On 13 October 2024, Lions Club of Subang Jaya (LCSJ) organized a climate change education as well as botanical science appreciation field trip to Rimba Illmu, Universiti Malaya, for about 35 underprivileged children. The following organizations were involved in this event; whereby we tied-in together various NGOs to deliver something novel:
- LCSJ was the financial sponsor for the project.
- Malaysian Nature Society Selangor Branch was the overall manager and providing voluntary mentors for the program (Climate Action Kids Engagement, CAKE).
- Rimba Illmu of Universiti Malaya was the host as well as the technical facilitator.
- Buku Jalanan Chow Kit was the school of the underprivileged children, many of which are undocumented refugees.
- We supported Pichaeats: the refugee cook charity, whom cooked the lunch for the children.
- Free Tree Society donated easy-to-grow edible plants for the children to bring home.
The title of this project is Carbon Guzzlers: The Mighty Rainforest vs. the Tiny Algae.
The children arrived at Rimba Illmu around 10am, and shortly after the briefing, toured the Botanical Garden to learn about plants. We were surprised that the children were enthusiastically busy with recording the name of plants they encountered and were not uninterested with such activities at all, given their background of not being from educated and privileged society.
Amongst others, they saw giant orchids that could grow up to 1 ton; fern that was around since the Jurassic dinosaur days, giant fan tree with individual leaf larger than an adult, smelly plants, etc.
After the tour of the botanical garden, the children were brought to an indoor exhibition hall to see even more plants and wildlife of Malaysia. Rimba Illmu is indeed a hidden natural history museum even many Malaysians do not know it exist.
Just before lunch, the children took water sample from the pond in Rimba Illmu and then learnt to prepare water specimen on glass microscope slides for viewing micro-habitat using microscope. We were amazed with how fast (and interested) the children learnt to use the microscope (focusing and finding algae, worms, etc.) on their own.
After an hour of repeatedly getting more samples to search for even more tiny living organisms, the children were treated with lunch cooked by Pichaeats refugee cooks, Sana and Razia (lunch was Pakistani dishes). After lunch, the children learnt climate change, what it does to our environment (eg. frequent flooding and storm) and why we must protect the forest we have. To our surprise, the children understood this easily, because many of them were flood victims in the past.
Before they leave around 2pm, the children took home edible plants donated by Free Tree Society. They are supposed to show us photos of their plant in about 6 months from now.
Before they depart, the children shouted loud big thank yous and goodbyes from the bottom of the heart, appreciating the opportunity given to them, to take a break from their underprivileged living environment. We could see the genuine happiness emanating from every child; we could see that they are not entitled kids. This observation left us, teachers, mentors and sponsors feel what we have done was something great, more than worthwhile in spending our Sunday with them. Every Lion knows the good feeling we go home with, after a great day of volunteering.
