Johor Bahru, 4 May 2024 – 4th May will forever be etched in the minds of 20 children who attended the ‘Program Keajaiban Rumput Laut’ which the Language Academy, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) co-organised with two other local NGOs – the Kelab Alami Nature and Heritage Centre and Kios Mari Membaca. These NGOs have been working with the Language Academy to give underprivileged children access to education they would not have otherwise. The half-day outdoor programme was held at the Kios Mari Membaca, Kampung Dato Sulaiman Menteri, the one and only library kiosk at a playground ever to be built in Malaysia. The aim of the Program Keajaiban Rumput Laut is to use narration or storytelling as a tool to teach the youth of the community about seagrass, which is found in abundance in an area, a few kilometres away from where they live. Notably, this area has a significant seagrass meadow, and it is accessible via a river that flows next to their kampung. Another aim of this project is to mobilize communities to act on fast disappearing seagrass areas in Johor. Through the narration of Adam’s Seagrass Adventure!, a children’s book penned by Dr. Nur’ain Balqis Haladin and a team of lecturers from the Language Academy, 10 language instructors from the same academy were involved in the storytelling and other activities planned for that day.
Ms. Siti Khadijah and Mdm. Shalini were sharing the ‘magic’ of seagrass with the children
There were three main activities that were conducted for the children during the programme. The first was the storytelling where facilitators incorporate the use of simple props to explicate the story. The second activity is for the children to take turns visiting 4 booths to retell the story. One booth requires the children to explain the process of photosynthesis in the seagrass ecosystem and the terms used to describe it. Meanwhile, at another booth, the children had to recount the marine animals living in a seagrass ecosystem. There was also a booth where the children construct sentences from jumbled up words to talk about the threats faced by the seagrass and the marine life it supports. A small booth was also set up to showcase specimens and herbariums from the seagrass ecosystem by Dr Serina Rahman, the principal advisor and co-founder of Kelab Alami Nature and Heritage Centre, who is also a lecturer at the National University of Singapore (NUS). To encourage participation, the children were given scores for providing the correct answers and prizes to the champion, first and second runner up. Every one of them also left with a certificate of participation. On that day, no child was left without bringing something home. The third activity was a closing speech by Mr. Mohd. Ibrahim, one of the founders of the Kios Mari Membaca, who explains the reason for bringing in books to underprivileged children living in Kampung Dato Sulaiman Menteri.
The children visited the game stations to participate in the seagrass-related games
One of the children played the scrambled sentence game.
From the left: Dr. Serina Rahman (the principal advisor and co-founder of Kelab Alami Nature and Heritage Centre), Dr. Ain Balqis Haladin, (the Programme Coordinator of the Keajaiban Rumput Laut programme), Mr. Mohd. Ibrahim (one of the founders of the Kios Mari Membaca).
Language Academy took the opportunity to donate 4 copies of Adam’s Seagrass Adventure! book to the Kios Mari Membaca. Following the activities, the children have expressed positive feedback towards all activities conducted and found the programme effective. Additionally, the community hoped for more activities of this kind to be conducted in the future.
Written by: Nur Shamsinar Ramli, Siti Khadijah Abdul Wahab, & Nur’ain Balqis Haladin