The volunteers and MNS members
The Department of Student Affairs (DSA) of Sungai Long Campus organised Gotong-Royong - Urban Gardening and Trail Clearing at Urban Community Forest (UCF), Malaysian Nature Society (MNS), Kuala Lumpur on 25 November 2017. A total of 27 students and staffs volunteered in the gotong-royong activity.
The aim of this gotong-royong project is in line with the university’s vision, which is to contribute to the society through research and development as well as education on forest conservation to improve the wellbeing of the society. The gotong-royong began with a briefing session and volunteers were grouped for task allocation. The volunteers helped in forest trail clearing, clearing of UCF building and gardening task at the frontage of MNS for a topiary. The gotong-royong took place about three hours before they had their refreshment and debriefing session.
All volunteers were introduced to MNS and UCF background, strategic plans and the database of tree and plant species found in Malaysia. "All of you have turned your commitment into actions and we have made significant progress in terms of clearing trails at the UCF, the frontage of MNS for a topiary in order to create a plot for growing vegetables. UCF is truly honoured to have UTAR students, staff and public as volunteers for this project,” said MNS Special Interest Group (SIG)-Flora Group Coordinator Foo Wai Leng.
She added, “The volunteers certainly displayed a good sense of corporate social responsibility by contributing towards the maintenance of our treasured UCF. We certainly welcome more of such effort. As discussed, we would like UTAR to consider coming alongside us as Flora's key volunteer partners, to return to UCF prospectively on a quarterly basis. We as volunteers for the society can drive towards one of our visions to make UCF much more accessible to members of the public, particularly with the maintenance of trails.”
UCF is an initiative by MNS which began since 2 August 2016 with the objective to empower local communities to protect their green spaces. MNS wishes to continue protecting one of Kuala Lumpur’s remaining green lungs by getting relevant communities and stakeholders on action. The UCF initiative seeks to protect Bukit Persekutuan, or Federal Hill, from being exploited for development and prevent its low-density, institutional status from being irrevocably changed.
Volunteer clearing the farm behind the MNS office
Students doing the trail clearing in UCF forest
Volunteer arranging plants in the garden
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