The main goals of MAYANG (Mentoring Anak Yatim Caring) project under Caring Club IIUM are to strengthen the ukhuwah or the brotherhood between the orphans and the Caring Club members as well as to increase their knowledge and self- confidence level. We expect that at the end of this programme, the orphans will show some improvement on their academic performance and moral behaviour apart from soft skills development from all six orphanages; Rumah Raudhatul Faeez, Rumah Penyanyang Nur Iman, Rumah Amal Permata Hatiku, Rumah Perlindungan Nur Qaseh and Rumah Kasih Nurul Hasanah and Rumah Kebajikan Anbu Illam.

To help support our project, we took initiatives to conduct fund-raising activities where we sell Caring Club button badges at the promotional booth during the member recruitment week. In addition, we managed to collect funds throughout Orphans Awareness Weeks on 5th to 9th October 2015, where we invited some vendors to sell their products and we charged them some fees for the space they took. At the same time, we collect donation for the orphans.

MAYANG project basically aims to assist the self-development of the orphans in terms of their knowledge and moral values. In this project, around 10 to 15 members of Caring Club act as mentors to the orphans for each mentoring session. Each mentor is assigned to respective groups of orphans to teach academic subjects which include Islamic teachings for Muslims while for non-Muslim, they taught them about manners and good values that should be practiced in their daily lives. To further develop some sense of belonging each mentor is assigned to the same group of orphans. This is important as we aim to closely monitor the orphans' attitude. Under this project, we choose to concentrate on the critical subjects for most of the students especially Mathematics, English and Science. Before we begin with the mentoring session, we first conduct placement tests for the orphans as to assess their level of understanding in all those subjects. To enhance a better learning experience for the orphans, we developed some teaching aids as we notice that kids can learn better in an interactive way of learning and give better attention to their learning process. At the end of each mentoring session, the mentors evaluate the orphans' performance using the evaluation form provided.

In conducting mentoring sessions, we face some difficulties. Firstly, we find it difficult to assess the kids’ academic performance due to their different academic background. From our observation, their level of study does not correspond to their age. In some cases, some kids are not able to read well even in their secondary school. One possible reason for this is that they started schooling very late. In conclusion, we have to exert more time and effort to dig out the root causes to their problem in learning process and find efficient solution to overcome it. Other than that, some of the Caring Club members are international students, hence they might face some challenges in speaking the local language here in Malaysia. We noticed that those members require extra effort to break the language barriers as to ease the mentoring sessions conducted.

Based on our observation, the mentoring sessions will be considered as successful depending upon the modules conducted whereby through interesting and effective modules (teaching aid), Caring Club members are more likely able to grab the kids' attention and hence give more impact on the understanding part of the learning process. Early preparation is vital to ensure that the mentoring sessions run smoothly. One of the most efficient ways to do so is via mass meeting which is usually scheduled weekly in a large scale across all the six orphanages' management team. This mass meeting arrangement enables us to pool ideas on developing new teaching aids as a team and hence result in a more effective mentoring session.

The orphans are the ones who got the most benefit from the mentoring sessions held. Apart from getting them to understand better the subjects being taught, the mentoring sessions have also boosted the orphans' soft skills and self-esteem. In addition, the committees also benefited from the programme where they can improve their soft skills in handling programme and the kids as well.

In the long-term, we expect to see gradual improvement especially in the orphans’ attitude towards knowledge, their moral behaviour in everyday life struggle and also their personal thoughts in the challenging world we currently live in throughout the mentoring sessions held.

We foresee that MAYANG project will be able to embrace successfully in the near future in the sense that it will generate a bigger impact to the orphans and Caring Club members as a whole through continuous effort to further improve the overall operation of the project which is in line with our project theme, ‘Strive for Success’. As long as we are able to create a strong bond among Caring Club members, we are very sure that we can definitely put extra effort in ensuring the sustainability of the project.

Our definition of happiness lies in seeing the orphans' good level of education as well as improvement in the orphans' well-being as a result from our tiny effort in conducting mentoring sessions at the selected orphanages. There is only one intention for our tiny effort; to create the sense of self-confidence among them as we groom them to be prepared mentally and physically to live their own life. Seeing them happy would be our real achievement. MAYANG project definitely changed the way we think about the world in a positive point of view. The orphans are among those who are special to us. Therefore, we carry a strong responsibility to shape their life towards a successful journey of life. Happiness in this case is of a long-term effect as the Caring Club members as well as the orphans build a strong sense of belonging among each other.

MAYANG Project gives every kid a chance in life and to change their future despite their condition through academic and holistic development because a hand that gives is better than a hand that receives. (Zakwan)