Laos experience for student volunteers
VOLUNTEERING not only gives one an opportunity to help others, but it is also an avenue to work on selfimprovement and practice being a leader.
This was what four students from Universiti Tenaga Nasional (Uniten) experienced when they joined 46 Yayasan Sukarelawan Siswa (YSS) volunteers from various higher educational institutions in the YSS-MoES Students Volunteer Mission to Luang Prabang, Laos, recently.
During the two-week programme, the four — Muhammad Aiman Azha, a Bachelor of Finance (honours) student; Syasya Putri Mohamad Razauddin, a Bachelor of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (honours) student; as well as Nur Athirah Fatnin Sophian Basha and Khalif Noor Nadira Noor Shansuddin, Bachelor of International Business (honours) students — took part in projects, got to know about the diverse culture of Laotians and learnt to work side-by-side with 50 students from Souphanouvong University.
Volunteers from Malaysia and Laos were placed in four different villages in two districts — Ban Muang Khay, Ban Xieng Lom and Ban Pak Xeuang in Luang Prabang district, and Ban Had Ya in Pak Ou district.
Although they were placed in different villages, volunteers from both countries carried the same goal of helping the people in Laos.
They gained an insight into the people’s respective ways of life and, at the same time, learnt about the villagers’ practices.
Throughout the programme, activities were conducted based on the six major YSS clusters — Education, Information Technology and Social Entrepreneurship, Medical and Health, Crisis and Disaster Management, Agribio and Environment as well as Community Development.
“We were involved in activities like carrying out English and ICT classrooms, improving school infrastructure, such as repairing chairs, greening the villages with plants, performing health screening tests on villagers and running fire drills,” said Aiman.
The volunteers also held an activity named Asean
Day, where locals had the opportunity to learn more about Asean and familiarise themselves with customs and cultures in Malaysia and Laos in terms of food, dances and traditional clothing.
Khalif Noor Nadira said through involvement in the programme, she and her friends became more sensitive towards the needs of other communities and more open-minded.
“We ate, lived and breathed with the local community during this period of time. It was a good experience as we not only offered our assistance to the local community through the projects, but we also had to train ourselves to be flexible and competent in the activities.”