Community Service is a form of service learning.
Service learning is basically using curriculum to help foster a sense of care and concern among students for their community and the world at large. This can be your village, an orphanage or a distant dying species. In the process of recognizing and taking steps to meet the needs of others, we will enhance our creative, critical and reflective skills. More importantly this module will help develop your personal and social responsibility. We will learn through participating in a service experience and you will have the opportunity to use your skills and knowledge in real-life situations. We will be exposed to community needs and experience caring for another person and learn about the resources available to people for revitalizing their communities. Finally, we will have the opportunity to develop basic knowledge and skills in community service strategies, tactics, and techniques, including the art of volunteerism.
_____________________________________________________________
In this project, our group of 10 was in charging in outdoor duties which requires students to complete min 30 hours of unpaid community work of a personal service nature in a non profit organisation.
Our group decided to visit Kompleks Penyayang Bakti ( Jabatan Kebajikan Masyarakat Malaysia) located in Bandar Sri Damansara for community service and social service career exploration. The special thing about our group is we all is female doing the hard work for outdoor duties, and we had prove the power of girls! Because everything boy can do, girl do better. However, in the following I will explain every progress of designing outdoor furniture which done by our group.
STEP 1: Idea discussion (2 hours)
Self Reflection:
By doing this service has bring me the great way to get involved with the community. I had aware of the responsibility of every individual to the wider community. I get to analyse what their needs for their home and get to understand their lifestyle so that we would reflect the great experience during designing this 100% handmade outdoor furniture. I believe there are always people that looking for help and it is usually easy to find a way to help. Even just the step 1 is already makes me so excited about this projects and made me feel like a better person for helping someone in the community.
_________________________________________________________
STEP 2: Discussion on material and budget (1 hour)
Work within budget is hard and this is why we have to discuss and planning what should we prepare for the next step which is purchase materials. We planned and research online about where we could we can find the materials for our outdoor furniture. For example, the wood planks, cement, spray paint and etc. I suggested my group mates to come over my living area which is Kepong because every materials that we need hide in here. Usually we choose to discuss during the end of class and short discussion about the progress date and time for next meeting. We listed down the materials that we going to purchase and make sure we don't miss any small little things.
Self Reflection:
I had learnt the basic skills which are communication and teamwork skills. This task had enhance our every meeting experience by planning and meetings that takes experience of idea, installation knowledge, and attention of environment concerns. For example, since my group involved in outdoor which include landscaping projects, so we have to consider about the durability of bench wood after 5 years, functionality and so on.
_______________________________________________________
STEP 3: Source materials (6 hours)
We begin our journey in Kepong and the first shop that when is ... We reach there around 12pm and started to look for color spray. Choosing the color make us so vexed, at first we try and mix and match within warm color, but in the end we select the pastel color for every flower bottle pot because we agree pastel color is more suitable to the existing environment of our project site. However, we also found nails, rope, joint wood and lacquer. The workers wait us patiently and giving us the suggestion about the length of joint wood.
After that we been to look for ventilation blocks and cement for our bench. It really not easy to search that due to quantity and discontinued production. We been through 4 shop in Kepong to search for that, but still unsuccessful. But luckily Jia Yi's friend had suggested us to visit a accesory shop which called Lysen hardware shop and tadaaaa, we found it! Our group is like so gladness and excited when the moment we found the ventilation blocks. Thanks God, we can smoothly proceed to other place and get other materials.
The tragic things is all the materials that we found have to fit in my car including long wood blacks, cement and sand, and 4 block of ventilation bricks. I can feel my car tyre was sink and the interior was messy and dirty. The picture below shows the moment when we try to fit everything in my car, this had also improved our problem solving skills.
The last station of the day is to search for flowers and plants from SunSet Garden Concept location in Sngai Buloh, Selangor, The workers here is friendly, he helped us look for some low price plants yet beautiful and easy to maintain. We were so exciting when we get in here, the landscape is so beautiful and surrounded by all those greenery and plants that we never see before.
We had discuss about the mix and match of plants for our beautiful flowerpot and what we actually trying to do is work under budget because we had spend quite a lot before this. In our final final decision, we choose to use four types of plants/ flowers and we requested them to keep for us until the activity day.
Self Reflection:
The journey with my group mates is full of joys, we get to enhance our teamwork and collaboration in each progress, and resulting in good planning process by exploring the materials and discussion of project ideas. This projects helps me build a memorable volunteer experience, I am so thankful to meet all the community partner and workers from all the shop that we been visiting during the sourcing material journey. Without them, we couldn't work smoothly like this. They made me feel good because was someone they looked up to and I also had the ability to help them with anything they need. We managed all the logistics of built up our furniture, timing and supplies from different shop. I had so much fun of doing this, and I can't wait for the next meeting!
_____________________________________________________________
Step 4: Work on Flower Bottle Pot in University
In the next day, we all gather in our studio which is E5.15 for doing our pre-done flower pot. I was in-charging in bottle marking, every dotes should be follow the measurement and make sure every bottle have the even size. After that, we past the bottle to Wei Xin and Jia Yi, both of them will help us to drill holes on the bottle according the dotes that we marked. The holes of this bottle is used for hanging and plant growth purpose.
After the bottle had been grilled, it will past to Vivian and me for bottle cutting. We draw a outline in the bottle using 0.6 Artline pen, approximately 1/3 of the side surface for add it soil and plants. We work close to each and another, the progress is fast yet systematic. Everyone of us in-charge in certain duties and we ensure appropriate progress setup and keep our studio clean.
After cutting, we give the bottle to our Spray Girl, which are Susanti and Phaik Yan. Every bottle have to be tinted with beautiful appearance using spray paint. In my imagination, all the bottles was lying on the spray table just like 'colorful BBQ satay' and waiting for the next layer of color.
After the spray paint on the bottles was dry beautifully, we placed it on table and started to tie with hang ropes. First we have to get a fixed measurement and then we only can applied to the following. However, color arrangement is also important, we discuss about the position of bottle and sketch it using color pen to get the rough idea.
After everything was well prepared, we all were exhausted yet excited for the installation next day. (Pray hard, it won't rain tomorrow..)
Self Reflection:
Looking at those colorful bottles makes me feel warm in my heart and I hope for the people staying there will feel it too. I learnt to be more sufferance when working within a group, understanding people idea and giving suggestion whether it work or not. Because I believe helping anyone in the community no matter how small or whether are with a group or not, it is the idea of community service. I truly appreciate everything that we done and the effort that spend one this projects.
___________________________________________________________
Step 5: Went to Kompleks Penyayang Bakti and start
installation
Before I get to meet my group mates, I went to collect the plants that we order before from Sunset Garden Concept. My car was filled with majority of the materials that we going to installed on site. After I done the payment and checked the quantity of planters, I heading to Kompleks Penyayang Bakti for on-site assembly and beautification projects.
When the moment I reach our site, all my group mates was helping me to move out all the materials from my car. We worked collaboratively as a team and helping each other when moving heavy stuff. However, we started to clean-off our site especially remove the weeds and rubbish around.
After cleaning up our site, we divided our group to two which is one for planting and one for bench making. My duties was putting plants and soil in each bottle and arrange the plants nicely. Mixing up the soil is what I learnt, it seems like easy but actually not. We divide one of the planter and the soil disperse and then mix with other soil. Afterwards, we plant the flower in every bottles and make sure the bottle is not overweight. Besides, Samantha suggested to spread some coffee grounds as fertilizer. This will make our plants growth lush and beautiful.
Susanti helped us to hammer the nails on the bottom of the summer house to hang bottles planter. She was suffering the pain while doing this, because her finger have to hold the nails and another hand have to hit it using hammer. Most of the time she was hit by herself. " Kesiannya.... "
After the nails installed and bottles filled with soil and plants, we start to hang it up according to our color arrangement as planned. We all work together, hand in hand, together beautifying the Pondok. Everyone of us playing an important roles during installation process, some people help to hold the bottles, some of us look the balance and some of us truss it up. After all the bottles is hanged, at the last part of the rope we tied with joint wood to fixed the position.
In another side, some of them were arrange the ventilation blocks for outdoor furniture making. About the location, we decide to build it beside our Pondok and arrange in pair with a wood as table. They mix up the cement with water and sand, stirred it and applied on ventilation blocks, and then get on with another ventilation blocks.
However, Phaik Yan helps to grind wood planks using paper to make the smooth surface. After that she mix up the lacquer and thinner and applied on wood surface so that the sitting bench can last longer under the sun and strong solvent as well. Apply an layer of thinner can also help to thin down the sheen or gloss and clean surfaces.
After the cement was dry and rugged, we start to install the bench using the wood planks that finish tinted with lacquer. The residents were so helpful by helping us to adjust the wood in a correct position. They are super excited when we done the installation and can't wait to sit on it...
After both of the furniture are done, we start cleaning up the area especially in the Pondok that we messed it up while making the bottle planters. The staff is so kind, he borrow us a broom so we do not need to pick up the rubbish and soil by hand. Of course, we never forget the garbage classification. We throw the old newspaper in one paper box and then plastics garbage in another plastic bag. We together do the clean up and move our own appliance to car. Make sure we don't leave any rubbish in here.
At the end of the projects day, we took a group photo together with our beautiful recycle bottles planters and wood bench. So much satisfied with our outdoor furniture, thank you to all my group members, appreciate all the effort that we spend on this.
Final Product :
Self Reflection:
This 30 hours of community service has taught me a great deal and been through a very wonderful memory and experience. In a short word, I really enjoy my time at the Kompleks Penyayang Bakti, it give me a very eye opening and great enjoyable experience with my group mates. I have learnt so much especially basic needs of society and have the opportunity to work with inspirational people. In another hand, this volunteer work has meant more to me than a bunch of hours recorded. As a student from Taylor's, this CSI projects has broadened my awareness of others community, exposed me to the beauty of diversity and strengthen me in appreciation of the honor of life. Thank you CSI...
Activity Work Log:
_____________________________________________________________
THE END
·
