The students, from Sunway University and Sunway College are all members of the Sunway Volunteer Society who have committed themselves to give classes every Friday morning in Geography, English, Math and Art to the children at a church in Petaling Jaya. There are currently 60 children in the weekly classes and are aged from 4 to 16 years.
 |
| Chang (left) with some of the refugee youngsters |
Steven Chang Kah Chun, President of the Sunway Volunteer Society and a Bachelor of Accounting and Finance student of Sunway University explained that in 2011, he and his team of volunteer students used to visit the refugee kids to entertain and interact with them. “We played games with the kids and they enjoyed it” he said. This tuition project which grew from that started off at a slow pace as it was quite tough for the students in the beginning. The volunteers did not really have experience in teaching and had difficulty communicating with the kids as some of them are only starting to learn English.
The volunteers prepare their own lessons and plan everything on a weekly basis. It requires a lot of time and energy but the volunteers are committed to making this activity a success.
“We are a group of students receiving education from Sunway. It is good if we can share our knowledge with those who need it. We believe that life’s not always about how much you learn and earn, but how much you can give and share what you have with others” said Chang.
The weekly tuition classes soon became established and have continued until the present day. 10 students from a pool of around 25 students take turns to volunteer for the weekly classes.
As time passed, the English of the children has improved and the volunteers have also demonstrated great improvement in their teaching skills. On a personal note, Chang shared that the greatest lesson he learnt in this project is that sacrifice needs to be made for a change.
“Every Friday morning when I wake up, I ask myself, why am I doing all this? Waking up early and preparing notes when I have no classes on Friday. It’s tiring. But all these questions never come across my mind when I am at the tuition centre with my team. The team and I have learned and changed a lot and everyone has a growing commitment to help the kids. One of the best memories I have is when the kids showed their appreciation by shaking ours hands and thanking us for teaching them, leaving many of our eyes welled up with tears. These are kids without a proper home and they cannot attend school, it reminds us to be grateful for what we have. I believe that education is one of the things that impact upon a person the most, we hope that the passion we show in teaching and helping the children may benefit them for the remainder of their lives” he added.
Chang knows that their weekly tuition may not be able to bring a lot of changes to the kids, but he hopes that this little act of the students could make a difference in their lives. Not everyone can contribute their precious time but as this project begins to receive attention from other students, more students are willing to contribute their time as well. “With the continuous support from Sunway Education Group and its students, greater change can definitely be seen in the future!” said Chang.
Chang is a final year student and is currently undergoing his internship at KPMG.
No comments:
Post a Comment