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After about 3 weeks of preparing for Back to School 2008, the organisers descended on SJKT Bukit Darah and SJKT Ladang Sungai Buloh, Bukit Rotan for the handing over of bags and uniform to the students. The trip to Bukit Darah was on 6th January while Bukit Rotan trip took place on 1oth January.

The project expanded from 76 students to 92 students including the kids from the single parent families that UMIC is helping.

Photos from the trip to the two schools are available at the moment, while photos from the visit to SJKT Ladang Bradwall, Siliau, Seremban haven’t reached me yet.

More details of the project is at the website.

Photos from SJKT Bukit Darah

Photos from SJKT Bukit Rotan

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Dear friends,

“Back to School” project is back again for the year 2008. This is our 3rd year and we thank the members for the support and understanding. Early this year we successfully concluded the project, whereby we sponsored 59 students from SJKT Bkt Darah and SJKT Ldg Sg Buloh who had difficulties in meeting the school expenses due to their unfortunate poor conditions. Photos of previous Back To School event can be found at http://umic.shutterfly.com. Previously, in the year 2006, we helped 35 students from SJKT Bkt Darah. Beyond just providing uniforms and school bags, we also helped to cover expenses for extra classes and school activities at both these schools.

Due to the support by the public via UMIC, the teachers, and also the effort by students and parents, we are able to announce that for the FIRST time in 17 years, SJKT Ldg Sg Buloh has produced a 7A student! The school’s overall passing rate improved slightly from 9.1% to 11.7%. In the district of Kuala Selangor, SJKT Ldg Sg Buloh lies in third position, behind two other schools located in urban areas. As for SJKT Bukit Darah, the school maintained the single 7A student achievement from last year, while the passing rate improved vastly from 30.8% to 44.1%. In the near future, our target is to achieve 100% passing rate. Again, all this is only possible due to the overwhelming, continuous support and commitment shown by people from all walks of life, who contribute through us. The funds were used to cover the lunch expenses during weekend classes, purchase of study materials, payment of fees for student participation in events, etc.

Over the last 2 years, we have increasingly helped more students, and the trend continues this year. This year, we have identified about 76 poor students from SJKT Bukit Darah in Sg Buloh, SJKT Ladang Sg Buloh in Bkt Rotan, and SJKT Ldg Bradwall, Siliau, Seremban. These students are facing difficulties to step foot into school again due to their unfortunate family backgrounds of single mothers, labourers, phyisically/mentally disabled parents, medically affected parents, etc. The parents can’t afford to provide these young souls the education and the study materials which will provide them a better future and to contribute to the community growth. This project is in line with our focus and objective to assist poor students to continue to excel their education and to kill off the young age school dropout rates.

The breakdown and total cost are as below:
1. SJKT Bkt. Darah, Sg Buloh - 29 (3 students are going to Form 1)
2. SJKT Ladang Sg Buloh, Bkt Rotan - 35 (Expected)
3. SJKT Ldg Bradwall, Siliau - 12
Total – 76 students (Expected)
Estimated total expenses - RM 11,400

The students list will be update by early next week on our website at www.umic.org.my. Those without access to website may request the list from the contact persons below. Similar to last year, interested donors can adopt one or more students from the student list which has been published by UMIC Charity Wing . The approximate cost per student based on age will be as below:
1. Std 1 – RM130
2. Std 2 – RM130
3. Std 3 – RM150
4. Std 4 – RM150
5. Std 5 – RM180
6. Std 6 – RM180
7. Secondary - RM200

The cost per student above includes the basic needs (2 pairs of uniform, school bag, 2 pairs of shoes, 3 pairs of socks, shoe polish, water bottle, exercise books, & stationeries) AND also to cover for motivation seminar, education seminar, extra classes, and purchase of workbooks. We invite interested donors to contact the following committee members below for more info and pledge:

Koppal 019-2796669 / koppalai@epsontoyocom.com
Poobalan 019-2664042 / mpoobalan@gmail.com
Muru 012-3072027 / murudevi@yahoo.com
Rajj 016-2200765 / l0rd_huntsman@yahoo.com

Account details are as below:
Name: Ananthi Ramakrishnan (Treasurer)
Maybank account no: 114833039081

Upon bank in, kindly SMS your name and amount to any of the above numbers.

Pls visit http:///www.umic.org.my and http://www.umic.com.my for more details of the club and the projects/events (we are still updating the website, so do bear with us). Again, we look forward for your support. More info will be posted as it is made available. Please forward this to your friends and family members.

Thank you.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Deepavali with Kids was held in Klang last Sunday (18 Nov 2007). The event was organised by a group of friends and their families for the last 10 years or so. UMIC were invited to sponsor some of the items and also to help out at the event, since about 250 children were expected this time.

I went there on Saturday evening to help pack the school bags full of goodies - stationery, towel, food stuff, shoe polish etc. However, most of the work were already done. We also helped to do the “thoranam” (decoration made from young coconut tree leaves) and pack gifts for children.

On Sunday morning, myself and Then reached the venue at 9.30am. Had breakfast and started with arrangement and allocation of groceries to be distributed to the various groups. Then, there were some decoration work - putting up balloons etc. My duty was to be photographer, so i basically hung around pretending to be busy while others were huffing and puffing away

Most of the UMIC members started to arrive after 10am, while the children started arriving around 12pm in buses and vans. There were children from Klang Utama, Anbe Sivam, St Barnabas Home, Destiny Home, Padmasambava, etc. and also disabled children. 4 poor families previously identified by the organisers also attended the event.

After a brief opening ceremony, food was served. And what food it was! Nasi goreng, nuggets, chicken burger, mee goreng, fried chicken, sausages, fresh popcorn, satay and candy floss to name a few. They kids dug in and had a great meal. At the same time, we had a clown who went around entertaining the children. But i think what the children loved the most were the two air-filled playpen. Kids were jumping up and down, really lost in their own little worlds!

Then some of the children danced and sang, and were rewarded with prizes by the organisers. Amidst all this, the superbikers came! They took the children for a ride around the block, and left the kids wanting for more. The bikers were sporting enough to take nearly all the children around, taking turns with their bikes.

Following this was a special appearance by ChaCha the clown magician, who entertained the kids with his antics. The rain made us move under the canopies and ChaCha continued his show.

After that it was gift session where every child was given a gift. Finally, schools bag were handed over to the children and representatives from the homes took the provisions.

The event ended at around 4.15pm. The organisers then cleaned up the area and most of the left by 5.30pm.

Thanks to UMICians - Rajj, Mr Gopal, Then, Mamba, Muru@Ritesh, Shirley, Ananthi, Guru, Ms Rahimah, Capt and Mrs Asohan, Mr and Mrs Kannan, and Perumal for helping out with this event.

Thanks too to the organisers for extending the invitation to UMIC to take part in this year’s Deepavali with Kids. Hope to have the same fun next year!

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