strength, weakness, list of activities, event description

Strength
Create awareness to other people about the zoo

Weakness
Might cause misunderstanding for miscommunication

List of activities

Event description

Before the event

Before the event, we had done some planning by having meeting almost every week to discuss about what we wanted to do for the community. We headed for classes conducted by Ms Punithia to get some knowledge and guidelines about how to condo t the project in the right way. Then after the whole consultation and understanding, we decided to go to the zoo negara to raise awareness about people volunteering, also to clear the misunderstanding outsiders have with the zoo negara because that was all what we heard when we were asking around for information. Then we have our task delegated to each and every members in our group so that everyone could get the same workload, ensuring the efficacy of our work. We have actually put in PAWS into our consideration before making the zoo as our choice, but due to transport and also miscommunication, we did not get to go to the PAWS, therefore ended up in zoo negara.

Upon confirmation, we decided our agenda of the day. We have decided to car pool to the zoo because most of our group member did not have their own transport and also the transportation to the zoo is very troublesome.

On the Day of Project

On the day of project, we got up real early to prevent traffic jam. Then we met up with each other at KL Central so that we can pick up all other group members that came by using public transport. Then we went on to the zoo. On the way to the zoo, due to the lack of knowledge to the zoo, we were lost. Fortunately we all had GPS in our car and thus helped us to reach there on time. We were 15 minutes early to the zoo, and then we went and buy breakfast. After eating our breakfast, we registered with the zoo officer and then one of them brought us to our respective supervisor so that we can start our work early. Everyone was divided into different departments and thus we could not really be together. Some were divided to the bear department, some went to the rodents department and some were in the ape centre. However, everyone’s task seemed to be similar, which is to clean the animals’ cages and feed the animals. The process was fun, and also exciting, despite the unpleasant smell that is a norm in the zoo. We had signed ourselves to the 8 hours programme and thus we worked from morning till the evening. After that, we took some photos of our work and then went home with joy. 

Zoobie : volunteer to the zoo (reflection 3)

     Following community activity done at 8 October, 2015, our job now is to pass message to community encourage more people to join volunteer programe in ZOO NEGARA. The benefits behind it not only allow us to understand daily job routine of a zoo keeper, we will also learn that living surroundings of a kept wild animal. It is different from what we seen as visitors and as volunteers. Also, it gives opportunity to wilf life lovers to interact with these animals. As gratitude for our efforts, the ZOO NEGARA will certificate for volunteer who contributed 40-hours in the zoo. 

     As starter, we invited directly our friends and family to join us with description of activites done. Many have express their interest but due to hindrance of time less people will take part. Poster is drawn up and we planned to post it around the collage. Also, Facebook is our chosen medium as all our members coonected with this social networking platform. We created a community page “ZOOBIE- DO NOT NEGLECT. PROTECT.” and uploaded pictures and videos that demostrated volunteering work in the zoo. Before the page created, we had discussion as to how it would work. The objective is to enourage community to join community service activites, as such it is not necessary to go by group as one can go individually. As one of publicity coordinators, I have created video with compilation of photos and video taken, hoping will boost more interest within those who watch it. 

     Our target group of people are those who have passion in take caring animals, risk-taking activities and also those who are patient and obediance. For what I mean ‘risk-taking’ does not annotate jobs in zoo is dangerous. Risk takers in this sense are those who are ready to get themselve dirty. We learned that the some zoo keepers are not very patient to serves us, if we are too coward in performing some ‘dirty’ jobs such as scooping poops and feeding animals. Instead, they may treat us as a bunch nuisance though other zoo keepers from certain animal section are ready to tutor and guide us. Similarly, volunteers are needed to be obediance and ready to accept orders from the zoo keeper.

       As stated, we invited our friends and family members to join this program. Also, the most welcoming group of people are those who lived nearby the zoo as we acknowledged the traffic circumtances in that area is one of the hindrace to promote more people to join the program.

   The feedback from our page is still in less satisfactory but we are willing to take effort to widen the awareness. I have learned that, unlike other community service programe, there is no need for huge sum of financial donations, but what needed is the workforce due to shortage of workforce to handle huge nembers of animals. If more volunteers are to contribute, the zoo keepers may have more time and energy to improve the welfare of the animals . However, the most biggest hindrance for people taking part is the traffic jam problem along the Jalan Lingkaran Tengah 2, following which is the hindrance of time.

Activities I have done to serve message to the community:

1. Video compilation of photos and short videos.
2. Share and explain query of page information from friends and family.

    In conclusion, there is still need to improve community sevice sector in Malaysia. As members who have experiences in community jobs should spread awareness to others and correct their mispreception regarding the field of community service. Alternative to monetary contribution, we can instead take part in phsical volunteering jobs.

Zoobie : Volunteering in the zoo (Reflection Report 2)

After conducting the presentation and also done with the reflection report, finally its the day we have to conduct our field work, where we all went to the zoo together. Jane and I were driving on that day, while Stephanie drove alone to the zoo. We met our other group members at BAC, so that it would be convenient for those who commuting with the KTM. We planned to meet each other at 6:30am so that we all would have sufficient time to travel, and also to have our breakfast. However, our plan does not go as how we wished, where the traffic was terrible, and we were stuck in the traffic for some time.

Despite the traffic, we still managed to get to the zoo slightly before 8am. We bought some nasi lemak outside the zoo as our breakfast. Then, we hurried into the education department of the zoo to fill in some form. Unfortunately, one of our member, Wenni, could not make it on that day due to some issues. Therefore, only nine of us left and we all have to register ourselves as individual volunteer. Briefing was then conducted by one of the zoo keeper, and then we headed of to work.

We were all separated after the briefing. I was asked to go to the ape centre, where I met a new friend there. Other members were being asked to different departments such as the bear centre and also the mammals departments, where they took care of horses, giraffes and also the tapir. 

The moment I walked into the ape centre, the smell was horrifying. The smell of ammonia gushed out the moment our zoo keeper opened the door. The ape centre wasn't as what I have imagined. I thought it would not only be a nice, but also free place for the apes to stay, where they would be showered with love by the zoo keepers as what was shown on the TV. However, the reality was real bad in my opinion. The cages are filthy, smelly and the apes looked sick. They were not well groomed, and they looked miserable. 

There was a timetable there, indicating which ape would be able to ‘hang out’, where the ape would have a chance to be ‘released’ out to see the tourist. For me, the ‘hanging out’ session is equally torturous where they would just be released into a larger cage than what they have been staying in. In fact, much more spacious. I felt really sad for the other apes who didn't get to ‘hang out’, where their cages are unreasonably small compared to their huge body size. The cage is tall, but not wide. I guess the tall cage is meant for the apes to climb, as that is their nature. Besides that, the cage was really small. 

I was told to clean a few cages with the new friend I’ve met there, Ke Xian. First, we were given lidi to sweep the faeces, then we run it through with clean water to make sure that the faeces are all flushed away. Then detergent was applied and the water was ran through again. Finally, a clean cage would came out as a result. Those are no hard work as the cage was relatively small and despite the smell, the faeces was really nothing. It looked exactly like human faeces. Not too gross in my opinion.

We were also asked to cut some fruits and vegetables for the apes before we headed out for lunch. Their food consist mainly of long bean, papaya, banana and some other tropical fruits depending on the availability. Some of the fruits are spoiled, but the zoo keeper insist us to cut it out for the apes. I felt really bad doing so as it is really too ‘unhumanly’ to treat them in this way. I have learnt that, due to limited budget, they could not afford to waste anything provided to them. To feed the animals, and also to give them a basic maintenance are no easy job, also it is fairly expensive to do so. 

We were allowed to walk around in the ape centre, taking a few pictures during our tea break. I did not wander a lot, but instead talked to my new friend. The zoo keeper was kind of ‘cool’, where he did not really wanted to join our conversation despite us inviting him all the time. Time passed relatively slow as we have got not much to do in the ape centre. 

During lunch, the group reunited. We went to the restaurant in the zoo to have something light as there was not much choice available. There, we spent two hours exchanging our views, also sharing our experience in different departments of the zoo. From that, I have came to realised that, other animals’ cages are not locked with a lock. In fact, their’s were just loosely closed. According to my members, the animals will not escape from the cage as long as the cage is closed. However, for the ape centre, all cages are being locked and closed properly, where it could be seen that the apes are really the smartest of all, where they could figure out how to unlock the simple lock.

After our lunch time, it is time for the apes to eat. Food were divided into respective buckets with the name of the apes written. Food were given one by one, as in, we placed the food into the hole present on the door of the cage, and the apes would all grab hold on it, putting into their mouth. That was indeed a fun experience feeding them, despite feeling a little sad for them.

The volunteer job then ended with some other day stuff where we were asked to cut some more fruits and vegetables for the next meal, accompanied with some feeding session. That was a fun experience, where the apes actually played with us and we managed to prompt them for some small tricks in order to get their food.

The overall experience of the field work was great, where this was one of the unforgettable experience in life. I feel real sad for the animals there as they have lost their freedom. There are contrary views forming in my heart, where one side of my heart thinks that zoo is not suppose to even exist; however another side of my heart sided the existence of zoo, where animals could get a better protection. From the field work, I would share more to my other friend who could not make it because the zoo really needed to be seen in another way other than mere visit. Seeing the zoo in such perspective made me think more and came to realise how badly maintained the animals are. We wished to encourage more people to participate in the volunteering work so that people could also get a first hand experience on how to take care of the animals, also to learn how to see things in a different perspective, breaking the myth that the zoo is over charging for nothing. The zoo really needed to be maintained, so that they could provide the animals with a better shelter to compensate the price of them losing their freedom.

Zoobie : Volunteering in the zoo (Reflection Report 1)

When Ms Punitha (our lecturer) announced that we have to get in a group of 10, I was shocked and was quite worried that I could not make it to 10 person, but the end result was equally shocking as well as I managed to get 10 persons to form a group where I was appointed by my peers as a group leader. The work then goes down to the selection of task for our project.  After some vigorous discussion on which task we were suppose to do in order to fulfil the main aim of the entire course, which is to help out in the community, and also to raise an awareness to create an impact to the society.

Out of the three main targets for services we had, which are animals, human and environment, we have chosen animals. We do considered about other options as well but at the end animals have gotten the majority of the votes. The reason behind choosing animal as target was simple. We all wanted our project to be a little different from others. Instead of visiting the orphanage house, where nowadays everyone could do the same thing, and also having to consider our budget as a student, we have decided to make it out of the box of our choice. For environment, we do have an idea on that but however, due to commuting issues, and also time availability of each members, we have no choice but to have it removed from our options. By putting our aim on the animals, the scope of service had indeed been eliminated where now we got a clearer picture on how our project could be carried out.

We went in to class and listened carefully on how should the project be carried out before having any further discussions to make sure that we are all on the right track, also to make sure that work are carried out effectively and efficiently. We were given a schedule on the important dates for our project, also on the scope of task that we were suppose to do. The next thing that came was discussion as to where to conduct the project.

We have searched on the net as to which organisations that we could visit to serve. Out of many organisations searched, we have finally came to a conclusion on either the zoo or the animal shelter. Those two were the only organisations that are approachable by us, where we do not need to worry about transport and also time. 

Then we appoint other members and discussed further on task delegation. The strengths and weaknesses of each members were being discussed and analysed by the whole group in order to get them the most suitable task. From the task delegation process, I have came to realise that sometimes not all members are co-operative. Some of the members might be desperate on getting things done while some just remained chilled, waiting for others to do the work. I was a little frustrated while enquiring each and every members on task delegation but soon I have came to a point where I think things should not be forced and I should not expect everyone to have the same mind set as I have. No one should be expected on anything. Therefore, for the members whom are equally desperate, they got to choose the desired task but for the rest, I appointed them to certain task, regardless on whether they liked it or not. From my perspective, they are not going to do anything without having someone there to give them command. If I were to give them a choice of task, me and my fellow desperate members would have to wait for a decade in order to get a reply from them on what they wanted to do.  Although this sounds a little arbitrary, but that indeed was the best solution that I could have thought of at that moment. Therefore, for the welfare of the whole group, task delegation was done smoothly, without letting them to have much choice.

A presentation on what we were supposed to do was done, attaching with a proposal where our budget and plans are stated in there clearly. We have all done our part during the presentation and thus the presentation went on smoothly as well although we were all nervous.

We then went on and contact the zoo, enquiring about the availability of slots that matches with our schedule. Finally, after calling the zoo for a few times, the time had been successfully confirmed. We plan to go to the zoo on 8 October 2015. We all are anticipating the trip, and have made some plans and also arranged the transport. The entrance fee to zoo is RM10 annually, where a certificate would be given if a particular period of time is being completed as a volunteer.

     

I declare that this report is based on our group work. I have not worked collaboratively nor have I copied from any other students’ work or from any other sources except where due acknowledgement is made explicitly in the text, nor has any part been written for me by another person.