RACUTP Intercultural Understanding Trip June 2009

It has always been a tradition of the International Service Avenue to organize overseas trip. We’ve been to Pune (India) in 2004, Singapore in 2006, Chiang Rai (Thailand) in 2007 and most recently to Jakarta and Yogyakarta (Indonesia) in December 2008.

Having gone to so many countries, we came to a question – why not go local for a fresh experience? And that’s when we decided on Sarawak for its cultural diversity and places of interests.

Unlike our previous community-service-only endeavors, we expanded our objectives by collaborating with the Professional Development Avenue and came up with the UNIMAS visit and nature trail at the Bako National Park.

11 Rotaractors begun their journey in Kuching on the 18^th of June despite the A(H1N1) scare. What we did there (besides having fun) were: community service at the Kuching Autistic Association (KAA), an educational visit to UNIMAS, jungle-trekking at the very beautiful Bako National Park and meeting up with fellow Rotaractors of District 3310.

9am marked the start of our visit to KAA [ Kuching Autistic Association ] on the 19^th of June. Mr Andrew and Mr Bernard gave us a short tour of the care center, which was previously belonged to the government.

As requested, we presented to them RM300 worth of products – a kettle and a vacuum cleaner - as well as stationeries from UTP and bags from RC KL. I could see why they needed those (the electrical appliances). Andrew shared with us that the center has been broken into 4 times in the last 7 months!

Bernard and Andrew guided us throughout the center, explaining stage by stage how they train the autistic children. It was eye-opening for some. There were students as old as 12 yet they were just starting to learn how to clothe themselves. We spent most of the time in a special room with various equipments aimed to evoke the autistic children’s senses – swings to calm agitated children down and slides to train focus of the eyes, just to name a few. At the end of the day, everyone was touched in a way or two.

By the 22^nd of June, we moved on to Sibu, where we visited a bona fide Iban longhouse, did community service at the Sibu Blind Center as well as experienced the affability of the Rotaractors of United Collge Sarawak (UCS).

The Sibu Blind Center benefited from the RM500 worth of paint and painting tools sponsored by RACUTP. Basically, some of us cleaned up the center while the rest of us were assigned to scrap old paint of the gate as well as to give the gate a fresh coat of paint.

Situated at Bukit Lima Road, the center provides the blind with a chance to serve the community as well as to feed themselves. Residents there were trained to weave rattan products, which is then sold to the public and the municipal council.

For more information on Rotary International and Rotaract, do visit http://www.rotary.org/en/Pages/ridefault.aspx.