By Amirul Nazmi Azrymi
GOMBAK, 21 April 2019 – Students facing tough times in campus have found comfort through ‘Project Feels’ at HS Seminar Room on Friday (19 April) when they were able to release tensions through writing.
Revolving around the theme ‘Safe Space’, participants were prompted with questions like “What is your safe space?” and “Why is it a safe space?”
They were then asked to write anything to answer the questions, and proceeded with taking one line from their initial writing to create another piece. This mechanism went on until a third round where they had to write as if in conversation with someone.
“A safe space is where you have full control,” said the session’s facilitator. The mini-therapeutic circle was carried out to provide a relaxing ambience designed to make participants feel at home and ease through writing.
Led by Umar Azizi, an established spoken word poet, 13 participants sat together comfortably in what is coined as a safe space for them to be vulnerable and pour their problems and feelings into writing and poetry.
“The reason we chose to do this project is because we saw how people nowadays always go to social media, so we witnessed how they actually have mental issues especially regarding university life.
Hence, we came out with an initiative to invite our students who are facing hard times to share and let go of the things bugging them at this moment. This also served as an encouragement for them to write and share, should they wish to do so,” said Ain Nabila, the co-manager of ‘Project Feels’.
‘Project Feels’ is an initiative by students of LE 4501, Language for Occupational Purposes class, as part of their semester assessment managed by Nur Amira Jeffrey and Nur Ain Nabila ***