Date: 9th November 2019
Venue: Rumah Anak Yatim Shafar, 15, Jln Limau, Kampung Pasir, 81200 Johor Bahru, Johor
Organizer: Leadership & Community
Position / Role: Protocol officer
Communication Skills;
Thinking Skills;
Leadership and Team working Skills;
Adaptability;
Global Citizen;
‘A DAY WITH ORPHANS‘ was organized on 9th November 2019 by Leadership & Community class as part of my bachelor’s degree requirements.
The objective of this program is to improve communication technique and increase experience in leadership. Next, it will also help students to understand more about themselves and other people in the community. The benefit is not only for us the committees, but also to help children improve their communications skills, teamwork and leadership skills through activities implemented. This program was also made to meet the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual needs of orphans by providing them with love, care, nourishment and guidance.
The activities during the program were as follows: we started the program by ice breaking, where we introduced all committee members to the orphans (participants). Next, we divided them into groups to make it easier to manage their movements. After that, we played some games which were ‘move the eggs’, where they have balance a ping-pong ball in the middle of a paper plate, using ropes to balance them.
The next game was minefield, where they were blindfolded and they have to reach the destination without touching any of the ‘mines’ (actually a paper cup). The next game was balloon game. And lastly, there were motivational talk which was not planned, but the orphanage house themselves invited the speaker.
I was involved in the planning for the implementation of this program. My position in this program as a protocol officer where I have to make sure the program runs smoothly. One of my responsibilities includes providing the ‘dialogue’ for the emcee where I have to collaborate with the emcee in order to plan out the appropriate ‘delivery’ to the audience bearing in mind that the children at the orphanage house is 12 years old and below. Next, I also took care of time keeping. As a person under protocol I took care of time keeping by informing facilitators of each activities on how many minutes left they have and when they should end their activity. This is in order to follow the tentative that has been planned beforehand, again to ensure smoothness of the program.
However the program would not be a success without the help of all committee members, which means sometimes I have to do things outside of my job scope. This includes assisting in carrying foods to the orphanage house and unpacking the foods/drinks for the children. Although the fact that the children might not hear me talking much compared to an emcee, at least the thought that I have done my best to do my task and having to see how well the program turned out, it was worth it.
One of the challenges that I faced during the program was while I was trying my best to keep up with the tentative, the guest who was invited by the orphanage house themselves for the motivational talk came late. Honestly, I felt quite disappointed because 1 hour before the motivational talk, I as a protocol already asked the orphanage house whether the guest is coming, and she said the guest was already on the way. Alas, the guest later turned up 1 hour and 30 minutes late. Therefore, I had to do the reschedule which was hectic but fortunately, the program still runs smoothly until the end of the program, all thanks to the cooperation of all team members.
Hope you enjoyed this blog!
Posted on
April 14, 2022