Charitivity: Day 4 Recycling Education

Welcome back to the series of Charitivity posts! Today, I'm going to talk about our last and final day in the Hati Suci Foundation. Today was our last day teaching the children of Yayasan Hati Suci.

If you remember from last week, we were told to build a miniature background for the robots. Since the house wasn't fully finished yet, they were told to finish the miniature in one week's time. The miniature was going to be submitted and judged today.

Me and my groupmates were pretty satisfied with our progress last week since we made such a big house for the robots. It wasn't easy work, and everyone had put a lot of effort into it. We didn't think that the house could get any better, but our teammates from Hati Suci amazed us when we arrived on site!

We were all amazed by their final result! Everything was so perfectly organized, and the house looks so lively! They even decorated the interior with so much effort. I was so amazed that I kept on taking pictures of the house. We were also surprised that they had gone so far as to finishing the storyline for the miniature by themselves already. Everything was carefully thought out, each part of the building having their own meaning. Who could have imagined that you can make such a great work by just using recycle-able items? Well, at least I didn't, I was full of awe at that time.

The house name was Robot Family, and like its name, this house is made especially for robots. Since the job of the robots are to protect humans, the children from our group thought that it would be better if the robots also had something to protect them, like a house. There is a small pool in front of the house to symbolize that there are also animals living in the sea, besides land. There is also a bridge to connect land and the pool, meaning that even though they live in different areas, they are still one.

Since our group had finished their work, we waited until the other groups have finished with the final touches of their work while chit chatting with one another.

Once everyone had finished their miniatures, we were all told to present our miniatures and the storyline behind it.

This team created a miniature where the robots are trying to protect their environments. The battle was so harsh that the entire environment is engulfed in flames.

The second team created a miniature where the robots are trying to protect their city also, but there was no war in this miniature. What's amazing about this group's miniature is that the windmill actually works!

The third group created a miniature shaped like a forest, where it was based on a verse from the Bible about four knights protecting a treasure in between. The verse tells us that the treasure is ourselves, and that we have to treasure our own self because we are a creation of God.

The next group made a ship which brings peace to the land it lands upon. Which is why there are paper cuts of people holding hands together.

Do you see something familiar? 4 huge towers colored orange, blue, green, and purple?
Yes! Those towers are a miniature of Binus Square! This team created a miniature mixing features of Binus Square and the Hati Suci Foundation. They also explained much about Binus Square during their presentation.

Our group also went ahead and presented our miniature along with its storyline just as we planned. I don't have the picture, since we were all having our presentation in front of the audience.

Afterwards, the judges are allowed to do their scoring to see which creation is the most well made. Frankly speaking, I was pretty confused too because all the groups did a fine job in creating their miniatures.

While waiting, we were entertained by a series of performances from members of BSSC (Binus Square Student Committee).

Surprisingly, there were not only performances from BSSC, but also from the children of the Hati Suci Foundation.

They sang 2 pieces of songs. The songs were really nice to hear, and has a meaningful background to it too. Everyone was really in sync when singing the song too!

After the performances, the judges, which are the staff from the PDC team, finally went on stage to announce the winner.

And to our surprise, the winner is our team: Robot Family! We were all surprised and so happy at the same time because our hard work did pay off in the end. It was also thanks to the children of Hati Suci in our group who gave their very best in creating the miniature of the robot house. Their creativity knew no limits and they had the strong motivation to turn that creativity into a real work of art.

After the winner announcement session, we were given snacks to eat together, while talking to each other since it is our last day there.

As usual, we ended our day with a group photo session with everyone else. It was sad since it was our last day together, but we had so much fun there, and the experience was worth it. Some even cried since it was the last day already. Though it is sad, it is also nice to know that everyone really had fun during the Charity activity.

I learned that we should not try to judge other people by their cover. This can be seen during my first visit to the foundation. I never thought that the children could be so active and creative. Most of them are really friendly too. The children kept amazing me with their initiative, sense of responsibility, and design.

It was also good to learn that recycled items actually have the potential to produce such an amazing creation. It would actually do good if society realize this potential, perhaps we might not have so much trash lying around, and even create more creative things through recycled items.

I had a really great time these four days in Charitivity. And with the end of these series of Charitivity events, also ends the series of posts about said event. Thank you to Binus Square, Duta Binusian, Hati Suci Foundation, and Lumintu Community for the amazing event and experience.

See you on my next post soon!

Charitivity: Day 3 Recycling Education

Good day everyone! I'm here to update on Day 3 of Charitivity: Recyling Education!

Day 3 was a continuation of yesterday's event. This time, the children were assigned to build miniature backgrounds for their robots. The children were divided into groups to create a background that could fit in their robots. We were in charge of taking care of them like yesterday, while helping them complete their task.

The day was started with the usual speech from the head organizers. The Lumintu team weren't with us today though, so we were on our own to teach the children.

We first proceeded to pylox the robots since they weren't painted yet yesterday. Us participants were in charge with the coloring for safety purposes.

After the coloring process, we began helping the children with their task to build a miniature home for their robots.
Our group decided to create a big house to fit in the robots. We decided to gather lots of cardboards to build our desired home. The cardboards were cut into small pieces, then sticked together again with duct tape to create the house's shape.

And voila! There it is, our home! We also made small fences with the cardboard we cut before to add more decorations into the house. We also managed to create a small truck for the house.

Upon finishing the house, the children then went to grab the robots they made yesterday to place them into the house.

After hours of hard work, we were provided with snacks again to recharge our energy. There are some who went to wash their hands first because some of us worked with crayons to color the cardboards.

First picture: our group's miniature

Second and Third picture: miniatures from other groups

After eating, the event was once again closed with a closing speech and a group photo session.

Today was another fun day, as we get to handle other groups of people besides the people we guided yesterday. The project was also done with a lot more people which made the process more enjoyable and fun! Same like yesterday, I learned to be more attentive towards the children from the Hati Suci Foundation, especially since my group has little kids too. There were people from various ages, even a student who is already in college, so I have to learn how to speak to different kinds of people.
Though the day was hot and burning, I enjoyed myself today, and the result of our crafting today was satisfying.

See you on next week's post about Day 4 of Charitivity!

Charitivity: Day 2 Recycling Education

Hi there! I'm going to continue my post from yesterday regarding today's event.

On our second day, we went to Hati Suci Foundation (Yayasan Hati Suci) to teach them about the things we learnt on our first day during the workshop. We took a short trip with the available buses to Tanah Abang where the foundation was located.

Hati Suci Foundation is an organization which provides girls from different backgrounds a place for dwelling. They are committed to shape their orphans into responsible, independent, disciplined, and respectful people. This good-hearted foundation has dedicated themselves to help abandoned children who according to them deserve more love like any other children. They take in these children and provide them with new hope of a brighter future.

When we arrived on site, I was astounded by how organized the place was! The place was very clean, there was a very nice garden in the middle of the place. They have various rooms for studying too like a library, a multimedia room, and a music room. The meeting hall was really spacious for our activities too.

When the foundation said that they are committed to create responsible and respectful individuals, they were right. Upon reaching the meeting hall, the children from the foundation immediately pulled out chairs for us participants to sit on! I was really impressed with the foundation.

Day 2 started out with an opening speech from the head organizers of the Charitivity program, Tika and Williem. They proceeded to let the Lumintu team to give their opening speech too, as an introduction of our activities on that day about making robots.

After the speech, the Charitivity staff began distributing the reusable items needed to create the robot. The children started gathering around the area to pick their items of choice to create their robot. Us participants, are assigned to one children each to guide them in building the robots, making sure that nothing happens to them during the process.

Going through the same process as us participants yesterday, after finishing the structure of the robot, the robots are once again painted with pylox so that the robots become more cool and good looking with the silver color. The robots were of course once again colored by the Lumintu team for safety purposes.

After finishing the structure, the robots were all placed in front of the hall. All of us were then provided with snacks and drinks to replenish our energy.
The activity was closed once again by a small speech from the organizers of the event, while saying goodbye to the children. Before leaving, we also took a group photo as a commemoration of the end of Day 2.

And that concludes the end of Charitivity Day 2!

I had fun today since there were more activities to do compared to last night during the workshop. The children were also really unique and fun to interact with since most of them are really active. Today's events really exceeded my expectations. It was a valuable experience since we had to make sure to guide the children while making sure nothing bad happens to them. I feel that the Recycling Education session really trains us to be responsible towards other people. It also makes us train our communication skills, since we have to be able to communicate well with the children.

See you tomorrow on Charitivity Day 3!!

Charitivity: Day 1 Recycling Workshop

Hi there! It's been a long time since I was last here on this blog! Today, I'm going to talk about something I've been up to these few days.

I'm currently in the middle of an event called Charitivity. Charitivity is an event from the BINUS Square Staff for their 5th anniversary event. The event itself consists of 2 parts: a Recycling Workshop, and Recycling Education. This event is created to motivate boarders to do something for a change towards a better nation. They have invited a community named "Lumintu" (Lumayan Itung Itung Tutup Usia) which are a group of people who have dedicated their time to creating amazing stuff from reusable items. They have managed to gain profit from their creations too! Some of their creations are bags, and robots. And by robots, I don't mean simple ones, the robots they created looked like one of those machines you'd find in a Transformers movie!

The first event is a Recycling Workshop, where us BINUS Square boarders are taught how to create robots from reusable items. The workshop was located in our dormitory, BINUS Square, on the 15th of May 2015, starting from 7pm. The items have been kindly cleaned and disinfected by the Lumintu team, which makes it easy for us to create our items. We are also provided with pliers and glue guns to cut and stick our items into a nice looking robot.

After hours of cutting and pasting, I have finally made a robot of my own. It wasn't exactly perfect, but I guess it looks okay.

The robot I made has a rocket behind its body. The two items in front of its body are a shield and a sword.

After finishing with the structure of the robot, we were taken outside to let the Lumintu team to spray our product with silver pylox. The silver color of the pylox really makes the robot shine like a real robot.

Through this workshop, I learned that reusable items can be made into such amazing things, they have so much more potential rather than just throwing it away as trash. Handicrafts like this also train our imagination, so that we can create even better creations. The process also requires patience, since we have to be extra careful with how we cut the items, and how we stick one item to another to create a structured robot.

This is the end of the first day of Charitivity which features the Recycling Workshop!

I will be posting about the next events of Charitivity which feature the Recycling Education, where the knowledge passed onto us from the Lumintu team, will then again be passed to children of Yayasan Hati Suci during the next session.