Children’s Festival 2004

6-7 November 2004 at Ranchan Resort, Serian for Kuching/Padawan/Samarahan cluster: There were 218 people participating in the children’s festival 2004; a total of 70 children, 75 junior youths, 16 youths and 57 adults out of which about 60 were unexpected turn-ups. We are very happy to have quite a large number of seekers among our participants. About 15 children, 20 junior youths and 2 parents were seekers.Programmes were catered for 3 groups, the children, the junior youths and the parents.

The junior youths were sub-divided into about 10 persons per group for workshops and performance. Lee Yih Ven and Kenneth Jampang were the main coordinators for the junior youth programmes and other facilitators for each sub-group were appointed to assist with their workshops and performance.

Children were divided into 3 age groups: 6-7- 8, 9 and 10 and 11. The coordinators were Ngui Chin Hock, Karen Phang and Kolvincoren Jihem. For each age group, there were 2-3 teachers to assist with the programmes. The young adults and youths were our main coordinators and facilitators of the focus groups: the children and the junior youths.

The older adults were looking after the physical needs particularly on the first day. Many were busy in the kitchen helping our chef Annie Kudang to prepare meals and tea breaks for more than 200 people with minimum facilities. Under a transport coordinator Neilson Narong, a few were running here and there to buy food and other necessary things, fetched people from different places. A few were ensuring the programmes go on smoothly, they made sure that the micro-phone, the aircons, the fans were working at all times. Another group of volunteers were in charged of safety and security of our children and junior youths through out the event. Finally the parents were given 2 sessions of parenting workshops on the 2nd day. 29 of them attended the workshops prepared by Sarawak Bahá’í Institute

It was a great success because the individuals, the communities and the institutions gave full support to the event. Of course, the divine assistance is working Its way mysteriously! Those who involved directly were giving their wholehearted sacrifice. For instance, one Bahá’í friend took 4 trips from his kampong to the site (about 6 hours on the road) in order not to disappoint 20 unexpected turn-ups from his community. The event was graced by an Auxiliary Board member, 4 National Spiritual Assembly members, some members of the Regional Bahá’i Counsel South and Local Spiritual Assemblies of Kuching-Padwan and Samarahan Cluster. We also have participants from Bau-Lundu, Serian-S. Sedong, Asajaya clusters.

The highlight of the festival was the art performance on the evening of 6 November. Both children and junior youths performed what their groups have prepared during their first day workshops. On the second day, there were more workshops for the junior youths. The children enjoyed their colouring/drawing and other artistic activities. They performed again at the farewell. The parents also had 2 sessions of parenting workshop provided by the Sarawak Bahá’í Institute. We had early dawn prayer at 6:30am. We also have group game time in the evening on 6th and morning exercise on 7th coordinated by Sim.

With this event, where everything was arranged within a month’s time for such a crowd helped us to realize that our cluster do have a large pool of confident and capable human resources, and they can be called upon to do different acts of service.

The organizing task force wishes to convey its heartfelt gratitude and appreciation to the National Spiritual Assembly and our Auxiliary Board Member Mr. Bunsie Tunton who addressed the festival with guidance and encouragement. The coordinators and facilitators of the programmes; the chef and assistant cooks and of course the children, the junior youths, the parents and everyone who took part in the festival.

Report by Kong Swee Fen