Summary of project goals with two sentences.

The goal is to teach school children about the value of long-term solutions that have a large positive impact on the environment in order to increase environmental awareness among the indigenous community. Additionally, create interactive educational materials and hands-on activities to instruct schoolchildren in environmental awareness.

Did other fund-raising efforts contribute to your projects? What were they?

Yes, in addition to receiving crowdfunding from the My Starfish Foundation, we also distributed advertisements to raise money for this initiative. As is well known, we have received a sponsorship of RM4000 from the My Starfish Foundation. In order to continue this initiative, we must use crowdfunding to raise RM2677.50 so that we can buy enough supplies to send to each indigenous school.

Provide details about how your project actually worked.

Phase 1 of this project is an ice breaking with the students, which includes a warm-up session and group distribution. Since the start of the activity piqued their curiosity, this activity truly aims to build positive relationships between the volunteers and the students in addition to boosting their moods. Following that, each group will proceed to Phase 2 (checkpoints). 

Phase 2 of the project includes six checkpoints: "Air pollution: A silent Killer," "Save our Mother Earth," "Oh My Ears," “Deforestation Games'',  "Microbes are everywhere," and "Terrarium Miniature Garden." For checkpoint 1, "Air pollution: A silent Killer," we asked the kids to wear foggy goggles while they walked down a track we'd laid out and collected the candies in a flour container. The activity demonstrates the difficulties that people face when air pollution is a crisis. Second, checkpoint 2, "Save our Mother Earth," was successful since we contributed food waste and soil for the creation of composting fertilizer. They can compost food waste and recycle trash with the aid of these strategies. 

The next checkpoint, known as the Deforestation Games, followed. For this activity, we provided a snake ladder and questions before the game began. This game will raise their awareness of the issue of deforestation. 

The fourth checkpoint, Oh My Ears, was then completed by using tools that could create noise and a whisper challenge. Through these activities, noise pollution technology is approached utilizing measurement tools to compare noise levels. 

The following checkpoint, checkpoint 5, is labeled "Microbes are everywhere," and at this point, we supply two glasses of water for comparison of the percentage of dirtiness and demonstrate germs on our hands using a microscope and a petri dish. This checkpoint serves as a reminder that water needs to be boiled and hands need to be washed before eating. 

The last checkpoint is Terrarium Miniature Garden, where we offer kids a nice theme to decorate the tree. This will encourage students to design and construct small gardens with less expenditure for upkeep. 

Last but not least, phase 3—Sustain The GREAT—includes a mini garden and a 3R Center. In this phase, the children learn about the many flower tree species we have provided and how to beautify the small garden at their school. Additionally, they will acknowledge all of their efforts. The 3R centre will help kids understand that waste needs to be sorted and can be recycled in order to stop widespread garbage disposal.

Were there unanticipated difficulties? Budget constraints?

Yes, there are financial restrictions when it comes to purchasing food. There is a lot of movement involved in the things we perform, so it takes a lot of energy. To complete this initiative, we also work with lots of volunteers. The students from the indigenous school also anticipate that we will at least occasionally supply meals. However, My Starfish Foundation did not provide us with a budget for food. As a result, we were able to secure funding from outside sources to provide volunteers and native schoolchildren with meals.

Language or cultural barriers?

We all attend the indigenous school, as everyone knows. Additionally, they have a unique dialect that makes us swoon when we hear that. Although they speak using their own dialects, they’re still speaking in Malay, which means that there are no linguistic restrictions and language barriers throughout the activity.

What worked well? What didn’t work well?

Phase 1, Phase 2, and Phase 3 activities are all progressing as expected. Additionally, time is carefully managed to ensure that students benefit from each activity accomplished and completed within the provisionally scheduled period of time. Due to this programme, we were also able to establish strong ties and create close bonding with teachers and students. They also wish that there will be a lot more events like this in the future. When we’re completing this project as a challenge, there haven't been any significant issues that we can't resolve and overcome as we always work well together.

**How many people benefited or will benefit from your project? Who are these people?

This project will help 200 pupils in total, or about 40 students from each indigenous school.

What is the long-term impact and sustainability of this project? Is there a future for your project?

The projects we have completed offer numerous long-term benefits for indigenous students. We start by instructing them on how to use recycling concepts and clean up water pollution. As you are aware, we have given recycling bins to every school and instructed them on how to sort the trash into the appropriate categories. Additionally, we urge students to recycle useful objects like tyres for use as flower pots. We also instruct them on how to manage natural resources and maintain the health of the environment on that side. Using food waste to create compost as an alternative to chemical fertilizers is one example. Additionally, we provided instruction on ways to protect the environment. They are aware that habitat loss and forest degradation can result from illegal logging, deforestation, and other activities. Additionally, students gain knowledge of noise, water, and air pollution due to this education. The future generation avoids things that can encourage pollution as much as they can once they are aware of every type of pollution. Finally, we show them how to incorporate sustainable practices and green habits into their daily routines. The pupils get more knowledgeable about the environment as a result of this.

a. In several paragraphs, address each of the following questions:

i. How does or will your project contribute to happiness? Short-term? Long-term?

This project does contribute to happiness for the long term because during the final phase, we have done a long-term project which is making a mini garden and recyclable center based on all six tasks that have been completed, including tree planting and a recycling programme. The indigenous community school students used all the techniques that have been taught during the six activities such as for composting, the fertilizer that have been produced can be used for their plants and the method of recycling, they can use to make any recyclable things to make a new product for their mini garden. Since the mini garden was made by them, they will get happier whenever they cross the mini garden area. 

Moreover, since our project is based on volunteerism, it does contribute to happiness for the long-term. Volunteerism is the use or involvement of an individual in volunteer work, especially in community services. Volunteering helps to overcome the effects of stress, anger, and anxiety of a person. The social aspects of helping and collaborating with others can have a huge impact on your overall psychological well-being. Nothing relieves stress like meaningful human connections. Working with pets and other animals has also been shown to improve mood and reduce stress and anxiety. Volunteering makes a person happy as well. By measuring hormones and brain activity, researchers found that helping others brings immense joy. Humans are programmed to give to others. The more we give, the happier we will be.

In the short term, GREAT project team members have used many interesting and amazing techniques to make the students feel happy and comfortable with them. In phase 1, our team members make the students enjoy themselves by having ice breaking sessions with warm up dance and zumba. In phase 2, our team members and the students were divided into 6 small groups and had many fun activities in 6 checkpoints. For example, playing Monster Snake and Ladders game and more. Many interactive activities and methods are used by our team members to make this project more happier and at the same time beneficial. 

ii. Has your project changed the way you think about the world? How has it changed you?

Throughout the GREAT project, Yes, it has given me valuable lessons about the way we need to preserve our environment and save our mother earth. It also connects us to the children of tribes and how it is very important to give them knowledge about environmental care and what are the ways to do it. We were amazed that the students are very cooperative with us. It's also given us an opportunity to connect to the environment which encourages us to take care of the environment more and be involved in those kinds of activities. This project also allows us to think outside the box in order to raise funds. We learned a lot about various things, such as the type of the lifestyle of indigenous students, and  methods of collecting  to raise funds. 

B. Complete this section with a one to two sentence personal statement, suitable for use as a quotation, addressing how and why this project was valuable and what was the most important thing you learned as a result. (Indicate student’s name for quote attribution.)

Muhamad Dashrul Hakimie Bin Muhamamad Rasali :

“The success of our GREAT project came from great volunteers.”

Nur Khairunnisa binti Ezani :

“We enjoy doing our project as we work well in a team and manage to find every solution together in order to run the project successfully.”

Nur Ain Azahra binti Mohd Salleh :

“I learnt that giving is not only through materials and money but also most importantly through sharing knowledge.”

Danesh Kumar A/L Suresh Kumar :

“I’ve realised how important it was for me to inspire kids; to make meaning of what they’re doing towards nature has a return because nature does not need us but we need nature.”

Sandra Ting Tai Ling :

“GREAT is designed to find fulfillment and creative growth through play so that we can teach in a way the child can learn. Children learn as they play. Most importantly, in play, children learn how to learn.”

Siti Aminah Hoo binti Muhammad Aripin Hoo : 

“GREAT gives children the opportunity to gain awareness and knowledge about the environment regardless of where they live or their family's background through the initiative of various types of interesting games.”