Service to The Estate Community

“We cannot deny that every university student has a sense of responsibility and social obligation towards the Indian community. The community also has great expectations of university students. Armed with their experiences and knowledge, students from University Malaya serve the estate community through the Students Service Corps (SSC). I urge them to extend their services to all the Indians living in estates with the cooperation of Indian based organisations”, said Mr S P Pathi, the President of EWRF during the 34th Students Service Corps organized by Tamil Language Society of University Malaya in cooperation with EWRF.

Student Service Corps (SSC) is a three week program which ran in selected estates every year. Started in 1973 at Sungai Choh Estate, Ulu Yam Estate and Kerling Estate, this year, once again it was held from 4 May to 27 May 2007 at the Tennamaram Estate and Bukit Tinggi Estate, Batang Berjuntai located 150KM Northeast of Kuala Lumpur.

“Every year more than 20 students from University of Malaya spend three weeks during their semester break at two to three estates”, said Mr Kannitamilan, the Director of this year’s SSC. He elaborated that each student is adopted by the families in the estates. The students stay in their houses in the estates till the last day of the program. But the students provide their services to all walks of people in the estates.

On types of services provided to the people in the estates during the programme, Kannitamilan said that education has been the primary focus in SSC. Students are guided on ways to study, ways to prepare notes and ways to improve their standards of education. These are done on a case to case basis by having seminars and workshops. Special sessions are also held to make parents and students aware on the importance of education.

The youth in the estates are brought together through games and fun activities. The youth are also provided with information on skills and vocational trainings offered by government institutions.

“SSC also focuses on health aspects”, added Kannitamilan. “The people there are briefed on hygiene, family health, family planning, child care, dangers of alcohol intake and infectious diseases”.

Besides that, the estate residents are also enlightened and educated on issues such as the application for citizenship, birth certificate, identity card and marriage registration. The people are also encouraged to save money.

The university students also conduct some surveys and researches during SSC on matters pertaining to the youth, life style, education, social problems and occupation of the estate Indian community for future action plans.
The closing ceremony of the 34th Student Service Corps was held on 26 May 2007 at Sungai Tinggi Estate. Mr Manikam Krishnan, EWRF Manager on behalf of Mr S P Pathi closed the programme. Mr Rajaratnam, President of Malaysian Indian Youth Council (MIYC), Mr Sivakumar, Deputy President of MIYC and Mr Saravanan, President of Tamil Language Society of University Malaya were also present during the closing ceremony.

As a follow up, The Tamil Language Society of University Malaya in Collaboration with EWRF has decided to run English classes for the primary students in the estates with funding from Rotary Club Damansara. EWRF has been entrusted to manage the fund.

To discuss matters on the running of the classes, a meeting was held on 8 June 2007 in Sungai Tinggi Estate between EWRF, Tamil Language Society of University Malaya, estate representatives and teachers. Mr Devadason, EWRF Deputy President, Ms Subita Nair, EWRF Executive Director, Mr Manikam Krishnan, Manager and Mr Kalaiarasan, EWRF Officer attended the meeting.

Mr Saravanan, President of the Tamil Language Society, briefed those who attended the meeting about the classes. He said that the English classes will be started in July 2007 for one year. The classes will be held in two levels once a week. Level one is for students from standard 1-3 and level 2 is for students from standard 4-6. He added that a majority of the children in the two estates are very weak in English. This prompted him and his team to organise English classes for the children so that the children will have an additional opportunity to learn English. Furthermore, the estate parents are very happy and supportive of the classes.

Mr Devadasan during the meeting praised the organiser for taking positive steps in helping the estate children. He asked the organiser to run the classes in an effective way to ensure that the children benefit from them. Mdm Subita Nair requested the organiser to provide more details especially those regarding the teaching content and expenditure for the classes.