Community Service at Emmanuel Praise Children's Home

One fine Saturday afternoon, a bunch of CIMP students and myself performed a Samaritan act at an orphanage home--Emmanuel Praise Children's Home. We helped this newly established organization with their utter needs--cleaning up the kitchen and storeroom. Located near Old Town, Petaling Jaya, the place is home to the 15 orphanages and abused children from different parts of Malaysia.

The 11 of us met at SYUC front foyer, to my surprise, for the first time, the students (well, at least most of them) were punctual for the appointment, except the brothers (ahem... you know who) were about 10 minutes late. They did have the excuse to be inpunctual though, they were driving in Malaysia for the very first time!!!!!! Bravo to them both!!!

I must say that the team was very strong, hardworking and diversified. There were five Malaysians, two Indonesians, two Eritreans, one Iranian and one Yemenese. We were so united despite cultural and language barriers.

Before heading to the orphanage, we stopped by Seksyen11 for "makan" . Fueling ourselves with delicious Indian banana leaf briyani rice at the Grand City, everyone learnt a little bit about the Indian culture: eating with hands, folding the banana leaf inwards means the meal is good and that "nandri" means thank you. It was probably one of the BEST briyani rice that I have had in a long time.

We reached the destination right on time and without further a do, everybody stepped up to his/her role in cleaning up the kitchen and storeroom. The girls voluntarily worked in the kitchen while the boys exercised their muscles in the storeroom. After hours of cleaning, scrubbing, mopping, and rearranging and tallying inventories, we took a short break. The manager of the orphanage home, Mr. Michael Christopher, was very thoughtful. He bought us some cold drink to quench our thirsts!

By the time all the tasks had been accomplished, everyone deserved a pat on his/her shoulder because the storeroom seemed to have gone through a complete make-over with all the inventories properly arranged and kitchen was spick and span that it almost looked brand new.

The only regret was that the orphans were all asleep by the time we had done our work and that we did not get to meet and play with them. However, it was a very good experience for the students and myself. Whether or not we got to meet and mingle with the orphans was secondary because to serve the community, even in the tiniest measure, is already the biggest reward. Once again, I must congratulate the team on their job well done!

Banana leaf briyani rice!!!

Yo-yo Wei and Kuroush

Nisita, Linda and Yean May

Thamer, Munir and Khalid

Fanny and Tommy


The boys were in charge of rearranging the inventories in the storeroom

Munir: Let me show you the bicepts I have been working on!

Tommy: Nothing is too heavy for me. I can lift it all by myself.

Ms. Woi, this is called team work!

Yo-yo Wei: Careful, don't spill the oil!

Khalid: Haha, I never knew working in the storeroom can be so fun!

Linda: First of all, remove the stuffs from the shelves


Nisita and Yean May: Ms. Woi, don't we look domesticated in the kitchen???

Yean May, Fanny, Nisita: Scrub, scrub, scrub, let us scrub! Whaaaaaaaaaa!!!! There is a wiggly worm!!!


Linda: Hehe, I am using a baby t-shirt to wipe the shelf, isn't it cute?

Check it out! The kitchen is spick and span now!
Five hundred and thirty-two packets, five hundred... errrr... how many are there again??? Grrrr... let's count again... one, two, three....

Voila! The storeroom with a brand new make-over look.


We are the team!

Homemade rocky road chocolate fudge to reward the ever hardworking team members!!!