Working Together for One Singular Purpose, Project Sukacita

Promise. This is the word that sums up Project Sukacita for me. The team has done a great deal, but we can do so much more. The best thing is, we can do more.

This is the first Project Sukacita trip for me, but it has been a real eye opener. It was amazing seeing how the whole team, regardless of school or nationality, working together for one singular purpose.

Everyone out in their best for this project – SMU students translating with nary a word of complaint, NUS students tirelessly putting their medical knowledge to practice for the villagers. It would be a joy to see future batches of students forming closer bonds between the two schools and working as one singular project Sukacita.

This is the first Sukacita trip for me, but it has been a real eye opener. It was amazing seeing how the whole team, regardless of school or nationality, working together for one singular purpose. Everyone out in their best for this project – SMU students translating with nary a word of complaint, NUS students tirelessly putting their medical knowledge to practice for the villagers.

It would be a joy to see future batches of students forming closer bonds between the two schools and working as one singular project Sukacita.

I have seen firsthand the effort that the students put in, for the health and well-being of the villagers. My small team and I helped to create a medical examination work plan. And when we hit the snag of needing translations and other ways to adapt our book knowledge to practice in the village, the SMU students were always at the ready.

It was not easy to produce a serviceable screening workflow from scratch, but the excellent team made it work despite the odds being stacked against us. It helped too, that many of the students took with them their experience serving in other projects, helping to give Sukacita a head start when it is sorely needed.

I have also seen the foresight and vision of the team. As the old adage goes, we hope Sukacita was not only providing fish for the villagers, but we were able to teach the villagers to fish. We wanted Sukacita to become a sustainable medical project in the future, leaving the place better than when we found it.

And so it was especially heartening for me to find out that our students were actively working on using research methods to determine the best possible future direction for the project. From meticulously crafted questionnaires to large group brainstorming sessions, there were multiple avenues for us to tap our minds to come up with a future plan. It is my hope that we can eventually build Sukacita up to become a mature project, helping the villagers in a long term, sustainable manner.

To make any project a success, there has to be dedicated people with the resources to carry out their vision. And nowhere else have I seen the conviction the Tanoto Foundation has for this project. Even before we have come up with concrete plans, even before we have come up with tangible results, the Tanoto Foundation has always been behind this project and its students.

I have absolute confidence that with the continued support, the students will do their very best and endeavor to make the most out of this opportunity to help others.

All in all, I am confident that project Sukacita is just in its fledgling phase, but it will definitely grow to become an important project for the health and wellbeing of villagers. In its first iteration as a medical project, Sukacita has already shown burgeoning promise and there will surely be great things to follow.

I am grateful to have been a part of it and will be grateful all the same for future opportunities granted to me to help out. I sincerely wish project Sukacita all the best in the future and hope to see great things come of it.

Written by Adriel Seah, NUS Year 4 Medical Student.