By Dewi Amira Dania
Each year when a new batch of students enters the Kulliyyah of Medicine at the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM), one of the first things that is established is the Batch Representative Committee.
The Committee of each batch consists of 6 bureaus in total: Academic, Islamic Care, Welfare, Entrepreneur, Sports and Recreation and Publication and Production. Each bureau would have a Head, main committee, and sub-committee members. A name is given to each batch of medical students in the IIUM with the 2021 batch or 25th batch named as Erudite by the students. The Head of the Erudite Representative Committee in academic year 2021/2022 was Muhammad Amirul Najmi Bin Abdul Aziz.
I was fortunate to be Head of the Bureau of Welfare in 2021/2022. The main committee of Welfare consisted of Amni Zuhayra Binti Mohd. Fuad (the Assistant Head), Nur Saidatul Nasuha Binti Rozaini, Khairunnisa Najwa Binti Mohd. Khairul Anuar and 18 sub-committee members. We made a great team.
The purpose of the Bureau of Welfare is to provide students with support and help care for the wellbeing of students through different events. Some events were recurring each year, and others were bigger events that were either done by the bureau itself or in collaboration with other bureaus.
As for the smaller recurring events, the Bureau of Welfare issued posters with quotes of the week to provide students with constant motivation; often quoting renowned people to help students remain inspired throughout the year. Another recurring event carried out by the bureau was sending out birthday wishes.
The Bureau of Welfare would customize a poster for each student in the batch when it was his or her birthday. The posters would then be posted in the batch WhatsApp group chat as well as on other official social media platforms. This allowed other students in the batch to be aware of each other’s birthdays and for everyone to celebrate and commemorate each other’s birthdays together.
A larger event conducted by the Bureau of Welfare was called Meet and Greet. This was one of the first ever events held during the first year and it served the purpose of allowing everyone to get to know each other. It was especially useful when classes were still being held online.
It allowed direct intake students to get to know other students in the batch and it also served as a great ice breaking event with lots of games. Another bigger event conducted by the bureau itself was the free food event. It was mainly initiated by the Medical Students’ Society (MEDSS) in the IIUM however, the Bureau of Welfare of each batch was in charge of organizing and ensuring that the food was distributed to everyone in the batch.
The food was donated by a restaurant in Kuantan called Nasi Ulam D’Pondok and it was an event that was conducted around 4 times a week for some weeks throughout the year. Even though the Bureau of Welfare was mainly in charge of organizing the event for the whole batch, everyone else in the batch participated and contributed to the event’s success by assisting in picking up food from the restaurant and ensuring that all students had access to the food.
Other events that the bureau helped in organizing was the Interbatch Games (IBG) as well as other events like the Erudite Assemble, which was like a family day event and Iftar Jamaie. Overall, the academic year 2021/2022 was a year filled with lots of fun and beneficial events whose main purpose was to bring students together. It was an honor to lead a bureau with diligent committee members. Wishing all the best to the next Head of the Bureau of Welfare for Erudite in 2022/2023!***