Saturday, March 14, 2009

Mega Project

Our Mega Project is the Homestay Program, as suggested by Roni (and voted for by about 70% of our batch).

Basic info:
- Expected duration: 10 weeks (March 23 - April 14)*
- Location: Undecided as of now.
- Expected CAS hours: 60 hours**

*: If you count, that's 12 weeks, but I do not want to take the week before our exams and our exam week. If needed, the Mega Project could probably be extended until maybe the middle of August at the latest; I don't think anyone wants it to go anywhere beyond that.

**: It'll probably be a lot more than this for some people.

- The batch is split into 4 groups, with about 24 students in each group.

Recent developments:

Saturday, 14/3/2009:
Hosni had told me that I should go and meet Pn. Azizah regarding this matter, as he said that she was experienced with homestay programs, in addition to having a lot of great ideas for projects like this. So on Friday, I ded. I asked her if she could help arrange a homestay program for our entire batch. So she talked about the various homestay programs in various places around Negeri Sembilan. The thing is, most of these homestays are planned entirely by the people in charge of it. It's sort of like a vacation, which I'm sure isn't what most of us had in mind when we voted for Roni's proposal. What I'm assuming most of the batch wants is the chance to carry out an activity that has some meaning.

Anyway, Pn. Azizah suggested another idea - one of her ex-students had a community project in mind. The idea is quite interesting, but it's honestly a bit too long for me to elaborate here. The main thing about it is that it will not be a one-off thing like what some people had in mind. If we go ahead with it, then we can expect to visit the area once every 2 weeks. The project will be in Guai, Pahang. There are 2 areas there that we will be working on. One is a Felda settlement, and the other is a kampung orang asli. The activities in the Felda settlement will mainly revolve around helping the kids in the settlement with their studies, along with motivational talks/camps. The activities in the kampung orang asli will probably be more along the lines of improving their living conditions - i.e. building stuff for them. In both cases, we will have to stay for a few days during the last portion of the project.

This is very, very different from what Roni suggested. Just to remind everyone, he suggested a Homestay together with giving motivational talks and tutoring for the children. It did not involve frequent visits.

Now, the problem. After meeting Pn. Azizah, we went and met this ex-student of hers later on. As it stands now, I had already agreed to go ahead with her project, because I believed that what we had in mind was something of a community program. It was only later after talking to Roni did I realise that I did not properly explain Roni's proposal to Pn. Azizah.

You may now be wondering why I'm posting all of this. Well, I already agreed to do her project, believing that it was in our batch's interests. However, it is very different from what the majority of our batch had voted for, so some of you may not too happy with what I did. So, with that in mind, I'd like to get your opinion regarding the entire predicament. It is not too late to undo what I did, but I really need to know what the rest of you think first.

Oh yes, if everything goes according to plan, we will have another meeting on the Tuesday after we come back from our holidays to discuss the project. Until then, please post your thoughts here, or give me (or any of the other IBSB committee members) a call/sms.

Edit:

For Roni's project, what we need to do now is to find potential places in Malaysia that we can go to. It's better if the area is a kawasan pedalaman. After we have found the places, the next step is to contact the school in that area. Talk to the PK HEM or Guru Besar / Pengetua, and explain that we want to have a program in the kampung. What we'll be doing for the program is giving a series of motivational talks + academic talks / other "fun" activities in the day, and after we're done, we'll go back and stay with them in their houses. Have this program only with the parents who are willing to accept some our students into their homes (yg program kat skolah boleh ngan semua murid kat tempat tu, tapi masa nak balik ngan tidur tu kena ikut parent2 yg rela ngan kehadiran kitorg je..).

The places should (preferably) be in Semenanjung Malaysia, but if a group wants to go to Sabah/Sarawak, that's ok as well...it's just that you guys will have to find a way to raise the funds yourself. :P

18 comments:

  1. sowie...
    whats the real big difference?

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  2. yang aku paham from what iski said...
    da big difference is that we don't have the chance to handle the project all by ourself...
    by joining the ex student project, we are only one of the volunteers that corporate to make the felda project a success....
    i think la...

    neway...i'm going for the original homestay project by roni...

    ishki, hope u can explain more about the homestay project...da steps towards the project ke...wat evala...

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  3. erm. the main thing is yes, we can do the homestay thingy, but most of these homestays are planned entirely by the people in charge of it. It's sort of like a vacation, not community services from us. so we cant fulfill our CAS element lah. kan2.

    so iski, can u explain more bout pn Azizah's and the ex students idea? =)

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  4. er, hentam sajer.. asal dpt cas hours sudippp

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  5. salam..ey regarding to the 4 groups dat has been distributed..would u inform who is incharge and list out all the members for each group respectively..bcause some are still wandering on which group they are in.. tankyu

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  6. iski, we really have to xplain to pn azizah our main idea of the homestay thing, it's not the typical homestay like the malay department planned b4...

    neway, bout the felda project, is it a joint project with another association or whatsoever or is it will be our own project??

    ps:forgot to include "what not", hihihi...

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  7. oh maynnnn...
    cant we jjust do it without getting advice from any teachers or adults?

    i mean no disrespect, but adults seem to think that we are incapable of thinking what is right and what is wrong for us.

    its good tho that she wants to help us, but really, i think us all(the whole of batch 4) brainstorming together-gether, we CAN come out with grand plan.

    PS I miss cp's choc waffle dy.

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  8. aku setuju ngan abang paan hensem.
    bantai je. dapat cas, pastu tulis berjela2 hours macam list groceries 1000ringgit.
    yeah.

    lgpon dengar cerita cas hours yg kita kebanyakannya tulis ada 100jam lebih dah (kalo encik suwandi tak cantas banyak aa)
    so y bother sgt. huhu.
    kalo cas hour lebih leh gi study kat bulan ke?
    ngahahaha.
    seronok2 je.

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  9. First thing is that the term "homestay" make teacher think it is more like holiday rather than community service.
    Kedua: Aku rase boleh je program yang kite sume dah undi tapi kene pastikan cikgu paham ngan ape yang Roni maksudkan.
    (Program kat Felda tu pon cam best je.....)

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  10. @Blade: The activities that we'd do under Pn. Azizah's project would be handled mostly by us, but there will be some activities and programs that will be done by ansara, and not us (eg. motivational talks for people our age. we would do the talks for the younger kids.). I'll add in what we need to do for Roni's program to the main post.

    @aini: Ok. Jap ar, I need to message the group leaders first. It should be updated by tonight.

    @nabila: Ya. Lepas ckp ngan Roni, I had called her back to explain what the homestay project we had in mind was. She said that what we suggested wasn't really a homestay, but in any case, she said to go gather opinions from everyone first, then after the holidays, we'll sort this thing out. Ok, the project would be a joint project with ANSARA (from what I understand.)

    @ieqa: hahaha, I understand. Choc waffle? Ade ke? .__.

    @hazwan: Yes, I made that mistake when explaining the project to her.

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  11. iski oo iski..
    main dota jom

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  12. ansara???sounds familiar..tp ape r tuh???x igt...

    ps:zieqa2, mkn je ko nih...sbenanye ko rndu aku an...wee~~

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  13. iski...xpayah la tanya cikgu...nampak sangat kita x indipendent..haha..

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