SMK King George V - Our Noteworthy Experience Building Bridges

Our Noteworthy Experience Building Bridges

“Our World, One Vision, Our Future”
That was our goal. Through our project on “Sustainable Future”, we wanted to go all out and prove that wherever we are or whoever we may be, when we unite under one single vision- we can change the future.
The Mondialogo School Contest is an international project bringing nations together, uniting the younger generation, with a common goal of promoting peace and friendship without borders. A project of six months, our school team stepped up to the challenge and was immediately paired up with an all-girl Russian team named ‘The Generation Next’ We named ourselves ‘The Georgians’ which could have meant both meanings. The first, we love our school very much and (or) secondly, we had misplaced our entire memory box of names. Either way, the so-we-thought-temporary team name got stuck to our skins like Velcro and we were proud to call ourselves that.
Throughout those six months, the pressures grew and grew as the project deadline approached. It wasn’t a piece of cake. We had so many big, BIG dreams we wanted to realise. One of them was to have a live conference with the Russians during our cultural show. However, that proved rather impossible what with our extremely restricted funding, limited technology and time differences. That was an idea down the drains but with 15 creative and brilliant brains, we managed to come up with a project fit to be presented to the judging committee.
For the first part of our two part project, we focused on the main idea of Rainforests. Living in Malaysia, we are spoiled by the beauty around us. Everywhere we turn is a green patch growing ever so healthily yet we take our pleasing environment for granted, thinking it’ll fend for itself and be reborn through all the pollution we put them through. We felt a need to reach out to the community. To support our cause, one of our gifted team members constructed a make-shift tree from a long and sturdy PVC pipe, wires and a solid wooden base. On this tree, pledges were hung as a reminder of promises students and teachers have made. The response to our Rainforest project was mind-blowing! After a week or two, our tree was completely filled with laminated pledges. The tree, if you’re wondering, is at the Anjung Sam, standing- proud to carry pledges to save the environment.
Also in the Rainforest project, we had an open day. An exhibition on Belum-Temenggor Forest and many other booths were set up. We had a papier-mâché booth, a paper-bag making booth and badge sales booth. However, the main attraction was the screening of ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ by Al Gore. The hall had pin drop silence as students listened attentively. Through our activities, we succeeded in promoting awareness of the environment in our school community.
The second part and the climax of our project was the ‘Baikal of Culture’ night. The name of the event is very symbolic. The word ‘Baikal’ refers to the deepest lake in Russia. Combined with the word culture, the phrase brings a whole new meaning- ‘Culture that is rooted deep in our society and with depth comparable to the Lake Baikal’. Unlike the Rainforest project, this cultural night was harder to plan and it took us three months to decide what we really wanted to make those dreams reality! We finally decided on a small scale plan for the cultural night. Our school hall bears witness to that memorable night. The magical evening began with performances, every single one by our very own Georgians. From ‘Tarian Endang’ to the breath-taking performance of the Gu Zheng, we reached our goal of spreading awareness about the necessity to preserve our culture.
In the beginning, touching the hearts of the Russian team was an impossible feat! No one else in the team spoke English except their teacher-in-charge (who happens to be their English teacher as well) and one of their team members who speaks excellent English despite her team mates’ inabilities. Yet, our two teams never gave up and worked hard at breaking the walls that separated us. Soon, we became one, uniting under one goal.
Like us, ‘The Generation Next’ did two projects- one was about the environment while the other on culture. The former was a project to beautify their school compound. They raked leaves, swept and even painted a part of their school compound! The latter, however, was a project to reach out to the orphans at an orphanage in their area and also to create awareness and strengthen culture among their community there. We admire them for their passion and commitment in making our goals reality. Courageously, they broke down the walls that kept us apart and accepted our culture as we accepted theirs.
Though there were none, we made a path towards a brighter future, coming together as one. There were ups and downs yet we pulled through the fog, our hands held on tight and the bond was never broken. This worldwide project has strengthened our friendship and sharpened our abilities as well as taught us lessons that will remain with us till the ends of time.
A famous saying goes, ‘A single drop of water contributes to the formation of an ocean’. We have shown through this project that we have the ability and the power to touch every single person on this planet and change their lives for the better through our actions. As the younger generation of the world, we have to brainstorm and carry out measures that would make our world a better place to live in.

Angela Teh and Rachel Decruz

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