27 July 2020 – As a global university that envisions to make a positive impact to society, Universiti Teknologi Brunei (UTB) through Student Affairs Office and Student Representative Council (MPPUTB) organised a Volunteer Programme as part of the Orientation Week 2020.
Over 350 new students volunteered to different community services activities. The students were given several options of community services to choose from which was held for four days since 22 July 2020.
This year, UTB collaborated with five Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) namely Sukarelawan Belia, Hand4Hand, The Living Earth Brunei, Green Brunei and Society for Community Outreach & Training (SCOT) to give the new intake a great opportunity to leave positive impact and give back to the society.
Working together with Sukarelawan Belia, the students and volunteers conducted a donation drive for underprivileged families. Among the items that were donated are food items and cleaning materials. The donations were delivered to thirty-one selected underprivileged families across four districts in Brunei.
Social Kitchen was also reintroduced in the Friday Edition, following the success of SCOT’s project called Ramadhan Social Kitchen that has helped single mothers to gain extra income through the preparation of meals. The volunteers along with single mothers cooked and prepared 200 packs of food at the Youth Development Centre. The packed meals were then delivered to selected mosques and donated to the congregants and front-liners on duty.
Students were also exposed to farming activities such as digging trench, turning chicken compost, potting of poly bags, sorting banana chicken play area, and weeding the land at Kampong Junjongan area in collaboration with the Living Earth Brunei with the support of Green Brunei.
Another group of students along with Green Brunei managed to collect 140kg of rubbish during their cleaning campaign at the Kampong Bolkiah Mosque parking lot. The students also helped to sort donated clothes and household items for selected families at Kampong Bolkiah A.
A similar campaign was also held involving UTB students and Hand4Hand which involves cleaning, gardening, planting tree samplings and mural painting around Sekolah Rendah Menunggol.
Meanwhile at the University campus, a group of forty-two students designed and produced over 1000 face shields within a day to be donated to selected schools for underprivileged students and teachers. The materials used for the DIY face shields include OHP sheets, elastic straps, and foam mattresses cut into shapes.
