By Aini Nabilah Sharipuddin
GOMBAK, 9 August 2021: The Abu Hurairah Club uses the approach of hanging out with cats to help students who are stranded at university due to the pandemic in dealing with their emotional stress.
It meets one of the objectives of the club in providing a possible treatment for students suffering from depression, stress, or anxiety by providing the ‘Cat Bonding Therapy,’ which has been proved to improve the quality of life.
The advisor of Abu Hurairah club, Madam Zarinah Jan Yusof Khan said that “the cat’s very creation is a gift from Allah to mankind. I believed that spending time with animals is beneficial to people’s well-being because it acts as a therapy for people who are distressed which is called “Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT); the use of animals as a treatment approach to assist humans in healing and cure process”.
“I really feel happy when I play with them. The feeling of happiness as a result of having a cat as a friend, helps me to eliminate loneliness at campus,” said by Special Need Student, Nur Arif Jasmin.
Also acknowledged by the President of Abu Hurairah club, Nor Atirah Aisyah Hashim that “by playing with them, I am able to relieve my stress and overcome my frustration at being stuck at university”.
The club known with the slogan of “We Save, We Care” drew the attention of well-known nation television networks, Al Hijrah of the initiative in engaging with the cats to relieve students’ mental health.
The Deputy Rector of Student Development and Community Engagement, Prof. Madya Dr. Zulkifli Hasan, highlighted how this club successfully received an award at an international level known as the “RCE Recognition Award” from the United Nations University for its initiative in elevating the concept of human and natural sustainability.
Readers who are interested to watch the interview can do so here.***