In early April 2016, four students of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) – Kenneth Chaw Vui Ken, Aniza Hanis binti Abd Aziz, Ho Woon Ping, and Maria Ameina binti Ahmad, completed eight days of community service in Takeo Cambodia as part of their Chapter’s Golden Key community service. The hours contributed by our three members, will goes towards the SPARK a Change initiative.
These students were placed at Happy Land of Caring for the Poor and Orphaned Children Foundation (CPOC) for eight days where they worked alongside ten other volunteers from various countries to help improve the education facilities of the province.

Activities during the volunteers’ stay included teaching the children Mathematics and English every evening between the hours of 2-6pm. Classes were divided according to age, with most students aged between 12-16 years. Besides teaching, UTM volunteers also aided in improving the facilities of the centre, such as making a door and renovating the volunteer house and school, and building a chicken coop. Volunteers also put up a fence around the centre to keep the children safe and also met and interacted with the local community through sports and games. The experience was educational and eye-opening for the volunteers as they learnt about the economic, cultural and educational differences between their own country and Cambodia.
This rewarding experience required a lot of preparation prior to departure, with students crowdfunding their venture several months in advance. This was done through social media and a physical booth set up on university campus where funders were given a sticker to write wishes and messages for the children helped by CPOC. The money raised from this initiative surpassed expectations which meant that school supplies such as books, stationery and a bookshelf were bought for the centre to be used by the children.
 
SPARK a Change is our global service initiative with the mission to bring all our Chapters together towards a common objective: to impact and improve the lives of at-risk youth across the globe through literacy, education and real-world preparedness.

On Saturday 13 February 2016, delegates from the Golden Key Asia-Pacific Conference 2016: Be the Change collaborated with the Global Coalition for Change in Melbourne, Australia to assist with the Books for Learning Project.
 
Thousands of donated children’s books were cleaned, sorted into age groups and repacked to be sent to schools, kindergartens, community centres and libraries around rural Australia and Papua New Guinea.
David Perrin, Relationships Manager at the Global Coalition for Change, explained that there are still many children in the world who do not have access to basic reading materials and physical resources. We are excited to help thousands of children improve their literacy skills and be able to share the joy of reading.
 
This project truly empowered our delegates to ‘Be the Change’ and help improve the lives of the next generation. Members accrued over 120 hours of community service, and their hard work has affected over 10,000 lives, all towards the SPARK a Change initiative.

Typically when your stomach grumbles, you don’t think twice about how to remedy that situation. Being able to walk to your fridge and/or food filled pantry is a privilege many of us do not realize so many others are without. However, did you know that according to www.feedingamerica.org, current government statistics indicate that roughly 47 million Americans lived in food-insecure households; 15 million of them being children.
In an effort to do their part to combat this, the Golden Key chapter at Syracuse University partnered with the Central New York Ronald McDonald House in preparing meals for 25 of their residents. All additional unused items were also donated. The Ronald McDonald House of Central New York has been a place of refuge for the hungry families of children who are seriously ill for more than 30 years.
When families travel far and wide to receive health care services throughout the Upstate New York area, Ronald McDonald House Charities provides both an atmosphere and sheltered environment where families can feel welcome and comforted.
Stopping hunger one meal at a time is the motivation and knowing that the residents had a hot, fresh meal to eat at the end of their day was the biggest reward to participating GK members.
Written by Dominique Sherrod