Dance in Silence

Bringing awareness to secondary school pupils about the under privileged, special need children and neglected old folks is a noble act practiced by The principal of SMJK Sam Tet, Lau Swee Man.

In line with his school slogan 'Faith,Hope,Love' he has been exposing the lower secondary school boys to the real meaning of the slogan.He brought them to witness a world where some children are handicapped,some old folks have no love and some people are too poor to have proper food.

"Success is not just about having straight As but the ability to help and share the love with others beyond our family."says Lau.He has been sending the school boys to places run by NGO like Day Break Centre,Salvation Army and Hope for Autism Centre since 2001.

What is his objective?

Simple. He wants the boys to know how lucky they are and that the word love is not just about romance.Love is to be shared with others who are less fortunate. So the boys will bring gifts for the old folks and they will entertain the special children and orphans with the lion dance.

SMJK Sam Tet always promote holistic education according to Lau. Students are taught not only to score As but more important is the leadership skills,communication skills as well as problem solving skills.

Lau buys bundles of socks from the Day break centre and when naughty school boys does not wear socks to school,he will punish them by making them buy the socks made by Day Break centre. Proceed will go to the centre.

The British High Commission recently awarded his school with a Youth Sports Leadership grant worth three thousand ringgit. So he contacted Hope for Autism Centre in Ipoh run by Richard Liew to enable the Dance club of Sam Tet to carry out the 'Dance in Silence ' project.The Sam Tet boys taught the autistic children how to dance and the children were entertained.

The event was participated by two other schools,SMK  Seri Intan and SMK Seri Putera.These schools also have slow learners and together with the autistic children they performed malay dances for their parents to see.Although they are considered as handicap children, they gave a brilliant performance. Kudos to their teachers.

Hope for Autism Centre depends on donations because some of the parents are not well off and they need to go to work . Autistic children needs full attention all the time so here is where the parents send them.

With all due respect the "Dance in Silence " event  was made possible by the contribution of the British Council, SMJK Sam Tet and the My Star International Academy.

Hopefully other organisations will take heed and help the centres for special need children that are not run by the government.It not only help the children but with events like this,we see unity in races and love is spread.