By Quraibah Razak
It’s a two-day and one night programme organised by Caring Club, IIUM involving 31 participants in a mission to bring happiness to the orphanage in Kedah.
Caring Club is one of the clubs under CENSERVE, IIUM that focuses totally on the welfare of the orphanage. The Club has basically divided its projects into two; Mayang and Jaring. While Mayang project focuses on closest orphanage houses, Jaring project on the other hand, focuses on orphanage houses that are located outside Kuala Lumpur.
The Jaring project may take the Caring members to the orphanage houses in other states.
The journey to the North is one of the biggest projects under Jaring and this is the first time that this project took place in the North. It was a successful project as it left with fond memories for everyone who participated in the programme.
To Kedah We Go
A total of 31 members of Caring Club signed up to join this programme. They were divided into two groups where 15 members, including the writer, were placed in Rumah Nur Hidayah while the rest were put up at Rumah Darus Salam.
The expedition began at 12 a.m sharp with the departure of IIUM bus. As we were about to arrive our destination, the sun rose and I was awake to see a wonderful scenery in front of my eyes. I was amazed to see the beautiful paddy fields along the road. It was my first time in Kedah and witnessed the beautiful sunrise at the paddy field.
As soon as we arrived in Kedah, we stopped by at the nearest Rest and Recreation area to clean up ourselves and had breakfast before we reached Rumah Hidayah and Darussalam.
The Orphanage Houses
Rumah Nur Hidayah is an orphanage built for female members only. It consists of the poor and the orphans. Meanwhile, Darus Salam is focusing on tahfiz education and consists of male students. Both are located in Kupang, Baling, Kedah.
As soon as we reached the place, we received a warm welcome from the founders of the house, Mak Long and Pak Long, and also all the students. We arrived at Rumah Nur Hidayah around 9 a.m and we were given breakfast with a variety of delicious cuisines prepared by them.
After we had our breakfast, the agenda kicked off at 10 a.m with the committee members along with the orphans took part in the activity held at the futsal court nearby and owned by the founder of Rumah Nur Hidayah itself.
Since the writer was placed at Rumah Nur Hidayah, hence the activities of two days and one night focused mainly on Rumah Nur Hidayah. Basically the activities are quite the same in Rumah Darus Salam.
The first module that we used was ice breaking games. It was conducted with the aim of getting the kids to be comfortable with us. Throughout the games, everyone has to introduce herself and give one trademark to represent her. Although it takes a little time and drags a few minutes but it turned out that the bonding between the orphans and the Caring members were close-knitted. Then, we proceed to other games to enhance the relationship between us.
At noon, we were surprised as we had been invited to a wedding reception which is located near the orphanage centre. Mak Long is the one who invited us to attend the wedding reception. At that moment, we did not feel that we were in a programme but we felt that we were part of them and it feels like going back to “kampung”. Our bond tightens and the kids started to show their true colour to us.
After the wedding reception, we were back to our programme and the activities were quite leisure this time. The kids were divided into four people per group and the committees were assigned to each group to make it easy for them to handle the kids.
Then, in the evening the committee members and the kids were playing at the front yard. The game called “Bang Bang Bom”. It was a fun and tremendous game that made everyone ended the day with laughter.
Later on, the night module began at 9 p.m after Isya’ prayer. This time, the kids were asked to draw their dream island and it could only consist of five buildings. The activity was to challenge the kids’ mind on what is important things they put in priority.
Then at 11 p.m, the kids had sharing moments with the sisters and the brothers as late night conversations, late night memories are better conducted at night. We ended the night with beautiful memory of the day.
Top Tree Walk
The next morning we brought the kids to Sedim for a small trip. The kids both from Nur Hidayah and Darus Salam were gathered at Sedim and we began the activity around 11 p.m.
Sedim is a recreational park and there is lot of fun activities provided there. Our mission of the day was to bring the kids to the Top Tree Walk. It was one of the unique and fun activities that could be made by every range of age as it is not dangerous.
Top Tree Walk is a 925meters worth of nerve wrecking height among the trees. The structure used for the Tree Top Walk in Sg. Sedim is built onto the ground. Unlike the canopy walk in Taman Negara that is built between natural trees, this Top Tree Walk gave us more confidence in terms of stability and built.
The Top Tree Walk in Sg Sedim is built using really huge metals, with railings and bolts at sizes I had never seen before. One got to have the stomach to take in the heights and occasional ‘swaying’. It is almost a one-kilometer walk and the height may actually make those who are afraid of height freeze.
Height is one thing although the structures is built on a solid foundation, I personally still felt the walkway sway at certain span of the bridge. This happens whenever there is a strong wind and also when there is another walking heavily along. Along the walkway, there are many labels and signs indicating how high you are from the ground. Seriously it is very high, some places more than 10 meters.
After the Top Tree Walk, we had a closing ceremony there and everyone is back to the place where they belonged to. As for the Caring Club members, we were heading back to IIUM and safely arrived in IIUM at 1 a.m in the morning. Though it was tiring but was a good memory to be kept in everyone’s heart especially those who participated in the program including the orphanages.***
Photo by Nur Ashrani