browse through our other activities. Without further ado, let us get on with it...

Charity should begin at home, but should not stay there. PAC Club is having their annual Charity event again for the year 2017. This year, PAC Club collaborated with Institut Onn Ja’afar (IOJ) for 4 sessions of voluntary work. IOJ is a non-profit organisation based in Ara Damansara Petaling Jaya, Malaysia and it strives to provide temporary relief from under-privilege's sufferings and material aids for their immediate benefit. IOJ aims to recruit, mobilise and be an avenue for volunteers, as well as to promote the idea of volunteerism through a network that spans the entire nation. Their volunteers also find their lives changed and rewarding by simply serving others selflessly.     
       
PAC Club had officially kick-started their first session of voluntary work dated 17th March 2017 with 10 kind-hearted volunteers and were gathered in front of KDU College's entrance around 6.30pm. A sudden heavy downpour of rain came, similar to water falls in a continuous stream rather than in drops. However, it did not hinder the determination of the volunteers to proceed to the location as planned and finally departed from KDU College to IOJ around 7.30pm.        

After a smooth journey, we reached our destination around 8pm and were brought up to the centre by the institute’s facilitators. They then briefed us on the things we needed to take note on and that we would be teaching the children Mathematics for this session. Later, children started arriving one by one around 8.30pm and we helped them set up their tables in the small hall before officially starting our tutoring session with 2 children per volunteer.

After a solid tutoring session, we began a small game session with the energetic children. We had so much fun and did not realize how fast time flew. The voluntary work soon came to an end, we helped the children clean up the hall and distribute food as well as sweets for them. Our hearts were warmed by the delightful smiles on their faces. Lastly, we departed IOJ reluctantly and headed back to KDU College around 10.30pm. The event ended successfully as we made fruitful memories from the unforgettable experience.

In the second session on the 31st of March, 9 of us were escorted up and given a short briefing before proceeding to set up tables so that the children have a proper learning space to work in. The children arrived shortly after we did and so each of us began to teach either 1 or 2 children Math using Bahasa Malaysia as a medium.

Dinner was served half an hour later and the tutoring session lasted till 10pm. After the session, we gave every child their long awaited ice-cream as they stared at us waiting for their reward, which was well-deserved since they studied hard and with passion. We then cleaned the centre before leaving, making sure it was back to the original condition it was in when we first came.

In the third session which was on the 7th of April, Wilson, a staff from our student Alumni Centre decided to join the 9 of us. The whole journey from KDU to IOJ took an hour but it was shortened by our friendly chats with each other. This time, we brought along packs of the sweets to give them as encouragement for their attention during the tutoring session.
It was obvious that, the children were well looked after in most parts of their life through the help of IOJ. It was a pleasure to spend our time with them and help in our own little ways. We spent just over 2 hours there mainly playing, helping and teaching the kids. They are a lovely and playful bunch.

Some of our volunteers reading fairy tales while waiting for the children 

During the last session, dated 14th of April, all seven volunteers of the night boarded the van to the IOJ Centre around 7 pm. Our journey was uneventful until around 7.40 pm where we were involved in a minor car accident .Luckily, no one was injured and we continued to our destination. We were greeted by some of the children when we arrived. We deposited our bags in a room before interacting with some of the children already in the IOJ Centre while we waited for the rest of the children to arrive.

When most of the children were present, we worked with the children to bring out the tables that we would be using as well as the teaching materials. The children were very efficient in helping us set up the tables. After that, each volunteer began their tutoring session in a group of 2 to 3 children.

The tutoring session ended around 10 pm and we started cleaning up the IOJ Centre. It didn’t take us long to clean up and we interacted with the children for a little while until they had to leave. We reluctantly departed the centre but not before taking a few group photographs to record this wonderful experience.


It was certainly an eye opening experience for all of us and we look forward to the next charity event.         

That is it for this post, see you next time !

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