By Shalini Thevarajan, 9 February 2020 @ 11.02pm
PENANG : On 7th and 8th December 2019, Kampus Sejahtera society had organized an amazing event called “ Sustainable Goals Development Youth Festival “. This two day event was held at suitable places according to each activities such as Padang Kawad, Universiti Sains Malaysia and Dewan Utama Pelajar (DUP).
The first day of SDG Youth Festival started with a healthy and fun activity which is “ Senamrobik SDG Youth Festival”. Held in front of Astaka at Padang Kawad, Universiti Sains Malaysia from 8am to 10am. This aerobic exercise was lead by aerodance group from Universiti Sains Malaysia itself with various songs played through out the session which lasted for an hour.
The main purpose of this aerobic activities was to encourage more students to support the usm fit slogan. Dr Suzyrman Sibly has also joined in this activity together with all USM students from the beginning till the end of this fun activity. The students who participated in ‘Senamrobik SDG Youth Festival” will be rewarded with MyCSD for their participation.
After aerobic activity was done, the next agenda was opening ceremony for SDG Youth Festival. The opening ceremony for this festival were attended by Dr Suzyrman Sibly, Dr Iskandar Shahrim Mustafa and Dr Normala Abdul Wahid. It had started with a prayer to grace the event. Then, Dr Suzyrman Sibly had given speech as a sign of the beginning of the event.
For inauguration ceremony, Kampus Sejahtera had came out with symbolic tree watering as an opening gimmick of the event. The opening gimick has been completed by Dr Suzyrman Sibly, Dr Iskandar Shahrim Mustafa and also Dr Normala Abdul Wahid.
Video prize giving ceremony with a themed Sustainable Development Goals also be held right after the opening ceremony event ended. The prizes were given based on their creativity and content of the video. The 1st place won by The Fault In Our Stars, followed with Unsung Heroes at the 2nd place, Environmental Amigos at the 3rd place and Beyond The Eyes for the 4th place.
Futsal was among one of the events conducted under SDG Youth Festival. It was held on the 7 th December 2019 from 8.00am to 4pm by Kampus Sejahtera as part of the SDG Youth Festival in the Gelanggang Futsal Luar, Universiti Sains Malaysia. All students of USM were welcomed to participate in the futsal competition. This event was carried out to encourage students in USM to participate actively in the sport activities. Futsal is played between two teams of five players each. Unlimited substitutions are permitted. Futsal is also played with a smaller, harder, low-bounce ball. The surface, ball and rules together favour ball control and passing in small spaces. The game's "emphasis is on improvisation, creativity and technique". Before starting the programme, USM students who want to participate in the competition must follow the terms and conditions. Firstly, it open for male and female. Secondly, each team consists of 8 members. Thirdly, myCSD will be provided to everyone who participates in it. Lastly, attractive prizes as below such as 1st Place will get RM150 + hamper, 2nd Place will get RM100 + hamper and 3rd Place will get RM70 + hamper. For the participants who have any personal problem they may inform the committee members in charge. The programme ran smoothly in the early morning on the 7th December 2019, there are around six team which one team include 8 members gather in the gelanggang futsal luar. Before starting the programme, all the players and instructors will start warming up their body first to decrease any muscle injuries. The purpose of a body warm up is to help players prepares their body for exercise to gradually raising their heart rate to the required level so that your first sprint after the ball isn’t such a shock to the system. It also mentally helps players prepare for the game because it gives you a chance to focus on the game ahead and ensure that you’re mentally ready. Last but not least, after the game ended they will gather at the Dewan to hold a prize giving ceremony for the players who wons the tournament. In that moment, I can feel the players are looking the futsal as their enthusiastic fire. We must always remember vividly in our mind “ In futsal, you see whether a player is really talented. You notice the small details in quality, class and tactical understanding.” according to the Xavi a futsal player.
Following that, on the 7 th December 2019 as well, from 3pm to 5pm an event called talk series was held by Kampus Sejahtera as part of the SDG Youth Festival in the Dewan Utama Pelajar A, Universiti Sains Malaysia. All students of USM were welcomed to participate in the talk series. This event was carried out to encourage students in USM to participate actively in building confidence skills. If we are ever felt that we lack confidence in our lifestyle and fail to do something just because we are afraid to take the first step. Worry not! That is why we are here to help you build your confidence. We are welcoming all usm students attend our talk series on 'building confidence' and learn some tips to enhance your soft skills. This theme has attracted many usm students to participate in the talk series. Before the programme started, they will gather at the DUP A to wait for the speaker. First and foremost, the speaker tell us that Nobody is born with limitless self-confidence. If someone seems to have incredible self-confidence, it’s because he or she has worked on building it for years. Self-confidence is something that you learn to build up because the challenging world of business, and life in general, can deflate it.The speaker told us some ways for how to build confidence. Firstly, we must visualize yourself as you want to be. Visualization is the technique of seeing an image of yourself that you are proud of, in your own mind. You must practice visualizing a fantastic version of yourself, achieving your goals. Secondly, do one thing that scares you every day. The best way to overcome fear is to face it head-on. By doing that every day and gaining confidence from the experience, you will see your self-confidence soar. So get out of your comfort zone and face your fears! Lastly, we must help someone else. We should often enables us to forget about ourselves and to feel grateful for what we have. It also feels good when you are able to make a difference for someone else. In a nutshell, all of the tips that were given by the speaker is worth for us. It is worth mentioning here that this task is a colossal and tedious one. Therefore, we decided to present a systematic and step by step approach to building self confidence and courage. We must always trust that ‘Self confidence is a super power, Once you start believing in yourself magic will happen.”
Next event organised as part of the SDG Youth Festival by Kampus Sejahtera was Blood Donation Programme & Free Health Check-up. It was held on 7th and 8th December 2019 at 9am to 4.30pm in Dewan Utama Pelajar A, Universiti Sains Malaysia. All the students of USM and the community around USM were welcomed to take part in the blood donation programme and also get their free health check-up. This event was organised to allow the community to be a part of a good deed, as we all know blood donation can help save many lives and it provides benefits to the donor as well. Before donating blood, donors who were interested in donating blood were checked and done a health screening to confirm their eligibility to donate blood. Only the eligible donors were allowed to donate. It was surprising to see a good deal of people whom volunteered to donate blood. Apart from performing a good deed, donating blood could reduce the risk of cancer, burn calories and preserves cardiovascular health. Therefore, many students and public participated in the blood donation programme. Besides the blood donation programme, a free health check-up was carried out as well. All the students and public that lives around USM participated in the free health check-up. Participants were able check their blood pressure, sugar level, eyesight, and were provided with a free dental advice. There was also a small exhibition prepared regarding the consequences of smoking and the importance and ways to take care of the oral health. Participants were happy to have their check-ups done for free and to be enlightened with additional dental advice for free. The event was a success because of the overwhelming response and participation from students and the community. Events like this are beneficial to the society in various ways. It also encourages the society to take part in volunteerism.
Waste Collection was held on the 7th December 2019 from 9.30am to 4pm and on 8th December 2019 from 9.30am to 12pm by Kampus Sejahtera as part of the SDG Youth Festival at the entrance of Dewan Utama Pelajar A, Universiti Sains Malaysia. All students of USM were welcomed to participate in the waste collection. This event was carried out to encourage students in USM to participate actively in recycling activities. Many kinds of waste were accepted from the students such as plastic bottles, plastic containers, tin cans and papers. MyCSD was provided in exchange for every 3 inches thick of paper or 10 plastic bottles or containers or 10 tin cans as minimum amount of waste given by students. MyCSD was a driving factor that attracted more students to participate. More paper materials were collected compared to tin cans and plastic ware because students whom participated contributed their printed study materials such as notes, journals, articles and exercises that was not needed by them anymore. All the collected recyclable items were then delivered to the recycling centre to be recycled. The event organisers were satisfied to see a good turn out of recyclable items collected in two days. Moreover, the students whom participated were happy to be a part of an event that contributes to the environment in a positive way. They said, “although this is not much but it is still something easy that they were able to contribute”. It is absolutely clear that the youths still have some concern in protecting the environment and finding for opportunities to contribute. In addition, we can conclude that students of USM are active in engaging themselves in recycling activities and events like Waste Collection should be carried out more often to encourage more participation of larger group of students.
Moreover an Explorace was also arrange to coincide with the aims to further educate and inform the students about the 17 Goals implied by the United Nations. This was throughly organised by 15 members of the committee within the 3 weeks of planning for the festival. This was achieved by preparing games to represent a few of the goals out of the 17 goals. Five goals were choosen to represent as well as be part of the checkpoint challenge within the explorace. This included a mystery box challenge with had participant guessed about the mystery items placed in hindsight. Most of these items are those found within oceans or common litter items. Other than that a quick crafts challenge was also prepared to challenge the participants on their ability to be creative and resourceful by asking them to make decorations out of commom recycled materials. Another game prepared was a sentence building game to test the wit of the participants to organised a new report based on one of the 17 goals of the SDG. Fourth game had tested the participants awareness and hearing as they tag teamed to guess the mysterious keywords of a goals as they're sense of hearing was obstructed and another team member mouthed the words. Lastly the final game was to protect the chick which was in line with the goal or health-care as participant were challenged on their strength and agility. The explorace had ended on a fruitful note and an enjoyable morning for the 50 student whom participated in the activities. The 10 teams had not only gained new insight but also new information in regards to global goal and attributes. The Explorace had indeed proved successful with their purpose as well as with their impact.
Finally was the earth hour run which was held in to spread awareness about the importance of the taking care of the environment. The earth is our most important home therefore its always a need for us to protect it. The earth hour run helps by encouraging students to turn off anything that uses electricity for one whole hour. In addition to that this event had fille the hour with some earth hour games as well to also promote a healthy well being whilst encouraging participants to enjoy the night sky and its glory. Once the ceremony was inagurated by the organizers, the run had begun. The games were held at Padang Kawad within the USM campus with volunteers spread out through thr course ensuring the safety of all the participants. Before that a warm up Zumba session was held to help avoid injuries during the run and also to fully start the event. The games we're played in teams of 5 to 6 people and took place up until 9.30pm. Other than games, a variety of food trucks we're also present as a night market was also setup provide a mutiple foods and clear of any cravings of the students partaking in the program. The Earth hour ends once all the games are finished and a prize giving ceromony was held to award those who won the games. The team described the event as a success as all those who join had fun and we're able to learn about sustainability just by turning off the lights and enjoy the skies instead.
The SDG Youth Festival organised by Kampus Sejahtera was a success because it was beneficial to students and public in general. The organising committee of this event is grateful for the support received from all the participants.
