Talks on Current Social Issues to Educate and Empower School Girls
Inner Wheel Club of Butterworth
11/4/23, 2/5/23, 16/6/23
The Inner Wheel Club of Butterworth is ever conscious of the importance of equipping schoolgirls with social and interactive skills to help them grow into wholesome and confident young women. With this in mind, club member and Interact Teacher-Advisor of SMK Convent Bukit Mertajam Aasha Nambiar, approached the club with the idea of a project to organise a series of talks by well-experienced professional women trainers for secondary school students.
The first talk was by Datin Indranee Liew on 11th April 2023 at the school’s Dewan Seroja. Datin is a much sought-after speaker due to her decades of experience as an educator and trainer both in England and Malaysia. After a short introduction and an ice-breaking session, she delved into the various types of friends that students are bound to encounter.
The different kinds of relationships that students could foster both physically and online were thoroughly discussed. Clear instructions on positive and negative coping skills as well as fixed and growth mindsets were introduced.
Students were particularly warned not to allow themselves to be taken advantage of and abused. They were also made aware of the dangers of skipping school, premarital sex, drug use and the tactics criminals employ to entice, entrap and victimise the young and gullible.
The talk was conducted in two sessions depending on the ages of the students. It is safe to assume that almost all the two hundred students benefited from the talk gauging by the interaction in the activities that followed.
The second talk was by IWC Butterworth’s own Dr Lalitha Ramasamy, a university lecturer, award-winning speaker, trainer and mother of two who has won much recognition for her work as a women’s rights activist and child-welfare advocate. She spoke to the students and in a single session, brought them up to speed on cyberbullying and methods to combat this menace.
The Q & A session at the end helped reinforce the message and also acted as a gauge of students’ understanding of the topics discussed.
Both speakers gave tips on how to handle peer pressure and stressed the importance of communication between family members with real-life examples which rendered the lessons learned all the more compelling.
A list of hotlines to contact was availed to the students to call for help should the need arise. These included the Police, NGOs and Healthcare facilities which have been set up for the benefit of troubled youngsters.
There are a couple of talks in the works by both speakers one of which will be on 16th June which is due to take place a few days after this report.
IWC Butterworth appreciates the efforts of all concerned especially the speakers Datin Indranee and Dr Lalitha who have worked wonders and contributed much to this worthy series of talks for students. As Inner Wheel year 2022-2023 draws to a close, much work is still going on for the betterment of the communities where there are Inner Wheel clubs.
~ Lucy Barrock