2003 - 2004

Sheffield Malaysian Game 2004

Date: 20th March 2004
Venue: Goodwin Sports Centre, University of Sheffield

Goodwin Sport Centre was flooded with students who came for the SMSA annual event, Sheffield Malaysian Game 2004 (SG04). As early as 8.00am, the organising committee, all with red striking sweater gathered to start their busiest day - the finishing point since they started on the SG04 plan, about several months before. In the meantime, students who came from other universities constantly surged into the foyer and it was crowded - mainly at the registration table. The already hectic ambience became even more hectic when people started to meet their friends from other universities.

The game started about nine pass with all-girls game, netball commenced the SG04 day in the sports hall. Not as any other games, this game was made closed, only girls - from the players to supporters - were allowed to be in the hall. All other games started to take place on about 10.00 am. Other than netball, SG04 also organised football, tennis, chess, badminton, volleyball, tennis and ping pong.

I would say that Volleyball was the most happening game and full with encouraging voice from supporters especially during the semi final and final when Sheffield's teams from MASSOC managed to go up to this level - the hall was quaked and it was simply full with excitement… go Sheffield gooo!!.. However the team was defeated to Nott’s in the final. Congratulation to both of them, nevertheless we won the team supports!

The same goes with football team when one of Sheffield teams managed to go to the final but was defeated 1–0 to Leeds. Not as Volleyball, this final was quite dull especially after Leeds led 1–0. This may be caused by the cold, windy and a bit shower during the game and moreover, there was a semi final badminton took place in the sports hall where two players from MASSOC played.

Although there was a big supporters during the semi final badminton, but there was nearly none during the final. Why? It's magic.. hehehe… well, both players lost in the semi final to Leeds (which also 2 players).. so the final was extremely boring where both game (1 game was to determine the gold and silver and the other one to decide the third place) were played by players from the same university.

Besides games, SG04 was also acted as a platform for Malaysian especially postgrates family to do food business. A variety of Malay foods were sold during the day ranging from satey, nasi ayam, nasi impit, mee rebus, nasi dagang, nasi paprick and a variety of kuih muih. Yummy… what a mouth watering delicacies especially those who really missed Malaysian food. Not forgotten our undergraduates small stall in front of the sports hall who sold float and bun+ice-cream. Many said this is unfair but this is what we called marketing strategy! Ops!

SG04 finished on 8.00 o’clock in the evening with a heavy downpour. Before that, there was a prize giving ceremony inside the sport hall.

Optimistically, SG04 has brought forward happiness to the winning players or teams and a deep satisfaction to all the players who took part and also not forgotten the adherent supporters! Hopefully our motto – Unity through Sportsmanship could achieve its aim and indirectly unite all players and supporters in this one day event and the unity is hoped to last forever.

The perfume of roses will fade away, but the perfume of sportsmanship will forever stay. Congratulation to SG04 committee for this prestigious event!! All the hard work pay. Sekian, wassalam.

By,
Rosman Abd Rahim

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One World Day

Date: 17th March 2004
Venue: Student's Union, The University of Sheffield

One World Day at Union. The so called day seems to be unattractive and a bit boring. The participation from other societies were poor and there were only about 5 societies took part to promote their respective country. Other than Malaysia, there were Oman, India (Silk Society), Europe and STA travel booths. However credit goes to our booth, Malaysia as Ms Helen, the International Students Officer herself acknowledged our booth as the best!

Although it was a last minute notice, Ms Jia and friends who wore a complete baju kurung on that day (and of course jacket ;)..), managed to create an attractive booth which comprised mostly with books and leaflets about Malaysia – truly Asia, national clothes, traditional game - batu seremban, and also traditional food such as kuih seri muka, onde onde, lengkung and colourful kerepek. This is all done so as to promote our country to the international level and I believe this is the least we can do as students. Fortunately, there were quite a number of local and international students who came and visit our booth to collect some leaflets and booklets and to taste our foods as well. Many of them impressed with our white sandy beach (as displayed in the leaflets) and spectacular modern sight of the new government ruling area of Putrajaya.

By,
Rosman Abd Rahim

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Pre-Marriage Course

Date: 6th March 2004
Venue: Sheffield Hallan University Showcase

As early as 10.00 am, Sheffield Hallam University Showcase was occupied by not only Sheffield Malaysian students but also those who came as far as Lancaster and Manchester to attend a Pre-Marriage Course conducted by a MSD representative non other than Ustaz Mohamad Rahim Mohamed Abdul Rahman. It seems that all participants were very enthusiastic to know in depth this ‘munakahat’ knowledge and with a high spirit and determination, also with a pen and note book in hand, the course began its move later on with a kick off start by a short welcoming speech by our chairperson on that day, Mr Nabil.

The 7 hours course apparently being enjoyed by all participants as Ustaz not only covers from the Islamic point of view but also from western analysis and outlooks. At the end of the course all participants were given Pre-Marriage course certificate - an essential pass for marriage to take place. Therefore it would be much appreciated I guess!

It is hoped that this course would bring forward awareness and a wide perspective of marriage to be well thought-out by all participants. What a meaning of the marriage certificate if we simply close our eyes and easily forget all the knowledge that we have gain?

By,
Rosman Abd Rahim

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Akidah Reinforcement Course with Ustaz Rahim

Date: 29th February 2004

This half day program was successfully organised by Religious and Welfare Bureaus starting from 10am and end up on 1.00pm. There was a presentation given by our honourable guest speaker from Malaysian Students Department, Ustaz Mohamad Rahim Mohamed Abdul Rahman. In accordance with the topic of the talk, Ustaz Rahim had managed to speak on akidah from many outlooks commencing on akidah fundamental basis from our prophet - sahabat – tabi’in timeline to the current misconception and sects within Muslim community. Although this is the first time for Ustaz to give a talk on Akidah, in particular, the talk had managed to convey very beneficial and valuable information in line with the mission of this program, to reinforce and strengthen our akidah conviction.

By,
Rosman Abd Rahim

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Muslim Women Awareness Week

Date: 16th - 20th of February 2004

The Muslim Women Awareness Week has been successfully conducted from the 16th up until the 20th of February 2004. The whole week was filled with various beneficial talks by various guest speakers who came from as far as Nottingham, besides also having an ongoing stall set up at the Student Union Concourse. The main objective of the whole week was to create an awareness about issues concerning women in Islam. The organizing committee had also located a special day for which anybody who is curious in trying out the head scarf ‘To Give It A Go!’ which received quite an encouraging response! A lot admitted that it is comfortable wearing it, especially in this cold weather!

Excerpt from: Buletin An-Nisa' February 2004 Edition

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MECFair 2004

Date: 15th February 2004
Venue: Council Chamber, Octagon Centre

MECFair, which is an abbreviation for Malaysia Employers Careers Fair has been successfully conducted in the Octagon Centre, yesterday. Although there were no representatives from any company yet we have done it in a bit different way which is more like skills building courses. The program started at 11.00 am with registration and the collection of MECFair2004 booklet which were consisted of the advertisement of opportunities and vacancies in our virtual fair. Besides that, there were also sections about tips and personal skills development which are very useful as a guideline and for our reference in developing personal skills.

There were about 50 students registered for the event. At the beginning of the session, students were giving opportunity to have a look at a MECFair exhibition – all the advertisement about opportunities and vacancies in our participating companies held at the back of the Council Chambers room. The event was continued by a talk entitled Communication Skills presented by our honourable guest speaker, Miss Hazinah Kutty Mammi, a lecturer form University of Technology Malaysia. The talk was certainly very interesting, useful and alive!! Besides talk giving, there was also a game participated by all the students.

At about 1.00 pm we stopped a while for nasi lemak ? and Zohor prayer and the session started again at 2.00pm with a briefing about toastmaster program, presented by Mr Fahmi Abd Rahim, MECFair’s Chief Executive. This talk was like an exposure to the famous Toastmaster programme, which some of us may don’t have or lack of information about how it was conducted. SMSA Careers and development committee will be conducting SMSA Toastmaster program which will start not so long from now and for those who interested, you can register with Mr Fahmi directly or email to careers@e-smsa.com.

This event ended at about 4.00pm and certainly it was a worthwhile programme for those who are seeking job information and skill building tips. Special thanks to those who directly or indirectly showed their support for this event and I believed this event can be a good example and acts as a platform for any similar programme in the future.

By,
Rosman Abd Rahim

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Aidiladha - 10 Zulhijjah at Sheffield

Date: 1 February 2004
Venue: Karachi Store

Aidiladha – 10 Zulhijjah corresponds to 1st February 2004 – Alhamdulillah, thanks to Allah SWT for His mercy to let us met this year of Aidiladha. On the Sunday, some of Muslims SMSA members managed to perform their sunat prayer of Aidiladha at the Karachi Store while the rest at the Islamic Centre, as some of us were busy preparing for the exam. At Karachi Store, a very sharp and reminding khutbah was delivered by Abg Suhaimi was expected to wake us up - to realise the virtue of Aidiladha and apprehend the story of Nabi Ibrahim and his son, Nabi Ismail, all about their willingness to make sacrifices in a way that follow what Allah SWT instructed them. Fortunate to those who went to the Karachi Store, there were small ceremony held right after the prayer, this made us to feel the raya environment at home in the far away land.. :) There were performance from students of sekolah melayu and a short talk from the PMPMS president and announcements from the SMSA president. Special thanks to PMPMS for their contribution in preparing the mouth watering banquets all of which were very pleasing. After about an hour at the Karachi Store, some of us made a visit to the postgraduates’ houses. This is good to strengthen the bond between us especially between the post grades and the undergraduates.

By,
Rosman Abd Rahim

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Ice-skating Trip

Date: 19th - 20th Disember 2003
Venue: IceSheffield

Well, the so-called Winter Term is finally over.. we have gone through enough pressure, workloads and datelines… so, SMSA has taken an initiative to give a ‘treat’ to our hard-working and committed members – an Ice-Skating Trip!! About 21 of our members joined this trip, taking place in the one of the best ice-skating rink in Europe, the IceSheffield.

Maybe it was not a large group of people joined this trip due to several factors, but those who did join us were having such a wonderful time! There were people with mixed level of skills, some were really good, like an expert, and we also got some with their first time experience. The nervousness of skating on a slippery-icy surface changed into a fun and full-of-laugh moments when the beginners started to slip off onto the floor. The venue itself created an encouraging surrounding to them, with a large rink and colourful lights.

Hopefully we’ll have more time to have this kind of event in the near future. All participants seemed to enjoy the trip so much and they will never forget who slipped off the most that evening. Oops, was it me?

By,
Roziawati Che Abdul Aziz

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SMSA & PMPMS Raya Celebration

Date: 14 December 2003
Venue: Sheffield Hallam University Main Hall

SMSA together with Persatuan Masyarakat Pelajar Malaysia Sheffield (PMPMS) with collaboration from Sheffield Hallam Malaysian Society had successfully organised a big Hari Raya Aidilfitri celebration that took place at Sheffield Hallam Main Hall. This occasion started as early as 9.00 am, was managed to gather almost all Malaysian in Sheffield in a festive ambience where people come to meet each other after a long tiring day of studying and working. Initiated by a very impressive nasyid performance from SMSA and PMPMS members, the occasion went on by speech giving ceremony from some honourable guest including the Deputy of Defence Minister, YB Dato Shafie Apdal who was then the one who officiate the ceremony. Special thanks for his willingness to come to this special occasion.

Soon after the speech giving ceremony, it was the time for the entire guest to taste a variety of meals including special ‘raya’ food like ketupat, rendang, lemang, dodol and some raya cookies. There was also special roasted ‘daging rusa’, which was the main attractive repast for the event. It had been a long queue waiting for this meal and all at once kept the persons in charge busy?.

We were lucky because on that day, there were some representatives from one of the Malaysia broadcast station, Radio Televisyen Malaysia (RTM) who capture our cheer moment here in their video-cam. At the end of the session, we were all asked to gather together in front of the hall to shout as loud as possible – “SELAMAT HARI RAYA AIDILFITRI DARI KAMI DI SHEFFIELD” – while waving in front of the vid-cam. We were informed that they will screen this capture later on the local television show back in Malaysia. Although we are unable to watch our ‘show’ but hopefully our relatives in Malaysia would watch it and have an idea how do we celebrate our raya here.

The event ended on about 3.00 o’clock in the evening when all guest were dismissed. On the whole, the event was great and I believe that it in all give us sort of satisfaction and pleasure of celebrating Hari Raya Aidilfitri here in the United Kingdom. It is hope that the feeling of ‘homesick’ during raya is more or less reduces after this occasion. After all, many thanks and congratulation to those who were responsible to make this event a great success, especially to SMSA members and committee, PMPMS committee... all postgraduates’ family and not forgetting the Sheffield Hallam Malaysian Society and all the people who spent their valuable time to attend this event.

Recently, SMSA had also organised a small Raya event at the Broomhall community centre a week before the Raya Celebration at Hallam University.

Muslims Malaysian society in Sheffield celebrated 1 Syawal in term time where there were lectures and laboratories still on. Nevertheless, we managed to celebrate raya here by conducting open house (Thank you for all of your kindness), and visiting post-grades which mostly took place during weekend.

By,
Rosman Abd Rahim

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'My First Eid' Project

Date: 3rd December 2003
Venue: Mossbrook School, Norton, Sheffield

On the 3rd of December 2003, SMSA with a strong support from Community Support Group (CSG) of the University of Sheffield had successfully organised ‘MY FIRST EID’ programme for special children at Mossbrook School, Norton, Sheffield.

The event was called ‘My First Eid’ because for most of the children in Mossbrook School, this was their first Eid celebration with muslims volunteers coming to their school to celebrate this joyous day with them. The project was aimed at spreading and sharing the joy of Eid with the special children of the Mossbrook School. 15 SMSA members including the President himself, have participated in the event as volunteers to help the 77 special children in the school in making Eid cards. The children involved were children who have autisme, down syndrome and other learning disabilities.

CSG was very delighted with the outcome of this project and even asked SMSA to keep on organising charity trips such as this more often. Special thank you and jazakumullahu khairan kathira to all of the volunteers who have participated committedly for the project. May Allah bless you!

By,
Rosman Abd Rahim

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University of Sheffield Intenational Week

Date: 17th - 21st November 2003

SMSA had aggressively participated in the international week organised by the university from 17th November 2003 to 21st November 2003. the main objective of this event is to introduce our country, Malaysia to the local and international students. It seems that there are those who don’t even have a clue where Malaysia is, let alone its people and culture! (the most typical answer for this question goes along the lines, ‘do you know where singapore is?do you know where thailand is? All right then, Malaysia is the country between singapore and Thailand. Therefore, as Malaysian students who are indirectly representing the country, this can be considered as a perfect time to inform people about the uniqueness of our culture, traditions etc to the others.

The event lasted for 4 days, i.e. on the weekdays except on Wednesday. On the first day, we did the exhibition on Cultural & Language Exhibition. This was a great start as there were quite a number of students who came to our booth. Many thanks to those who are in charge of the promotion (who without any reserve, managed to distribute all the flyers, playing kompang in the crowd, holding the banner and even call out to others in the crowd, “come and try our Malaysian food!.. visit our Malaysia booth!!..” (Guess who said that? None other than the programme director himself, Mr Fahmi...congratulations!)

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that the main attraction on that day was our traditional food. Most of those who came did not miss the opportunity to taste our food.. Fortunately, all those food lasted long enough until the end of the show so that we could have a taste as well as we were all fasting. Alhamdulillah. Another interesting part of that day was that, there were also students who took the chance to learn our language.. I can say that the most popular sentence they learnt was ‘saya benci awak’. I wonder why?

On the second day, we had the Tourism & Architecture “Malaysia-My Destination” exhibition. We also did a screening of a P. Ramlee film at the Dales and some other exhibitions as well. We had two booths, one at The Dales and the other one was in front of the union shop. The one at union shop was very strategic and our booth managed to attract more passer-bys who took this opportunity to browse through the brochures and stuff. I myself could not help but feel very impressed with my own country... all this while I never really paid attention to various tourism sites and attractions in Malaysia. What can I say? Proud to be a Malaysian!

The third day, we had a Festivities and Traditional Games Exhibition at The Dales. This was fun as all of us were busy doing the demonstration with some locals and international students. We shared the room with the Mexican society, and surprisingly they also have ‘gasing’ similar with us!! What a small world. There might be malay who bring ‘gasing’ to mexico long long time ago or maybe its the other way round. ? This was what we hope to achieve from the international week – to get to know other countries as well.

The big event on that day was actually the Malaysian Sultan Coronation Ceremony. The coronation starts at 1.30pm, kick started by a performance of the traditional Malay martial arts, the pencak silat performed by the SMSA president and his deputy itself – Hazrel and Norazamyn. We had a great audience from students who passed by the compound. They gave a big applause after the pencak silat ended. Then, all of the ‘delegates’ together with the sultan departed to the stage where the formal coronation will take place. All the protocol was made simple so that people could follow through it easier.

The last day of the international week was to be a Malaysian History and Politics, Malaysian Stamps + Monetary exhibition. As usual the exhibition starts at 12.00-2.30 pm. Most of the things on display were mainly about the Malaysian history and politics, with the time line going a hundred years back-from Malacca era to the most recent computer and IT era. The development and the achievement that we have gained were also included. I am informed that many complimented on the stamps of the Petronas twin towers. Besides that, there was also a power point presentation on our technology like MSC, myCard, Proton, Measat etc i.e. all the Malaysian brand on the global market. We had also introduced some of Malaysia’s famous figures like Tun Dr Mahathir - our former prime minister, Jimmy Choo – the famous shoe designer and Michelle Yeoh – a well-known actress. It was also a refreshing outlook to see that a lot of people were actually interested in the political scene of the country. The overwhelming response on that day seemed appropriate as a big close that ended our exhibition for the international week.

All in all, the international week went smoothly after several weeks of meetings, agonizing preparations and rehearsals. Although there are rooms for improvement, it was a good show and everyone really enjoyed being a part of it. Congratulations to the coordinator, akak Farihan and Fahmi and all the committee members who was really committed in doing their work... you guys are really great! Not forgetting all the other SMSA members who took part in this event - who were willing to sacrifice their time and effort to make this event a great success. Hopefully this kind of event can take place continuously in years to come as platform to bring Malaysia to the eyes of the world.

By,
Rosman Abd Rahim

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Sheffield Ramadhan Conference

Date: 8th November 2003
Venue: Sheffield Hallam University, Main Hall

On the 8th of November 2003, SMSA in collaboration with Sheffield Hallam University Islamic Society, University of Bradford Islamic Society and University of Oxford Islamic Society have successfully organised Sheffield’s first Islamic conference-SHEFFIELD RAMADHAN CONFERENCE 2003.

This conference attended by almost 200 muslims from as far as York and Oxford was intended to serve as a platform to unite muslims as one ummah under Allah regardless of nationalities and races. With ‘EMPOWERING THE UMMAH’ as its theme, the conference highlighted Islamic issues from the very basic questions of Islamic aqeedah to the very real problems of muslim youth dilemma in practising Islam in the west. The conference tried to emphasise the importance for muslims to see Islam as THE SOLUTION and not simply as ONE OF THE SOLUTIONS to the problems faced by the world today. The invited speakers also succinctly articulated the need for us, muslims to be proud of our Islamic way of life and always see and believe that Islam is indeed the superior ideology of all.

The conference was concluded with a collective iftar fully sponsored by SMSA.

By,
Rosman Abd Rahim

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New Students Welcoming Ceremony

Date: 12th September 2003
Venue: Pakistani Muslim Centre

A ceremony has been held on 12 September 2003 to welcome the new students, either undergraduates or post-graduates whom pursuing their studies in Sheffield. This event has been successfully organized by SMSA and PMPMS at Pakistan Muslim Centre. Although this event is especially for the newcomers, a lot of seniors turned up too. This shows the eagerness of the seniors to help the newcomers adapting their life in the new environment.

The event started at about 10.00 a.m. SMSA president, Md Hazrel Asrar has been given the honour to start the event with a short speech. It was then followed by the president of PMPMS, Mr Masran Saruwono, to give his speech, before the representative from MSD, autie Siti took the opportunity to convey the message from MSD and from her personally to the new students and to the existing members as well.

After the speech, it was then the time for the newcomers to show their talent. They managed to make the spectators applaud with their great voices and harmony nasyids. It was then followed by the performance from the Malaysian children who have attracted the members of the floor by their great nasyids and the poet recitation seems so touching.

After the present-giving ceremony for the Malay school students, all the people quench their thirst with refreshing drinks and fill up their stomach with delicious foods prepared by the postgraduates. The menu that day was nasi ayam. The ceremony ended up at 2.00 pm.

By,
Rosman Abd Rahim

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Freshers' Day Out

Date: 4th October 2003
Venue: Peak District

Out to explore the nature - Fresher’s day out had been successfully conducted on Saturday, 4th October 2003 at the Peak District, a tranquil greenery located on the outskirts of Sheffield. This event is tailored especially for the new students who had just arrived in Sheffield, with aims to establish the bond between the seniors and juniors as well as between Sheffield and Manchester students alike (as this is also a joint-venture event with the Manchester Malaysian society). Apart from that, this event also serves as a platform for the seniors to share their thoughts and experiences with the juniors, besides giving out brotherly advices with hopes that the new students won’t be easily influenced by the free western lifestyle.

We departed from Bar One at about 8.00am and arrived 40 minutes later. The group from Manchester arrive soon after; hence further amplifying the already festive ambience. The juniors get to meet their ex-college friends, besides taking this great opportunity to explore one of UK’s favourite tourism site as first timers in this strange land. The seniors too, not to be outdone by their younger counterparts also took the opportunity to exchange anecdotes with fellow friends from Manchester... ‘X, you wouldn’t believe the workload I have for this term! Y, whoa, you look like you have put on weight! Eh Z, is it true you got engaged during the summer holidays? (Ah, the joys of reunion)

Although the weather on that day was darn cold (it’s freezing!), thank god we still managed to do most of the activities that had been planned.

In the morning we have a mentor-mentee session in which the students were divided into some small groups. This is the time for us to get to know each member in the group in depth. The methods vary, there was even a group who decided to make it physical...by using plastic hockey sticks as weapons of mass identification!

There were also some discussions conducted by the seniors to share their experiences and tips on how to excel in studies. Certainly a year worth of sweat and tears had groomed these seniors into wiser students (we hope!) This session last for about 2 hours and hopefully all of us had got its benefits and relay it to others.

Then, the long awaited adventure came. This is the time for all so us to explore the well known country side. We walked up the hill and did some sightseeing. Definitely, without doubt, the view was so beautiful especially the sight at the dam. As usual there’s cameras everywhere, operating actively at that specific moment, all with smiles up to their ears...such happiness.

In the evening, all of us got involved in a management game. The objective is to construct a device using just plastic straws to cover 2 fresh eggs so that only one of them will break when thrown up to the air. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that this is one of the most enjoyable activity of the day. Only one group had succeeded in fulfilling the game’s objective- although it seemed that in the beginning some groups (especially those groups who played football) was very confident that they will win the challenge. After that we all participated in a knowledge-based game, more like a trivia game hosted by our beloved SMSA president. The game aimed to test our general knowledge in many aspects including history, geography, Islamic knowledge and others.

After the Asr prayers, the organiser had actually planned to do one more activity, which is a war game but it had to be cancelled due to the bad weather (it had started to pour!). Hence, after some time at the souvenir shop (what’s a sightsee without visiting the souvenir shop for postcards and what-nots?), we headed back home.

I believe the event had gone smoothly according to plan although the time for preparation was limited. Good effort by our director – Mr Mohd Norazamyn though (Congratulations!). Although there are some flaws beyond the organisers’ expectation, it will serve as a good reference for others to organise any similar event next time in the future. All in all, the event was brilliant and hopefully all of the participants had enjoyed the outing greatly besides gaining some benefit out of it.

By,
Rosman Abd Rahim

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Welcoming New students

This year, more than 40 undergraduate students have come to Sheffield to further their studies in many fields such as engineering, medicine and accounting. In the name of responsibility and caring, SMSA has taken an approach to make their coming much more easier as for most of them, it will be their first time in Sheffield.

Some SMSA representative in Malaysia had contacted the newcomers to gather some information about when and where will they arrived. The other committee members who stayed in UK during the summer had contacted the MSD to get the information. They had also helped finding suitable houses for the new students to live once they are in Sheffield.

The first batch to arrive was direct entry MARA students. Wan Aidil Shahril as the director for this program went to Manchester to pick them up. For JPA and MARA students who arrived on 17th and 18th September, we have planned with the postgraduates to provide the transports to pick them up at the airport.

For temporary accommodation before they moved to halls and houses, some of the students have offered their houses. The SMSA members have also helped them in registering with the university, besides showing them the way around Sheffield.
Although we have some problems regarding the temporary accommodation for the girls, it was quite an interesting experience and we hope a lot more students will come to Sheffield next year.

By,
Rosman Abd Rahim

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Foster Family Project (Projek Anak Angkat)

Date: 15th - 19th August 2003
Venue: Kampung Kedah, Parit Buntar, Perak, Malaysia

The foster family project or better known as Projek Keluarga Angkat, (PKA) for short was held from the 15th to the 19th of August 2003 in Kampung Kedah, Parit Buntar, Perak. The first of its kind to grace the Sheffield Malaysian Students Association (SMSA), the project had not only attracted its home members but also other students from around UK and Ireland. The project is also supported by the Malaysian High Commission and the Perak government, who had been among the major benefactors of the project.

On day one of the project, the participants were given the honour to have lunch with none other than the Perak Menteri Besar, Y.A.B Dato’ Seri Diraja Tajol Rosli Ghazali himself! Accompanied by his wife and youngest daughter, his hospitality was something to remember and smile about. The participants were then shuttled to the residence of the District Officer for tea.

After a night's rest at the residence of Hj Mat Saad and family, the participants headed of to Masjid Hijau (Green Mosque) for gotong royong. The opening ceremony started soon after, officiated by the Menteri Besar. His speech was certainly a booster, somewhat a comforter for the participants who started to look a bit nervous at the prospect of spending 4 whole days with then a group of total strangers.

Then came the event that everyone was waiting for! (no, not lunch) the giving away of participants to foster family! It went without a hitch; everyone was paired and given off to their respective families. Only after all the excitement ended everyone had lunch (which was prepared whole heartedly by gotong royong among the participants and the villagers).

So the life with the new family began....
There is no formal activity schedule for the afternoon, so the time was used to break the ice with respective foster families-getting to know each of the family members better. Activities varied from hanging out beside the paddy field to sightseeing at the beach! It is only after Isya' prayers that some of the participants and their foster family members went to attend the opening ceremony of the Musabaqah (Quran recital), also officiated by the Perak Menteri Besar.

It is by then Sunday, and another gotong royong was scheduled to take place that morning, this time at the Simpang Empat mosque (which is a stone throw from Hj Saad's house). The participants were then given a briefing on their respective duties for the upcoming motivation programme for the students in chosen schools.

The next Dr Fadhilah Kamsah?
It was Monday when everyone had to leave home early to attend to the second major project-the motivation programme. The participants were divided into 2 groups, one group was assigned to SMKA Nibong Tebal while the other was assigned to Sek. Keb. Permatang Tok Mahat. The motivation programme took the whole day, but it is a day well spent as it had not only benefited the students, but the participants as well. It is viewed as one of the many platforms for the participants to polish their leadership skills as well as their communicating skills. A similar programme took place the day after, this time at both SMK Panglima Bukit Gantang and SMK Seri Perak. It is certainly an uplifting experience for the participants to have these students so enthusiastically hanging on to every word (of wisdom?) they say (and the autograph and picture-taking session before going back home).

Time to say good bye (Con Te Partiro...)
A small ceremony to mark the end of the 5-day project was held at Hj Mat Saad's residence. The mood was sombre as everyone reflected back to the times spent with their respective families. A short but sweet address was given by Hj Mat Saad before the participants went around and bid farewell to everyone. Not a few tears shed, not a few tissues spared.

In a nutshell, the project is certainly a worthwhile investment, not only to the participants, but also to the participating foster family as well. For there are some of the participants who had never set foot on a paddy field before, let alone fish alongside its waterline. Hence, this eye opening experience is really something to cherish, in years to come. >>>>> PKA photoes

By,
Nik Munirah bt. Nik Nasir

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