A Glimpse at the zapin activities since 2005

Hello friends. Let me tell you how we start the zapin activities in PAKK Temenggong. Being a PAKK supervisor for school students ranging from the aged of 7 years to 18 years old is not an easy task especially when you have to handle different characters and attitude of these kids and to provide any kinds of activities to full their time here in our center . At first it was difficult enough to invite students to be our member in our center because our place has nothing much to offer. When we think about it, there's only a television that is not working properly,a computer , a hi-fi stereo and a white board beside tables and chairs...that was in year 2005 and 2006. No money to start with any activities so i was really in a difficult situation. I decided to find some kind of attraction to invite more students to become member in our center.

At first i decided to invite students for free guidance in English and Mathematics.
Then i invited mothers of these children to come down to joint hands with me in cooking classes so that we can make some dishes for kids to eat while studying and playing games.

Then i decided to make another adjustment on my time table because i realize these kids need to learn how to pray and read al-quran. My sponsorship most comes from my family, my mom and dad and my brothers and sister who help me with the extra money needed for the kids.

Later, i invited an ustaz from a government school to do a program on motivational talks every week and my family sponsored the food for the children who came to the center for motivational talks.

We even have Tn. Hj. Ismail Khori, Tn. Hj. Kassim and Ustaz Faizal who helped us in teaching these kids Al-quran and Arabic for free. May Allah Blessed Them All.

Cleaning the PAKK and supervised these kids were really tiring as you have to do it all by yourself but i manage to do it with Allah's Help. My friends and my sons help around when they are not in school.

It was then i realized i needed an asistance to help me around the PAKK because beside handling these kids, i have to clean the toilet and it surroundings. So i gave part of my allowance that was given by the Social Welfare Department to my friend Shaharizah as a token of gratitude for helping me. So her task was to clean the PAKK and teaching these kids about the cleanliness. Most of these kids sometimes bought food from the outside and eat in the PAKK. Shaharizah is a single mother with five orphans children who needed work to support her family. She received monthly contribution from the Social Welfare Department until now.

Shaharizah and Puan Azzie gave me an idea on cultural activities as she realize PAKK Temenggong is in short of money as we do not have any petty cash and depends much on my family and friends to help out in PAKK. Thats where we end up in doing the zapin.

We recruited our children and others to join us. We started off with 2 girls and 2 boys by doing free demostration on the zapin to some weddings in Segamat before we decided to charge them with RM50.00 per show for our petrol cars. In 2006, we decided to welcome Taufik who was a student from Uitm to help us with the zapin as at first we did not know much about zapin Johor. So Taufik spends his free time to help us in Zapin Malaysia at PAKK.

Then came Syah and Hafiz to help organized more traditional dances especially Zapin Johor. Later came Wandi and Johari to give us more knowlegde about contemporary zapin and other traditional dances.

In the middle of 2008, i have to let go Shaharizah because i couldn't pay her anymore as my household needs more extra attention as my sons are getting older by the day and money was needed at that time. Shaharizah then decided to find another job somewhere else since 2008, but on and off she will help me to joint hands with another single mother Nor Shafiatun who during her young age was a professional traditional dancer and even went abroad for shows. Even when Shaharizah is not working with me, i still paid her for her make-up services for the dancers . Same goes with Nor Shafiatun who also a single mother with two young orphans.

From RM50.00 for a show we decided to charged it slightly in 2006 between RM60.00 to RM70.00. Then we realize two of our cars needed more petrol to send these zapin kids to rural areas for wedding invitations for example Sepang Loi, Medoi, kg Melayu Raya, Felda Kemelah, Felda Pemanis etc. So the amount decided was RM150.00 per show in the end year of 2006.

I decided to pay Shaharizah for her car petrol RM20 to RM30 depends on the distance and paid her make-up expertise that reached the amount of RM60 to RM90 per show.
I will only take RM20 to RM30 for my car petrol only because PAKK needs money to survived the programs that we have planned.

In the year of 2007 until now, we decided that these kids needed pocket money for their hard work, that is why we asked for RM200.00 to RM250.00 per show. Even in Hotel Nikko we only received RM800.00 for 4 performances. Imagine with a van and a car, lodging and food for our students, how can we survived these amount of money which was never enough to pay these kids? So i have to put up some of my money to help my students for lodging and pocket money. Priority first....when it comes to performances, i will make sure my students are comfortable with their position before making their debut. I will try to keep my promises even with very little support or any misunderstanding to avoid any confrontations. Showing example for these kids is to show our good example by keeping promises, punctuality, commitments and tolerations. How can kids respect us when we don't respect them. They are only humans and humans makes mistake all the time.

These kids depends on how many of them doing the zapin in a show and the highest was 12 students performed in one show and we paid them RM10 to RM20 each for their hard work.
Imagine we have to pay the car petrol to carry the zapin kids to performed wherever they are invited. The clothing, accessories, the sewing of the zapin clothing and those teachers or sifu who taught zapin and other traditional dances were given some payment for their ideas and hard work. Nothing goes free here....everything is money.That is why management is important especially in money wise. Now we have accessories that is outdated and need more money to buy new clothing for our zapin students to perform. Nowadays everything is expensive even the petrol in our car....So how much do we save from the zapin activities.....none because we spend on clothing, pocket money, accessories, petrol, food, lodging if necessary and some money left to buy stationaries or maintenance for PAKK.

I want to see these kids learn something in life. How hard it is to get RM10 for a top-up or just a pocket money they deserved through hard work. Teaching these kids discipline and become a good listener to what they have been taught and how hard to earn such a living if we dont have any knowledge about anything in life. They must have a reason why they are doing it. If they love what they do, everything will be in place...but remember nothing goes easy in life.....we have to strive it to deserve it.....!!!

To my husband and children, to all my friends especially Badariah and daughter, Shaharizah and family, Norhamiah and family, Jamaliah, Fardiah, Zaitun, Nor Shafiatun and family, Rohaida and family and to my children, my Mom,Zahariah and Sallehudin and cousins; especially En. Zainudin bin Mohamad and his wife Marina, En. Ahmad and wife ibu Hendon, who helped me through all these years of contribution and a helping hand when needed, thank you so much for your trust in me. May Allah bless all of you.

Not forgetting also Jakel Trading, En.Ahmad Sulaiman from KL, Clinic Zohar, Clinic Rama, Dr.Sabariah, Hj.Wahid, hjh Sharifah Kelsom and her friends and En. Halim Othman for their contribution also...
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My also thanks to our Social Welfare Officers: En. Norazaman; our former PKMD 1, En.Mohd Noh, Cik Zalina, En. Khairu Asri Pkmd 1, Pn . Maimunah, Pn. Sarah and En. Afrizal for their attention and consideration.

I hope we can find more sponsors for our zapin clothings and accessories as it mostly cost more than a thousand dollars and maybe could save some money for extra activities planned in the coming months.

Thank you.