DAVID LOH (S2125575)

Our group, Group 4, had successfully executed and completed our social engagement project titled: Wave of Change. The following are my reflections on the Project Preparation Stage, Project Execution Stage, and Post-Project Stage.

1. Project Preparation Stage

During this stage, my group mates and I discussed together the possible projects that can be planned, prepared, and executed by us. Since we are university students, all of my group mates brainstormed some creative ideas on the types of projects that we can implement. We took into consideration that the project must bring impact to the local community, and at the same time have some elements of fun while we are doing the project. After a lengthy discussion, we came up with two ideas which are teaching useful skills in a secondary school and cleaning up a beach. During our discussion, I highlighted to my group that we should try to do a project that is unique and different from what the previous year’s students had done. Seeing that last year a group has done a project related to the beach, our group voted for the project related to teaching secondary school students.

However, we faced a setback where many school administrations had declined our request to teach in their respective schools. The school management cited that due to the increasing weather temperatures, the Education Ministry has instructed schools to reduce the number of physical activities to avoid students from dehydration. With that, our group had no choice but to go for our second plan, which is to clean up a beach. We have chosen Pantai Bagan Lalang situated in Sepang due to its near distance from our university. Our group leader then wrote a formal letter to the local authorities to request their permission to allow us to conduct our project on this beach. Not long after, the local authorities (Majlis Perbandaran Sepang) replied to our letter, approving us to conduct and implement our project on the beach.

2. Project Execution Stage

On 28th May 2023, my group departed for Pantai Bagan Lalang in four separate cars. During the one-hour car ride to the destination, we were all too excited and kept on chatting about the possible things we can see and experience once we reached the beach. Once we reached our destination, I was extremely amazed how beautiful the beach scenery was at Pantai Bagan Lalang. I could see some people playing water activities in the sea, while others we just simply sitting on the beach chair and relaxing whilst enjoying the view. Surprisingly, there were not many people on the beach. Albeit the beach had a breath-taking view, the seaside was scattered with a lot of litter and rubbish. Cigarette buds, empty plastic bottles, and snack wrappers were just some of the rubbishes seen on the beach. This scene made me feel disappointed as this situation indicated that the awareness among the community on beach cleanliness was still low, and many people are selfish in not preserving the pristineness of the beach.

After putting on plastic gloves, we then set off in pairs to collect the litter along the beach. Not long after, my rubbish bag was half-filled with all sorts of rubbish and man-made litter. I felt quite proud of myself for being able to collect a decent amount of garbage in a short amount of time. Our group managed to collect a total of four bags full of garbage. Afterwards, some of my group mates and I went and interviewed the public about their perception of public awareness about beach cleanliness. We asked the public questions such as the importance of a clean beach, and their satisfaction level on public awareness for a clean beach. In total, we managed to interview three people from the public, with their demographic ranging from a young school student up to a working adult.

After picking up the litter and garbage along the beach, we rested for a while, and each had a bottle of mineral water as our refreshment. We chatted leisurely on the pristine state of the beach as well as our hopes for an ideal beach environment. After our break, we carried our garbage bags to the waste disposal area. Over there, we separated the garbage into four categories, namely plastic, paper, glass, and metal trash. We did this to ease the process of the garbage collectors in recycling the waste. While doing this separation activity, I realised that we produce a lot of garbage every day, and we can take a few minutes of our time to sort out this trash which can be recycled. This sort of practice plays a huge part in reducing the waste produced by humans and reducing the need for using landfills to place our garbage.

Once we had completed sorting our garbage, we went to have lunch together at a nearby restaurant. We were all hungry and exhausted after a whole morning’s activity by that time. After lunch, we headed back to campus at around 3 pm.

3. Post-Project Stage

After the event ended, I was tasked to write up a report which was to be submitted to the local council office. The local authorities wanted to know how successful our event for documentation purposes on their end was. After writing the report, I sent it to our group leader, Firdaus, to check and he later on emailed it to the relevant party. All of us were also asked to upload any photos and videos we had taken into a Google Drive folder so that we can use these photos and videos as evidence that we had executed our project. All in all, I would say that this project was a success and I got to bond better with my other course mates. Along the three stages of the project, I got to understand the importance of teamwork and that tasks get done effectively and quickly through good teamwork and communication. The greatest takeaway from this project is that we must appreciate the beauty and tranquillity of nature. Be it the beach or forest, we as human beings have a great responsibility in taking care of these natural wonders. I am especially grateful and proud to be involved in this social engagement project as it has benefited me towards being an all-rounded person.