Field Day 4 - Second visit to SPCA

Yay! Another trip to SPCA (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals), another chance to help animals. Here, Priscilla Hendriks, the awesome Education Officer at SPCA, gave us some insight as to the reality of pet ownership in Kuala Lumpur. She stressed the importance of pet responsibility and how our helping in turn, helps the animals at the shelter.Then the mentors and mentees had a blast doing a meaningful activity, where they identified how special their friends were and what qualities in them they liked.

Of course, we also visited the animals, who (hopefully!) recognized us from our previous visit.

"The cleaning needs to be done - whether or not it smells!" :)
"There you go! You have a clean bed now!"

So Day 5 was on what are helpful and non-helpful ways of communicating with others, and ways we can reach out to help others and ways we can reach out for help when in need.

At the end of the day, everyone realized how special the animals were - they showed us unity, they showed us strength in the face of adversity - they showed us that we too, need to be united, for no man is an island.

:)
Usha and Dr. Brendan

Field Day 3

When we are sooo stressed, what can we do? Day 3 activities helped discuss stress and how to manage it. The day started off with a rousing game to de-stress everyone.

Of course, first we needed to identify our sources of stress and what we were stressed about.

We also listed down expectations from our parents, teachers, friends and others.


Many were surprised to see that others also had similar stresses.
By discussing in our groups, we discovered different positive ways we can better deal with our stress.

:)
Usha and Dr. Brendan

Field Day 2 – Doggies and Kitties

The day was buzzing with excitement as we began our WildTeens component of Mentoring Malaysia.

We spent the day at SPCA (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) where we met lots of adorable and friendly animals...

The Muslim girls worked with the cats & the non-Muslim girls worked with the dogs. The mentors and mentees worked together to help clear the litter in the kitten and dog kennels.

Day 2's focus was on building healthy peer relationships and contributing to society. The question asked was ' How can I form meaningful relationships?'

As we helped clean their kennels and the animals received some much-needed attention.
The girls volunteered to help bathe some of the dogs, who happily wagged their tails at their company, but not so much at the water!




While animals are being helped through MM, it is also true that animals can be helpful to teens who have emotional problems.

In Day 2, we learnt what it means to be part of a group, and how to include others rather than exclude anyone.

We also helped prepare food for the animals and feed them. "Lunch time, guys!"

We played a game of Musical Footprints, much like Musical Chairs. In honor of the SPCA, we had pawprints to step on! :) We learnt that if friends were being left out of our circle, we should strive to bring them back in.

In Day 2, mentees were introduced to the importance of journaling their wonderful experiences in MM. All in all, it was an exciting and memorable day - we helped out at the SPCA where we met love-starved animals who seemed so happy just to see us. It was a humbling experience to be needed that much, and we hope the animals know that they taught us something too - it's a good feeling to give love.
The meaning of true friendship - in giving.


Cheers,
XJ, Usha and Dr. Brendan

Field Day 1 – The First of Many to Come!

Everyone was excited in meeting each other for the first day at SMK Taman Petaling PJ. There were 40 form 1 mentees, 16 youth mentors and 3 ARCCADE professionals. The focus of the day was getting to know each other, and how each of us affect other lives.
The first activity focused on what the girls could do well. The girls had fun discovering their special talents. Then came toe fun part: making frames and decorating them to take the pictures home for display.

In the second interactive activity, we got to play with balloons and understand how what we can say make either a positive or negative impact on others.

Finally, some guidelines for participation was agreed upon.

All in all, the day was successful in helping teens fit into a healthy new social group and learn skills in forming new friendships.

Cheers,
XJ, Usha and Dr. Brendan