I have attended numerous numbers of camps before, far
back since high school until university. However, there was a camp which
brought a lot of touching and unforgettable memories to me since the first time
I participated. Nevertheless, it was the Children Camp! This camp is organized
by Leo Club of INTI International University and this year, I was lucky enough
to be part of the committees’ team for Children Camp 8. Yes, it was the 8th
time for Leo Club Of INTI International University to organize children camp.
Under the leadership and guidance of our Organising Chairperson, Leo Serene
H’ng Se Yee, the team had made a tremendous improvement and changes to the
camp!
Children Camp 8 was a 3 days 2 nights camp and was held
from 15th June to 17th June 2012. This camp brought the
purpose of providing opportunity for all the unfortunate children with some
meaningful and memorable time in INTI International University. The students
and Leo members around Malaysia had participated in this camp as facilitators
by guiding and helping the children in learning and gaining some positive
experiences throughout the camp. This
event was successfully held with the participation of 400 people in the camp
which included organizing committees, facilitators, helpers and 150 children
from 10 different orphanage homes. For your information, Children Camp 8 had
the highest participation rate throughout the past children camps. The theme
for this year was “The Answer to a Child’s Dreams.” As we all know that, the
children are mostly from different background than us; some of the children’s
parents had passed away since their young age while some of the children have
been abandoned by their parents. Thus, they may feel lack of encouragement,
insecure and low self-esteem in their life. The children may have loss the
direction of their life, not knowing why, where, how and what their life should
be in the future. Some of them are
having miserable life in which they do not have any one to encourage them to
get up when they fall down, they do not know how to share their laughter with
anyone and some may not even have a shoulder to lean on when they are feeling
depress. This Children Camp 8 had provided them with the opportunity to realize
the psychological stress within them after suffering from so much of negative
emotions in their life. This camp also helped the children to pursue the
directions and dreams of life.
In the first day of the camp, the children and facilitators
had registered themselves in Sport Hall on time. The facilitators which were
asked to search for their own kids based on the name list provided. The facilitators
and children were then moved to our Multi Purpose Hall (MPH) for the opening
ceremony. There was a grouping session being conducted for all the facilitators
and children after the opening ceremony and 10 groups were formed. We had
several ice breaking games for the participants to mingle around with their
kids and know each other more. After that, there were several activities being
carried out, such as moral dance session, dinner session, treasure hunt and
supper session.
A lot of interesting and exciting activities were ready
for all the facilitators in the next day. The facilitators were asked to wake
up at 7am and they brought the children to have a “Gotong Royong Session”, in
which the facilitators and children were to pick up the rubbish around campus
area. This activity brought the educational purposes of letting the children to
understand the importance of keeping the surrounding clean and being
responsible. Besides that, there was an activity which was the favorite of the
children and facilitators. Nevertheless, it was the Moral Dance Session!
Several types of moral dances had been created for this camp and the facilitators
did enjoy dancing together with the children. Even those children who were shy
started to jumping up and down, moving their hands and legs, started to dance
together! Furthermore, there were several motivating programs carried on after
that, such as origami session, mini indoor games, station games and etc. We
were hoping that the children might learn something valuable through these
activities, while at the same time, the participants will be able to foster and
strengthen their relationship with the children. Furthermore, the committee
team prepared a big surprise for all the children and facilitators. It was a
birthday celebration for all the children. Each and everyone were gathering
around the big birthday cake and were singing birthday song together. Birthday
cake and song might be something common for us, but not to the children. Some
of them might not even have a small piece of cake for their birthday; some of
them might not have anyone to sing them a birthday song. I was feeling touched
when I saw a little girl who had actually dropped her tears while singing the
birthday song. This showed that this birthday celebration really meant a lot to
them. After that, the program was then moved on to sharing session. The
facilitators brought their children to the sport hall, and sitting down
together based on the groups. The environment was dark, silent and peaceful
whereby all the lights were switched off with only lit candles on the floor to
create a harmony atmosphere. It was the time for the facilitators to have
heart-to-heart talk with the children, a chance for them to open up the kids’
heart and to have a deeper understanding on the children feeling and emotions.
The facilitators and children had their sleeping time in the sport hall after
that.
During the last day of the camp, we had a mask making and
fashion show session. Both the facilitators were required to make a mask for
each other. The children showed their creativity by making different type of
masks, from Spiderman to Batman to Power Rangers masks. The facilitators were
also enjoying helping the children to beautify the masks. After that, it was
the fashion show session. Each and every facilitator brought the kid to the
stage to show off their piece of artwork. Having the children to be on stage
allowed them to show their talents in front of everyone and boost up their self
confidence. Prizes were then given to every group as encouragement. The camp
was officially ended with a group photo, by forming a large wording of CC8!
Written By,
Law Zhi Chiat
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