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