Curtin Malaysia student and staff volunteers promote mental health and emotional wellbeing

Miri – 21 June 2022 – The student-led volunteer group Beyond the Bounds; in collaboration with the Health, Counselling and Disability Services Department and Student Experience Office of Curtin University Malaysia (Curtin Malaysia), organised a half day of activities for staff and wards of the Pusat Kebajikan Hamidah Yakub orphanage here recently.

The objective of the activities was to raise awareness of the importance of mental health and emotional wellbeing among the staff and wards of the centre.

The activities included ice-breaking sessions, short talks on understanding emotions, stress management and future planning by volunteers from Beyond the Bounds, university counsellors from the Health, Counselling and Disability Services Department, and staff of the Student Experience Office.

They also organised games and other group activities to reinforce concepts related to mental health and emotional wellbeing, and a lunch during which prizes were presented to the winners of the games.

42 wards and 11 staff of the centre led by manager Shamsiah Sanai Tahir took part in the activities. In thanking the Curtin Malaysia volunteers for their efforts, Shamsiah said the children and staff learned a great deal about mental health and emotional wellbeing from the activities, and she hoped more of such activities could be organised in the future at the centre.

Meanwhile, Director of Health, Counselling and Disability Services Dr. Adeline Wong, who led the 11 volunteers from the university, said such projects and activities are part of Curtin Malaysia’s ongoing involvement in the community. She said that as a leading global university, Curtin is committed to engaging communities and changing lives through excellence, leadership and innovation in education and research.

“We will be organising more physical events now that most COVID-19 restrictions have been lifted, after over two years of mainly virtual events such as webinars and online workshops. It is really nice going out among the community again,” she said.

Information on Curtin Malaysia can be found on its website at www.curtin.edu.my, or look for Curtin Malaysia on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn or TikTok.

The Curtin volunteers with staff and wards of Kompleks Kebajikan Hamidah Yakub.

Beyond the Bounds volunteers conducting an ice-breaking session.

Children having fun playing games with Beyond the Bounds volunteers.

Student Experience Senior Officer Norsari John giving a talk.