By Ainu Shafira
GOMBAK, 31 October 2018 – The International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) has advocated a ‘gotong-royong’ programme under the University Centre for Community Engagement (UCCE) with the objective to bring the university closer to the villagers living around the campus.
Such an event was held last Friday (26 October) at Sungai Pusu graveyard, officiated by the Rector, Prof. Emeritus Tan Sri Dzulkifli Abdul Razak.
The programme was intended to close the gap between the university and villagers living around the campus and to take into account the neighbourhood of IIUM. Besides cleaning up the graveyard, included in the programme was the planting of trees near the available waqf to provide a shady environment.
In his speech, Prof. Dzulkifli said that with programmes such as this, the university would be able to help local residents in several ways and this effort should continue to bring the campus community closer to the villagers around the university.
“Through the expertise that we have, we can help the people around the campus such as holding tuition and motivation programmes for the villagers’ children. Other than that, in programmes being held in the campus, we could also involve the villagers,” he said.
About 100 volunteers which included IIUM staff, students and the villagers came together to help clean the graveyard. According to the organiser, in the future, ‘gotong-royong’ programme may be held once a month.***
