JUST Children Needs Donations, Volunteers and More People to Spread the Word

I was a Cikgu Nik before I became a YB, even if it was just during weekends. 

As many of you would know, a few friends and I started a voluntary tuition project in January 2008 in Desa Mentari, a low-cost housing estate with 15000 residents. We called it the Mentari Project.

I thought about the idea after being inspired as a fasilitator for Projek Kalsom, a motivational project by university students for rural secondary schools in 2004. (The project this year will again be in the same school we did ours – SM Tengku Mahmud, Besut Terengganu).

In August 2007, I posted on my blog a post asking for those interested in a voluntary community service project to e-mail me. I bumped into former teacher Kak Mawarni Hassan at a function not long after that, and she read about the project and we talked more about it. Suddenly, it was no longer an idea, but I had someone who had the experience to do it.

To promote it, Faisal Mustaffa and I put up banners and distributed pamphlets late into the night on our own in Desa Mentari. I contacted friends – young professionals – to join the project. Kak Mawarni brought along her family to join in. Yet the initial response was only 8 students and on registration day, in January 2008, we managed to get a total of 15 students. It was a bit disheartening, but soon more students came in.

Now, the project is more of a children’s empowerment program focusing on English, Science and Mathematics, and is established as a non-profit company Join Us to Serve and Teach (JUST) Children Sdn. Bhd. We have nearly 100 registered students from 10 to 13 year olds. We recently raised RM20,000 to fund the program. I am of course, no longer teaching the kids, but the State Assemblyman for Seri Setia (which includes Desa Mentari). But the kids still call me Cikgu Nik when they see me there!

Most importantly, the shy, quiet children are now confident and active (perhaps too active!) in class. They are more comfortable in English. We’ve brought them to Petrosains and KLCC, they’ve done choral speaking and choirs. We brought university students from the US and Turkey to speak and motivate them. A few companies have taken JUST Children as part of their employee CSR programs.

But we need more donations, volunteers or even just people to spread the word. The objective is to move to our own premises (currently we use a kindergarten on the 10th floor or the community hall at Block 8 Desa Mentari) and furnish it with books, tables and chairs and perhaps a few PCs. The original core of volunteers has grown smaller, putting a greater strain on those who are still there. We plan to provide a small token to get more volunteers – including university students – to come in.

So we need you – whether to donate, volunteer or just to spread the word so that more people can help out in this wonderful project.

Details:

Donations – Call Yasir, the coordinator at 017-6362047 / e-mail at mentariproject@gmail.com and you can either bank in into their account at RHB Islamic (Kelana Jaya Branch) no. 21243960000836 or issue cheques under the name of JOIN US TO SERVE AND TEACH CHILDREN SDN. BHD.

Volunteer – Contact Yasir at 017-6362047 / e-mail at mentariproject@gmail.com

Spread the word – On twitter, Facebook or forward this on e-mail!

Learn more about the project at http://mentariproject.blogspot.com

Do it for the kids!