Saturday mornings at Jamiyah Children’s Home

In the earlier half of last year, I spent my Saturday mornings volunteering at Jamiyah Children’s Home (JCH) and Jamiyah Home for the Aged — alternating between the two.

As it was my first long term volunteering experience, I didn’t know what to expect. I did, however, set a few goals for myself that I aimed to achieve by the end of the six months.

This was particularly so for my time at JCH — in my past experience as an outdoor camp facilitator, I saw how a short 3D2N camp could impact the lives of children. If a change could be made in just three days, what more six months, right?

On alternate Saturdays at JCH, together with a group of some 20 volunteers, I would conduct simple English lessons for the kids, guide them with their homework should they need any help and played fun games with them.

At the start, the response we received was pretty promising. The children at the home seemed to enjoy the games we planned for them and were open to talking to us. While the teaching segment of our sessions wasn’t as smooth sailing (as it was difficult to come up with effective lesson plans considering they were all of different ages), I assumed that it would get better over time once we worked out the kinks.

But as the weeks passed, the number of kids who came down for our sessions started to dwindle. Either that or they would only come down for the games at the end. Even then, a number of the kids who were there for our lessons were relatively disruptive, often shouting across the class, distracting their peers who were trying to pay attention and were largely uninterested in what we were trying to teach.

It was pretty disheartening, and I often came back from the sessions feeling demoralised.

Oftentimes, when we assume the role of volunteers, we tend to think that having come from “a better place” than our beneficiaries, and the things that we do for them will be able to change their lives for the better.

My experience at JCH has taught me that these children may only see me as one of many volunteers whom they’ve seen (and will see) come and go.

When you’ve had so many people come and go in your life — all for the same reason, how do you differentiate who’s genuine and who’s not? And if we can’t earn the trust of our beneficiaries, how do we then make an impact on their lives?

Perhaps sometimes it’s best to just forget what you have planned on your agenda, and focus on building relationships.

Talk to these individuals, get to know them better. Let them understand your motivations for being there, and allow them to slowly open up to you. Don’t go in thinking that you know what you’re going to do to better their lives, and think it’s a given that they should be receptive to your help.

Furthermore, it is only through taking the time to understand our beneficiaries, that we will be able to better identify the areas that they truly need help in. Only when we’ve reached that level of mutual trust, will they be more receptive to our help.

Though as students, there is only so much we can do. We are no doctors who can treat illnesses or philanthropists who can provide financial aid. I believe that if we are sincere in our actions, it will still touch the lives of these people.

At the end of the day, when the kids at JCH grow up, they may not necessarily remember the people who taught them about prepositions or pronouns. But I’m pretty certain that they’ll remember the volunteer who took the time to get to know them, to be there for them, and who truly cared for them. ∎