COMMUNITY SERVICE
This subject gives opportunities for students to engage in community service voluntarily and help people in a particular area.
We were divided into 3 different groups, and i was under Group 3, where the task was- to make a change in the interior space of the library at Ulu Melaka Orang Asli Village, Serendah, Selangor.
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phase 1- proposal& budget presentat-ion
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Group 3 is responsible for the wall, window, and floor of the library but we have broken down the responsibilities respectively. As for the group I am in, we take part on the wall transformation of, where we will be painting a mural on the walls.
we had 3 options of themes to choose from -
zoo animals (local land animals)
underwater animals
galaxy theme
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after presenting our proposal, we agreed on the galaxy/solar system design, with the color scheme of natural green and light blue color for the window.
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colour
scheme
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phase 2 - the transformation
As the task was distributed evenly, some groups went earlier to clean up the library. Drains, surroundings and interior of the library had to be cleaned up in order for us group 3 to proceed with our task, repainting the walls
Earlier group members cleaning the area.
15th of June- The condition of the library was ready for us to do our part, the floor's clean, the interior is cleared up, and the walls were clean enough for us to coat, and then repaint it with the murals we chose during our proposal.
Taking out the lid of the paint to get ready for some coating!
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These walls had to be cleaned first, and then coat it with a light green color before painting the murals.
Unpacking our stuff and getting the tools ready whilst waiting for other group members to arrive.
My task was to coat the walls. We had to do this first because there were still marks from the previous paintings that was not cleaned properly. I honestly thought this could be done within an hour or two because we had 6 people to do this together, but we ended up finishing it until the day was ending! I underestimated the space we had to work with, but nonetheless, we had to finish the job by the end of the day, and we did!
Took a break from coating the wall and helped my friends paint a few parts of the mural. This was more interesting because it involves mixing different shades of green (different colors too) and some painting skills. So as a design student, it definitely was something fun and satisfying task to do.
A close up on parts of the mural done by my group mates. it really turned out well, because after everything was done, the interior was lighted up, and looked more welcoming.
After nearly 10 hours since we arrived at the site, and proceeded with our tasks, it was time to pack our bags and go home after an exhausting day of work. although there were some parts that were not completely ready for the launching day, the major parts were all done and nothing feels better than feeling that we've finally achieved something that could benefit other people!
REFLECTIVE ESSAY
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The process of making this project a success was not easy. We had to meet up quite a number of times to rediscuss our budget, and properly plan our tasks distribution to avoid poor time management during the site execution. But of course, mistakes happen, some tools were not available on the day of site execution, which dragged our time on finishing the project in time.
Nonetheless, for every problem there is a solution, more hard work was required but that wasn't an issue for any of us, even if it meant going there the second or third time again.
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On the day of execution for group 3, the work distribution, in my opinion, was fairly given to everyone. All of us understood what we had to do. Unfortunately, maybe we underestimated the area of the interior, so coating the wall actually took us almost the whole day. Because of that, it also dragged the time for mural's team to paint the walls, which also dragged the furniture team's time to arrange the shelves, tables, and chairs into the library.
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To save more time, the mural and coating team teamed up and finished each other's work to chase time and fortunately for us, we managed to finish it before we went home. Personally, for me, it was a lot of motivational talk to myself during the whole day because it really felt like the walls were never-ending, especially the tall ones! Lesson learned -proper planning is really important for projects that involve a lot of people and hands-on work!
Looking at it in a brighter perspective, it's really nice to know that we've actually helped the Orang Asli in Serendah to have a more comfortable place to study in. I'm proud of everyone who contributed to this project, from searching for sponsors to cleaning and renovating the mini library into a brighter place for the kids in Serendah. This project also helped us to manage our time properly, and understand that teamwork is important to make the dream work!