Children work at a community farm in Sungai Apong under the care of SKUP.

KUCHING: Eco Lodge Care Center steered students towards caring more for their community through social activities during the recent school holidays.

Principal Eileen Chua said children should be nurtured to be merciful and given wings to fly so that they may give others hope.

“We have in the past organised holiday programmes which were more fun-oriented and enjoyable for the students. This time, we would like the young ones to look beyond themselves and to care about their community instead,” she said in a press release yesterday.

“It is a challenging process as children nowadays easily drift from reality to their virtual worlds of iPads and phone games. However, empathy can be taught and it starts with planting those seeds in them. Therefore, I highly encourage other establishments to do likewise.”

A total of 120 students, aged between seven and 12, were involved in the programme from Nov 30 to Dec 11.

The programme was organised in collaboration with Hope Place, Society for Kuching Urban Poor (SKUP) and other non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that reach out to the underprivileged in Kuching and its surrounding areas.

The students were encouraged to do more than merely donating cash and their parents were welcomed to be involved as well.

In one of the activities under the guidance of teachers from Art Universe, the students created beautiful mini clay sculptures to sell. Proceeds were channelled towards purchasing 200 bags of rice for Hope Place and SKUP.

Parents continued to donate food items as well as other gifts in kind, which eventually amounted to RM4,000.

Eco Lodge students then spent one afternoon organising, sorting and packing the goods.

The students were brought to a community farm in Sungai Apong, which is a sustainable income project under SKUP for a first-hand experience of the life of a farmer as they had to plant, weed and harvest vegetables.

“This is an experience which textbooks can’t give and the idea is to enable students to understand the challenges faced by humble farmers who do not have modern facilities,” said Chua.

Through this experience, the students not only observed the process of growing their own food but more importantly an appreciation for the people behind it.

Other activities included visits to underprivileged families in Serian, Bau, Kampung Kudei and Poh Kwong Park to distribute aid along with sandwiches prepared and packed by the Eco Lodge students. Eco Lodge also invited SKUP children to a Christmas party that was planned and organised by students featuring performances such as K-pop dance, rap and a magic show.

Gifts of woven bags hand-sewn by teachers were given to the SKUP guests.