COMMUNITY SERVICE AND INITIATIVE

INTRODUCTION

UCM 4 - COMMUNITY SERVICE INITIATIVE (UCM 601024)

TUTOR: MS SUJATAVANI GUNASAGARAN & MS TAMILSALVI

This module is designed to help foster of a sense of care and concern among students for their community, environment and world at large. In this module, it developed the sense of personal and social responsibility.

In this module, we are required to select one of the two community services projects. The project I was chosen is community services for Loss Animals Souls Shelter (LASS) & Sam’s Fur Kids, a shelter for the homeless dogs and stray dogs. Nowadays, the fur kids are often overlooked, ignored, and abused by mankind or living under a bad circumstance and being tortured. LASS organization has 200 dogs under its care in presence which providing a safe place for living.

In this project, as a group we’ve attended 2 sessions of the workshop which were on 9th April 2016 and 23rd April 2016, located at LASS shelter in Kuala Selangor. In the workshops, I had an opportunity to have moments with stray dogs by bathing them and playing with them. Personally, I had a dog named Nero in hometown, which also been adopted from a shelter and raised him with care and love. However unlike Nero, the shelter’s dogs were more sensitive and fearful to approach to the strangers for the first time with the experience of being abused or abandoned. Sam, the person in charge of the shelter taught me on ways to interact with the stray dogs and help them to build their faith in us. After some ‘communications’ by petting them and gave them treats to gain their trust on us, I was able to get close to them and complete the mission to interact with them.

For our contribution to the community services in dog campaign group, we had aimed our goal to increase the rate of shelter pet adoption with aimed to raise awareness & increase shelter pet adoption by showing people that shelter pets are loving, well-adjusted animals who are homeless through no fault of their own. It is a 4 steps movement that can have a long-lasting impact for animals. Our hope is that the campaign will encourage millions of potential pet lovers to make shelters the first choice and desired way for acquiring companion animals. We had divided our group into sub-groups for different tasks:

Part A: Rebranding

- Make new logo, slogan, motto

- Make 12 monthly cover photo for Facebook page

- Constantly creating poster to keep people update about the campaigns

Part B: Postcard

- Take photograph of the dog from the given list

- Create uniqueness of each of the dog, emphasis it custom calligraphy

- Create a series of postcard

Part C: Pet Shop

- Talk to the pet shop, borrow some empty pet display room

- Fill the dog display room with adoption dog

- Video record the full process

- Give the postcard (as a profile) to the one who interested with the adoptable dog

Part D: Dog Park

- Bring some of the dogs to the park

- Let them engage with people

- Talk to them and let people understand about the campaign

- Video record the full process

- Give the postcard (as a profile) to the one who interested with the adoption dog

For our contribution to the community services, we had divided our group into sub-groups for different tasks: annual calendar team, infographic poster team, social network marketing team and dog adoption campaign team. For my team which is infographic poster team, we required coming up with three topics. Besides of submitting them on the campaign page in Facebook to promote the campaign, the infographics will be used into the respective adoption activities in One Utama Dog Park, Desa Park City Dog Park, and supportive pet shop.

The topics were as following:

1) Facts of adopting senior dogs 2) Why Adopt? 3) How to take care of dog

Individually, I chose #1 the Facts of adopting senior dogs. The reason I chose this topic is senior dogs are often neglected by the community and the adoption popularity is the least comparing to the puppies adoption. This fact is quite depressing for the animal lovers. Thus, I hope that I can do something to raise the awareness in the community to help the senior dogs, not only in adoption but to let the community in understanding more on how interesting a senior dog can be as their partner when they still have time. Thus, I made a research and produced the infographic in the time given by team leader.

On the other hand, I also helped in promoting LASS dog adoption program by selling the postcards printed with shelter’s dogs, where the funds will contribute to the Dog Adoption Funding. Through the dog adoption campaign, our group achieved our target to have 5 dogs adopted within 10 weeks. The campaign has increased the awareness among the community to adopt a dog instead of buying them.

ACTIVITIES AND CONTRIBUTIONS

REFLECTION

Personally, far before me and my family decided to adopt Nero, I had a best pal called Cancan, a stray dog where my siblings found it wandering around in our neighbourhood. We decided to adopt him as he doesn’t have fear to approaching us. We take care of him and treat him as part of our family member, a furry and cute one. However, things changed after years when he died of a stroke. Crucially, dogs only have an average of 12 years of life in maximum. Dogs are man’s best friends, although they couldn’t talk, but they express their feelings through actions. They deserved happiness and love from mankind while they are still healthy and living alive. Even they were aged, the owner shouldn’t abandon them as they treat you the only family they had in their short life.

I hope that this dog adoption movement and awareness will be continued in the future to help not only the shelter’s dogs but the other stray dogs wander in searching for a home.