JUST Children Needs Your Help
One of the causes I highlighted in my birthday wish(es) post is the JUST Children Project (I erronously referred to it as the JUST Kids Project in the post). The JUST Kids Project is a voluntary tuition program for less than fortunate primary school students. The programme started at the Desa Mentari Flats in PJS4, Petaling Jaya, but it is hoped that the project can be expanded in the future.
The patron and founder of the project, YB Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad, who is also the State Assemblyman for Seri Setia sent this message appealing for support:
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 15,000 residents. We called it the Mentari Project.
I thought about the idea after being inspired as a facilitator 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 programme 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.
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 Bank (Kelana Jaya Branch) no. 21243960000836 (SWIFT code: RHBAMYKL) or issue cheques payable to 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!
Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad
State Assemblyman for Seri Setia
Patron for JUST Children
http://www.niknazmi.com
I hope you folks are able to help out, even if its just to pass the word around. Thanks.
