Nur Amanina Bt Ab Rahman

NUR AMANINA BT AB RAHMAN (AIA160051)

We, the students of Anthropology and Sociology, spent 3 days at the Kg. Orang Asli Sg Tementong, Kuala Lipis, Pahang for our social engagement project. We decided to collaborate with the Third Residential College to work together in conducting the Regain Experience Asli’s Life (REAL) project. I’ve learnt many things throughout the stay there. One of them is that it’s very important to work in group. You won’t be able to survive without having your friends to help you to deal with the things going around you. For instance, during the ‘My Dream’ slot. We are told to handle a slot where we have to educate the children on education and cleanliness. It was very hard to settle down the kids as they were very hyperactive and loud. I had come out with cheers and games and I even make them sing their favourite songs to catch their attention. As time goes by, we are able to control them. Then, after that we get to continue with the rest of the programme. We proceed to the group activities, when we have to make the kids play games, quiz and ‘breaking the ice’. This is when the group work comes in handy. We the facilitators need to be very alert and we need to help each other as it is very hard to make the kids listen to the instruction given. Without effective communication between us the programme will not run smoothly. Next, I also learnt that we have to appreciate and be thankful for what we have now. We were all each given a host family on the first night there. I got a family that the living condition is not quite good. They live in a small house made out of bamboo. The size of the house is just enough to fit the parents and their 2 children. They don’t have any toilet, instead they rely fully on the river. At the house, we got to ask a lot of questions and we also got closer to the family after that. The mother shared that she suffered from heart disease for many years already. She is prescribed with lots of medicine from the hospital. She needs to take of her children and do all of the household. Due to her illness, she are not capable in doing heavy and tiring tasks as she will feel drained after doing them. The father works as a rubber tapper at the rubber state nearby. He told us that it was very hard being a rubber tapper as he got very little money from it. His salary also depends on the weather if it’s not good, then he will not be getting any money.