Summary

Kidolympic is a sports day event which is mainly organized for the Orang Asli children. It provided a platform for them to learn some new skills such as leadership skills, communication skills and also teamwork. The main goal of this project is to make a change in the Orang Asli community by educating the children as they are the next generation of the community.

The Objective

• To promote love and care to the underprivileged children.
• To promote multi-culturalism 
• To provide an opportunity for the students to interact with and take care of thekids. 
• To allow the underprivileged children gain exposure.
• To allow the children gain new experience.
• Bring fun and laughter to the kids and at the same time build their personal skills

Other Fund-Raising effort

We manage to raise RM414 which is 15% of our budget through crowd funding as requested by Khind Starfish Foundation

How the Project actually worked

Parents For A Day 2017 – Kidolympic is a sports day that aim to provide a platform for the children of Perkampungan Orang Asli Sungai Judah, Pulau Carey to build up their sports enthusiasm. The children never had a chance to experience sports day due to the limited resources of their village. Hence, through this project they get to experience it and also gain exposure.

After getting sufficient fund, we started our planning and preparation for the event. We went to the village before the event to check out the venue and get information regarding organizing an event in the village. We were told to get approval from Jabatan Kemajuan Orang Asli (JAKOA) in order for us to organize an event in the village. Although, it takes quite some time to get approval from JAKOA, we still manage to get the approval in time. We had a few test games for all the games we playing with the children to ensure the flow of the event was smooth. Besides, we planned to give each children a medal and a goodies bag at the end of the event. Hence, we did came up with our own designs for the medals. As for the goodies bag, we bought some snacks and packed it ourselves.

On the event day, we brought a total of 28 volunteers to Perkampungan Orang Asli Sungai Judah, Pulau Carey. Before starting the sports day, we had a warm up and also Zumba dance with the kids lead by our committee. The events were divided into Senior Events and Junior Events.The senior events are Three Legged Race, 5 X 100M Run, and Tug of War whereas junior events are Three Legged Race, Ping Pong Ball Relay and HulaBall. Some volunteers were assigned to take care of a few children throughout the sports day. Before we leave, we gave each children a medal, goodies bag and also a set of Mc Donald Happy Meal as their lunch.

Unanticipated Difficulties

Although we did a lot of planning and preparations for this event, we still faced unexpected difficulties on the event day. We didn’t expect the field was full of cow poops so we did not bring tools to clean up it. But under the hard work of our volunteers, we manage to clean up the field with limited resources such as newspapers and garbage bags. Besides, the weather was also one of the uncontrollable elements. There was a rain the night before our event, hence the field was damp and muddy. The weather turned extremely hot around 10 o’clock in the morning, and this forced us to speed up the schedule of the event as we did not want any of our volunteers or the children get heat stroke.

Budget Constraints

We did not face much difficulties in this part as we have gained supports from Khind Starfish Foundation. We maximize the funds we get from KSF in organizing this project.

Language or cultural barriers

We did face some language barriers as most of the children only know Bahasa Melayu and our volunteers cannot speak fluent Malay. Some of our volunteers are from Indonesia, hence they didn’t know Bahasa Melayu. Although there’s language barriers between the children and our volunteers, they still manage to bond well and have fun with the kids. It didn’t cause much problems to this project

What worked well

Overall the event was a success. We successfully get approval from Jabatan Orang Asli Kemajuan to organize this event. The event went smoothly on that day under the teamwork of the team and also the cooperation of the volunteers. Some of our volunteers were assigned to take care the children throughout the event. Hence they managed to mix well with them. The children enjoyed all the activities we had on that day. The medals and goodies bag we gave them put a big smile on their faces. It’s indeed a tiring but meaningful day for everyone.

What didn’t work well

The whole event worked well as what we expected except the number of children what showed up. We expect around 120 children showed up on that day but it turn out only round 80 showed up. We solved this issue by cutting down the teams from 24 to 16. Some of them were late because they woke up late. But we still welcomed them to join us halfway although they are late. All these problems did not affect the flow of the event, it still went smoothly as we planned.

People who have benefitted

Main beneficiaries are the children in Perkampungan Orang Asli Sungai Judah. The children get to experience sports day which they did not have it in their villages. All the sport events that we had were designed to teach them soft skills such as leadership skills, communication skills and also teamwork. At the end of the event, we gave every single one of the children a medal to boost up their confidence level. We hope that things that they learned throughout this event could would benefit them in the future. Lastly, we provided a platform for the adults to spend time with their kids as they rarely had the chance for it.

Long term impact and sustainability

This project helps ensure sound mind and a healthy body, as well as encourage teamwork and good sportsmanship among the orang asli children. We hope through this project the orang asli community could continue practicing a healthy and active lifestyle be it individually or in a group.It is not impossible for an athlete from the orang asli community to represent our country in international sports competition one day.

Future of project

Parents For A Day is a semi-annual event of Sunway Students Volunteers. This event had passed down from term to term since 2013.Hence, we would definitely organize more events for the children in Perkampungan Orang Asli Sungai Judah, Pulau Carey in the future.

By organizing a sports days in a orang asli village, we managed to create a memorable day not only for the children but also their parents. The adults rarely spent time with their kids as they did not have the time. Through this sports day, we had closed the gap between the parents and children. We believed that this had contributed to the happiness of the families.

The time we spent throughout the events with the children would definitely contributed to long term happiness as this would form one of the precious memories of the children.

After organizing this project, we realize that we should always appreciate what we have instead of complaining what we don’t have. Besides, we should always give back to the community as we have always receiving it from others. You does not need to be rich to give back to the community, as long as u have the heart to do it, you will be able to do it.

Personal Statement

1. As the advisor for Sunway Student Volunteers, it's a great pleasure to have Sunway Student Volunteers partnering with Khind Starfish Foundation and seeing great community projects being made into reality through the funding. With Kidolympics, it is an event to help encourage Orang Asli children by bringing a sporting event to them instead of bringing them out to us. It's important for the Orang Asli community to know that they are still a part of the larger Malaysian community, and I believe the volunteers that were present not only brought joy to the children, but through this event, they promoted & encouraged peace & harmony among all Malaysians. (Alvin Dan, Advisor)

2. Kidolympic was a good platform for Sunway Students and the orang asli community to interact and enhance ties. It’s always not easy to get into a orang asli community but this project gave us a golden opportunity to mix well with them. Through this, we get to build a good relationship with them and this enables us to continue help them in the future. ( Wilson Woon, Organizing Chairman)

3. Through Kidolympics, we were able to bring happiness to little hearts of Carey island by helping them make wonderful childhood memories that were often taken as granted by us. They helped us to relive our childhood memories and most importantly, helped us to realize that happiness lies in small things. (Pratima Tamang, Secretary)