Projek Genggam celebrates IIUM Silat Seni Gayong Club anniversary

by Nayli Halim

GOMBAK, 25 May 2024: Projek Genggam, a project organized by IIUM Silat Seni Gayong club, held a launching ceremony this afternoon, celebrating its anniversary. IIUM’s Mini Auditorium, where the ceremony was held, witnessed a number of participants who were members of the Silat Gayong club from various universities such as UPSI, UTEM, MAHSA and CFS IIUM Gambang.

Projek Genggam, a product of collaboration between four universities’ Silat Seni Gayong clubs and the Silat Seni Gayong Gelanggang Kumbang Hitam Training Centre, was organized with the aim to spread the knowledge of self-defense to selected orphanages in Malaysia, specifically, in Perak, Selangor, Pahang and Melaka. Joined by 50 participants, the project will be conducted twice in two weeks from May to September 2024. This project was deemed beneficial and enlightening due to how it will ensure engagement with the community, particularly the orphans.

The ceremony began with a speech by the president of IIUM Silat Seni Gayong Club, Muhammad Akmal Abdullah. He highlighted in his speech that aside from the primary aim, which is to spread knowledge, the program is also targeted to refine the bond between Silat members inter-university, regardless of their background. Then, the ceremony continued with a speech by the club advisor, Tuan Fazrul Wahid bin Zahari.

The advisor, who is also a Silat Seni Gayong teacher himself, complimented the initiative taken by the club to broaden the knowledge of Silat to the members of society. He also commented that this program serves the function of ToT which is ‘training of trainers’ as the program that trains the members of the Silat club to hold the role of teaching the martial art themselves. Moreover, he also delivered his hope in the speech where he emphasized that through this program, the birth of future practitioners as well as the teachers of Silat, might be realised. He ended his speech by praising the organizer and the ceremony proceeded with a Silat performance by the club members from all the universities involved.

The event then progressed with the speech of the final VIP guest invited, the Deputy Rector of Student Development and Community Engagement of IIUM, Professor Dr. Akmal Khuzairy bin Abd Rahman. Similar to the previous speech, he congratulated the efforts and highlighted the value of Silat as a cultural tradition of the Malays that should be upheld, cherished and protected so that it will not be claimed by other cultures. He also made a point that education is treasured by orphanages, as it is not an everyday occurrence that people taught them Silat for free. As a result, this project will be very worthwhile for the orphans as they can gain more knowledge and skills that might be useful for their future.

He then further concluded his speech with a reminder that small things might be valuable to others and thus the project will be a valuable experience both for the participants as well as the orphans. He proceeded to launch the project, which was celebrated by a big enthusiastic round of applause from the audience. He also handed over the certificates of appointment to all the representatives from each university therafter. With that, the ceremony ended, leaving the Silat members with a renewed and heightened spirit to realise Projek Genggam.

Prior to the ceremony, an induction day for the participants was conducted at the IIUM female sports complex as means to expose and brief them about the entire project and also on how to manage the young orphans. They were also briefed about a few specific procedures that may happen during the program such as emergency cases and injuries.***