Introduction
It’s your first time joining a volunteering program, and like any other first-timers; you are clueless. The journey from my house to Rumah Raudhatul Al-Faeez took only 15 minutes. Despite leaving the house at 7:45 a.m. I thought I would arrive late because Waze showed that it would take nearly 30 minutes. Internally panicking, I tried to rush as fast as I could.
As soon as I stepped into the neighbourhood where Raudhatul Al-Faeez is located, I was confused while looking around for the house. Luckily, I saw a couple of kids running around the front compound of the house with the Raudhatul Al-Faeez text plastered behind their black t-shirt. To my relief, I wasn’t quite lost anymore.
I walked in and one of the boys greeted me, then smiled shyly and asked whether I was a part of Small Changes. It seemed to me that they were familiar with this organisation, in fact they were more than familiar but they considered SC as a bunch of friendly faces. It was obvious that they were comfortable with one another. Even when I was new to the team, they greeted me like the rest.

Before the activities began, we gathered for a brief overview explanation of the itinerary. Every member of Small Changes was given a uniformed t-shirt to wear and a lanyard with our name on it throughout the volunteering session.
The kids joined us for breakfast, all of us looked bewildered with each other with our eyes scanning for empty seats. We were then given Mee Goreng with ‘telur mata’, and the classic Teh O’ Panas.
Module 1
It wasn’t long after breakfast when the first module titled ‘The Act of Giving’ was introduced to the beneficiaries and facilitators. It’s 9 a.m. in the morning, with quiet voices and sleepy heads, the beneficiaries looked difficult to impress. Impressing a morning crowd is the foundation to build-up a bond that can shape the mood throughout the day.
It was a weekend on a Sunday morning, the beneficiaries must have wondered why they were up so early doing activities. As part of the Small Changes team, we really wanted to convince the kids that it wouldn’t be a boring day. So we started off the day with some cheers to get it moving.
Module 1 was divided into two activities: sensory kindness and love letters. Essentially they only needed two materials for the sensory kindness activity; one is a paper with cotton balls attached on it and the other is a plain sandpaper. The cotton ball paper represents happy feelings that they could identify or resonate with, whilst the sandpaper on the other hand represents negative feelings.

“We do not live individually. To live in a society we need each other. To do this we need to be able to express and communicate.”
All of us went inside the house to conduct the activity. The beneficiaries were separated into different groups during the ice-breaking session where they also had to decide on a group name together. I could see that even when they were separated from their own circle of friends, they could bond with each other just as easily. They came up with such creative superhero themed group names such as Shazam, Ironman, Spiderman and Superman.
The beneficiaries were also given a handbook and a name tag so that it would be easier for us to identify their name.
The love letter activity was a heartfelt session. The person who came up with this module is facilitator Amirul Farid, age 29. During the session, he explained that his module was centred around self-love and appreciating others.

Language barrier beween facilitators and beneficiaries were apparent as some of them had a hard time understanding English. There were times where the facilitators had to translate or code-switch between English and Malay to accommodate to their level of understanding.
Love-letter involved testing their writing repertoire. It was important to teach them that self-love can also be done through giving. When they wrote the love letters, I saw some scratching their heads with confused faces, eyebrows frowning and curled lips, just thinking and thinking of what and whom to write to.
Some could think but found it difficult to articulate it into words. Hence, some facilitators helped by coming up with some sentences to get them started. I believe they know what to write, but just did not know the right words to describe their feelings.
I managed to interview one of the beneficiaries named Amsyar who is 17 years old. He shared with me that as a boy, sharing his feelings is daunting.
“I have never stood up in front of so many people let alone share my feelings with the public before. It was a scary experience but I thought it was worthwhile because I get to let my feelings out”, shared Amsyar.


Module 2
We took a short break when the first module ended and then continued with Thank U, Next; an activity created by another facilitator named Irdina. It was a simple yet meaningful activity. Everyone was given coloured papers and they had to trace their hand and cut it out accordingly.
On the hand-sized paper cut, the beneficiaries had to think of some action to help but most of them hardly knew who to help. The facilitators made them think of an action which starts by a small act of kindness. Their shared dreams and hopes were then pasted on the wall for the sharing session.
During the sharing session, Iqram who was one of the beneficiaries shared that when he grows older, he plans to become an athletic young influencer, so that he could teach kids how to play sports.

Next, Izzat shared that he would make his family proud.
“I grew up in this orphanage home, so when I grow older I want to do the same by helping other orphanage kids.”
“I am aware that some orphanage kids have poor mental health and I want to help them. I also want to help prisoners in jail and ex-prisoners. Show them that they still have a life to lead”.

It was surprising to me that he knew about the importance of mental health, especially at such a young age.
There were others who shared their dreams and aspirations but most of them wanted to make their parents proud.
Module 3
The third module began after an hour of lunch break and Zuhur prayers. It was in-between lunch break when the facilitators could bond outside of professional matters. So, if you are a first-time volunteer with Small Changes, do not worry about thinking you won’t make any new friends because most of us just met each other on the day itself too.
It was the first visit to Raudhatul al-Faeez after a year, revisiting an old place brought about fresh new faces on both beneficiaries and volunteers. Longing to look at the place, some had realised that the boys had grown taller.
Module three is known as ‘Hey Partner’ in which all the facilitators are given a reward chart to reward them if they win in the classic traditional Malaysian game, ‘radio rosak’. The game taught them team cooperation and the importance of working in a team, how to rely on each other in important times and others.

Shortly after, the second module began. They played the telephone game where they had to sit in a line and the first person needed to memorise one sentence from a piece of paper they received and pass what they had memorised to the next member of their group.
What was striking to me was the sentences were meaningful, almost poetry-like sentences.
Module three was somewhat similar to module 2 except this time they relied on the handbook. They were given a question on ‘how do we volunteer at our homes?” and they were briefly informed of the benefits of volunteerism.
At Small Changes, we also wanted to educate them with the world and the heights they could reach instead of limiting their capabilities. Therefore, what we did was inform them about the sports industry. Mainly on how Sukma works, introducing them to various kinds of NGOs and connecting them to employment portals, TVET programs and others because some of them are graduating high school soon which means that they would be wondering where to work or continue their studies.

Module 4
We ended the day with the last module with some fun team building activity: spelling bees, tongue twisters, building a sentence in English, karaoke, and bridge challenge.
This session was filled with laughter, especially during the tongue twister activity. Seeing the beneficiaries try their best to utter the sentence correctly was not only satisfying but it was a funny process to witness because not many of them were fluent in English but seeing everyone pronounce it differently and exhaust themselves out from uttering was a hilarious moment.
To make it even more exciting, it was definitely during the Bridge challenge. It was a challenge where every group was spaghetti sticks and somehow found a way to build a model that could withstand five bottles of water without toppling or breaking down. We know how fragile spaghetti sticks can be. I watched every group present theirs with full of nervousness and intensity. Part of me hoped at least one of the group would break but none of them did.
As interesting as it was to watch, the building of the model part was fun. So many shapes and ideas were poured into the design-making process. I am in awe of the high tolerance in dealing with each other because I could see that everyone wanted to win but they patiently built the model together regardless.


The day finally came to an end, the sky was windy indicating that it was going to rain soon and with a heavy heart I had to say my goodbye’s to them. Surprisingly, it was one of the beneficiaries’ birthdays. Right after everything ended, we managed to enjoy ourselves with a spoonful of cake, take photographs and say our goodbyes to each other before everyone departed. I hope that the kids learned how important working in a community is because after all we do need each other even if we come from different backgrounds. Most importantly, I hope they know how important they can learn to trust and love themselves because I believe with self-love they can unlock so many potentials within them.
When I left Raudhatul al-Faeez, I did not just leave a couple of kids behind but I left behind future leaders with strong potential.

Written by: NurFatihah Irdina
Designed by: Puteri Nur Suraya