By Nur Alwani Ruslan
Crew members of IIUM.fm had recently collaborated with students of Kolej Komuniti Hulu Langat for a charity programme. The organiser of this programme was Madam Aleeka, a lecturer of the Kolej who happened to be an alumni of IIUM, a former student of the Kulliyyah of Human Sciences, majoring in Psychology.
This charity programme was held at Pusat Perubatan Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (PPUKM), Cheras. Some 18 students were involved in this programme; 12 students were from IIUM and another six students from Kolej Komuniti. The aim of this programme was to cheer up the children who had been admitted to the wards.
On the morning of the programme, crew members gathered at IIUM.fm studio to prepare all the necessary things to be brought to the hospital. In the meantime, the programme manager gave a briefing.
At the hospital, volunteers assembled at the children’s playroom located at the children’s ward to listen to a speech given by lecturer Khairul Anuar Baki and officers from PPUKM’s Department of Public Relations.
Khairul gave some information related to the university and the hospital in brief. Other than that, a veteran nurse of the UKM medical centre also gave a brief talk to all volunteers.
Volunteers were advised to follow the rules and regulations stipulated by the hospital. For example, they were not supposed to touch the patients as they wish unless they wash their hands before hand. They could only take photographs in the ward if the photos would not be published anywhere.
Volunteers who wanted to have a photo in the wards were asked to capture it from the back of the patients. This is because to hide the face of the children from being exposed in the picture.
After the photo session, the volunteers were divided into four groups. Each group were categorised by specific wards that had been chosen by the nurse. The four wards are Pediatric ward, Daycare ward, Respiratory ward and Surgery & Traumatic ward.
The Daycare ward is usually for patients coming and going out from the ward on the same day. This ward consists of infants and children only. For the babies, their mothers will be allowed to stay with them so that it would be easier for the moms to breast feed their babies.
The activities that were planned by the volunteers were storytelling, colouring, drawing and dancing. Unfortunately, only dancing activity could not be conducted due to the small room at the ward. It would be hard for the volunteers and the children to make a move easily. Thus, we changed the activity by paying a ward visit to those four wards and giving souvenirs to the patients.
On that day, three volunteers wore costume such as gorilla costume, spider man costume and superman costume to attract the attention of the children. The famous costume was spider man since the children were extremely excited to meet and greet the spider man. Some of the patients cried when they saw people in gorilla costume.
They were afraid to see the gorilla as the gorilla looked so real. The man in gorilla costume went to the Daycare ward while the man who wore Spider man and Superman costumes went to the Surgery and Traumatic ward and Respiratory ward respectively. Hidayah Salleh, one of the volunteers, was given the task to lead the story telling session in the Respiratory ward.
There were 15 patients admitted in the Respiratory ward but only three patients who were interested in the story telling activity. One of the children gave response during the session by continuing the story using his version. Although they were sick, they were excited to listen to the story and felt so happy when volunteers paid them a visit. Many toys and souvenirs were bought specially for them.
The charity programme ended at 4.30 p.m. The lunch meals for the volunteers were prepared by the hospital management. We also had an opportunity to have a mini birthday celebration for Madam Aleeka who will be delivering her baby in the near future.
As for the closing programme, the Public Relations officer gave a short speech. He said that this programme was good because volunteers were able to see how the children have been suffering from their diseases and fighting with pain at their best.
Undeniably, he said, this programme had made the children felt so happy. He also said that the society or any organisation should make programme like this to expose the life of the children while being admitted in the hospital.
Khairul and all the veteran nurses looked very happy because we managed to conduct a good programme for the benefit of the patients.
Meanwhile, Hidayah Salleh said she was happy to conduct a story telling session and felt excited to have another programme like this in future. In addition, she said this programme was able to let volunteers give lots of affection and attention to the children as the children felt so lonely being in the ward.
Vividly, this charity programme received many good feedback from the volunteers. They really enjoyed getting a chance to communicate with the children and they faced no difficulties throughout the programme.
Nonetheless, the volunteers were amazed with the spirit of the kids. Despite their hardship and pain, they survived so well. This could be equated with the warrior in the battle. But these kids have their own battle. They have to fight with the diseases calmly to continue living as other normal kids do. They should be called little warriors.
In Islam, to pay a sick person a visit is the best thing to be done by the Muslims. It is also stated in the Qur’an, Surah Baqarah verses: 156 “who, when a misfortune befalls them, Say: Surely we are Allah’s and to Him we shall surely return”. It means that everything happens is with Allah’s will.
Thus, this programme should be organised regularly by other people to let them know the kids’ feeling as patients in the hospital. Anyone could be a volunteer to pay a visit because the visit to the hospital matters where we could make the children feel happy.
People could visit the hospital from 8.00 a.m until 1.00 p.m for morning session. The evening session is from 2.00 p.m to 5.00 p.m.
For more information about the Medical Centre feel free to visit their website.***
Photos of Ibrahim