By An-Nurshuhadah Khalil Â
“Jalinan Siswa Bersama Masyarakat Asli” or its acronym JASA, Â is one of the students organisations supervised under the community service unit of International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) which is known as University Centre for Community Engagement (UCCE).
The chronology of JASA’s establishment started in 1994 with JASAs first programme held at the Matriculation Centre (now known as Centre for Foundation Studies), IIUM Petaling Jaya campus. Until 17 February 2001, JASA was officially launched at Kulliyyah of Engineering, IIUM by Dato Norhayati binti Omar, who was the Chairman of the Social Action Committee, Society Development and Women Affairs. Membership of JASA has now reached 150 people. The main objective of JASA’s establishment was to create a club which focused on serving aboriginal community especially in Perak, Negeri Sembilan and Kelantan.
JASAs programmes can be categorised into three, which are Ensino, Mentoring and JASAs Outreach Project. Ensino is a programme focusing on aboriginal children. This programme aims to help improve the education of aboriginal children by organising tuition classes once a month for them. Until now, Ensino has been held at Bukit Bandaraya, Shah Alam. Besides focusing on aboriginal children, the mentoring programme emphasises on developing their leadership, talent and soft skills. Outreach Project is one of JASAs main programme usually held for three days or one week. This programme involved all the villagers in the villages visited including elders and children. Until now, JASA has organised 13 programmes for last year’s session which included Ensino, mentoring and Outreach Project.
œOneness in Challenges (OIC) is one of JASAs Outreach Projects which was recently held at Pos Tohoi, Gua Musang, Kelantan. It was held on 14 until 20 January 2016. During this programme, many activities were held such as Ziarah Mahabbah, module with aboriginal children and parents, and mentoring with students of Sekolah Kebangsaan Tohoi.
During the visit session, we also distributed rations such as rice, flour, clothes and other basic things for their needs. Besides, representatives from Pejabat Kesihatan Daerah Gua Musang and National Registration Department of Malaysia (JPN) were invited to offer their services to the villagers of Pos Tohoi. Through this programme, the participants were able to know the aboriginal community better and to learn how to help others in need. In addition, they can train their leadership skills and practise their communication skills according to the culture and level of their target.
JASA has several objectives which have been the basis for every community service planned. One of them is to help improve the level of education among aboriginal community. This is in agreement with our vision to bring at least one aboriginal children to study here at IIUM before 2023.
JASA club also has a mission to develop well-rounded aboriginal students who are knowledgeable, excellent in soft skills and possess good moral values. JASA club has its long term aim to be a club which can help aboriginal community in many aspects, such as education, religion and economy. We also hope that JASA can be a role model for other club to help aboriginal community.
Lastly, we hope that our effort will be supported by others. In addition, programmes like the above can also be organised by other organisations so that we can together help improve the living standard of aboriginal community.
(The writer is the Secretary of JASA’s Outreach “Oneness in Challenges”)