REPORT: MAHABBAH CAMP

It is a great pleasure for Bureau EMAS to share here our most awaited program for this semester, the Mahabbah Camp 2009. We are glad to share all the joys, experiences and exciting stories that we have gone through during two-day program.

The story begins…

14th FEBRAURY 2009
As early as 8.00am, we opened the registration counter. There were 74 students from SRI Al Huda came for registration. Most of the students were walk - in participants, as they did not register their participation prior to the date of program. Actually, we were so surprised with the numbers of participants because the night before the program, we had been informed by the school that only 11 students wanted to join our program.

After registration, the parents were ushered to the LT3 for opening ceremony and briefing session. The program was officially opened by the speech delivered by Puan Rosnani, the teacher of SRI Al Huda. Then, the Head of Bureau EMAS cum the Program Manager for Mahabbah Camp gave the briefing about EMAS program and also handled the Question & Answer session with the parents. We got some questions from the parents, also the comments, recommendations and supports. For each recommendations and comments that we get, Insyallah, we will use it to improve our management. And for the supports that the parents gave to us, we appreciate it.

While the parents attended the ceremony, the mentees were gathered at one place and the mentors had a brief session with them to do the mass module. They are also required to store their belongings at Musafir rooms at Level 3 & 4, SHAS Mosque. At 11.30am, the mentors ushered the participants to the Kuliyyah of Education. We gathered at LR 5 & 6, the two classes that we used during the program, which we called as Hall. Then, we started our first session. The mentors and committees of the programs introduced themselves, and we also spelt out the dos and don’ts and regulations that they should abide by during the programs and briefed them the flow and activities for the program. After that, the mentees were divided into their groups and the mentors were assigned to each of the group. Each group consisted of 3 mentors. At 1.30pm, the mentees and mentors prepared themselves for the Zuhr prayer. After Zuhr prayer, we had our lunch.

The second session started at 2.00pm, it was the Ta’aruf, Ice Breaking and Mind Setting session. The mentors conducted this session in their own groups. The mentees and the mentors got to know each others while at the same time the mentors stressed to the mentees to set a clear intention while attending this program. During the session, they also required to set the name of the group, the trade mark, and prepared a robot using the newspapers, bottles and straws. The purpose of this session is to create the cooperation among the group members, because though they knew each other, still they got problems to work in group.

At 4.30 pm, the mentors and mentees prepared themselves for the Asar prayer. After Asar, we had a Riadhah session, it was lead by one of the mentors while other mentors supervising the mentees. We did a few games in this session as the purposes of this session ware to make them felt relax and be cooperative in the group. We stopped at 6.30pm and we had our dinner. The mentees were ushered to the SHAS Mosque for self preparation and Maghrib prayer. After Maghrib, the mentees and the mentors gathered at Kuliyyah of Education again. There we had recitation Al-Mathurat and performed Isya’ prayer. At 9.00pm, we had our last session for the first day, it was Edu-Game. For this session, we provided questions for them to be solved in the group, we wanted to evaluate their performance per group basis as we allocated mark to the group for each games that we asked them to solve.

The session for the day ended at 11.00pm, after that we had supper. The mentees were brought back to the Mosque and they slept there.

The story continues…

15th FEBRUARY 2009

We started the session for the second day at 4.30am. It was Qiyamullail and presentation of video about Palestin. The purpose of video presentation is to inculcate the awareness among them about the current issues that happened to the Muslims in other country. It followed by the Subuh prayer, tazkirah and the recitation of Al-Mathurat. After that, the mentees were allowed to prepare themselves and get ready with track suit as the next session was Explorace. At 7.30am, the mentees gathered at the Kuliyyah of Education and we had our exercises and warm up. Then we had our breakfast. At 8.30am, we started the Explorace. The mentees were required to complete 8 check points and at each check point they will be tested on what they have learnt in the school. Most of the tasks at the check points required them to be creative and on top of that, they should be in group. Still, there were a few mentees who loved to wander around alone to explore the Kuliyyah rather than complete our Explorace. At 10.30am, the first group finished the Explorace and later followed by the other groups. The mentees were gathered at the Hall to announce the winner group.

The mentees were in their groups again and the mentors took charge of them. The mentors explained the resolution of the Explorace and also motivated the mentees about their self-potential. At 11.30am, the session ended and we had our tea break. The next session, the mentees were given one and half hour to prepare a short play drama to be presented in the closing ceremony. The play drama can be in English or Malay. At 1.00pm, we went back to the Mosque so that the mentees prepared themselves and packed their belongings. After Zuhr prayer, the mentees were ushered to the Mini Auditorium for their lunch and they brought along their belongings as they were going back after finishing the closing ceremony.

After having lunch, we started the “Performance of the Group”. Most of the group presented very interesting stories. The theme of all the stories is “Animals Planet”. All the groups presented their play drama in English except for one group. When it comes to creativity, all the mentees are very energetic. All of them have their own creative ideas, even one of the groups had to do the interview to assign the character in the play drama. Anyway, their courage and confident to speak in front others should be appreciated. After the performance, the mentees had the last session of Group Binding with their mentors. It is basically a session for the mentors and mentees to create the bond among them and also the mentors gave the advices and motivational words to the mentees as the means to encourage them.

Then we arrived to closing ceremony. It was begun with the announcement of the winner group for this program. All the groups received their hampers as they have shown very impressive courage to participate in all activities. The program ended by the closing words from the Program Manager. The mentees dispersed after having tea break and the mentors sent the mentees back to their parents.

The story ends…

Alhamdulillah, despite all the challenges that we faced, we managed to give full commitment and cooperation for this program. Mahabbah Camp is actually the first meeting of mentors with their mentees and also the parents. It is a very important program that will determine the participation of mentors for the programs that we have planned throughout the year. We hope this program has created the momentum for the mentees to further participate in our next programs.