Volunteers in the ‘Valentina Project’

On the 30^th of October, one day before Halloween, the Interact Club of SSG helped out as volunteers in the ‘Valentina Project’ organized by PetPositive in collaboration with FRIM Negara. 14 Form 4 members as well as our teacher advisor, Puan Rohaidawati, took part in this project and we went to FRIM Negara from 8.30 am till about 3pm.

PetPositive is the first and only nationally registered non-profit Society in the country which uses animals to empower the lives of disabled and elderly persons. The Valentina project, was named after PetPositive’s 9 year-old rabbit, Valentina which died of cancer earlier this year.

The objective of this trip is to give about 20-disabled and elderly persons an opportunity that's never been offered before - to go on a nature walk under the thick canopy of wild flora and fauna in FRIM. Participants made up of the blind, Deaf, persons with spinal injuries to others with neurological conditons will be guided through the forest on a special path in FRIM which has been designed for wheelchairs.

Basically, our job was to chat with the disabled people as well as guide them through the walk. The physically stronger members helped push the wheelchairs on the walk. We also helped out in serving food, registration and so on.

The Interact Club of SSG was really lucky as we were part of the first group of people to ever walk on the disabled walk. Even though it was only a short path, about 400m long, there were many different types of plants and animals. It was really touching to see how much the disabled people are enjoying themselves.

Another objective for this project is to promote AAT (animal assisted therapy). A number of animals, were brought to allow the disabled as well as elderly to try to get used to the furry creatures and accept them as their companions. There were about 4 dogs, a cat, 2 rabbits and even frogs from the jungle.

Hannah, Mrs. Lynda(the organizer of this project) and I went one day before to help catch the frogs. We were led by Norsham and Elango from FRIM Negara. Btw, it was at night and it was raining. Therefore, there were lots of leeches. >.<

This event also came out on the news. It came out at about 8.20pm and was about a minute long on NTV7. Quite a number of Interact members appeared on screen.

That’s all for our day out to FRIM Negara.