A Musical Morning with MSYO (Middle School Youth Orchestra). Saturday, 14 March 2026.
Original blog entry in Spanish here.
This year I’m volunteering with a high school club called Key Club . It’s a student-run club that provides its members with opportunities to serve, build character, and develop leadership skills. This semester, the club has 12 students: 4 leaders and 8 members. We meet on Mondays during lunch to prepare activities for students from the Zotung Refugee Catholic Learning Centre (ZRCLC), who visit us on Tuesdays after school, from 3:00 to 4:30 pm.
First, it’s important to understand who the Zotung are. They are an ethnic subgroup within the Chin people, one of the largest Christian minorities in Myanmar (formerly Burma). Reasons for their displacement include:
1. Ethnic and religious persecution: Myanmar is a country with a Bamar Buddhist majority. For decades, the military government has persecuted minorities such as the Chin and Zotung for two main reasons:
1.1.-Religion: The majority of Zotung are Christian. Under nationalist military regimes, destruction of churches and pressure to convert to Buddhism have been reported.
1.2.-Ethnicity: The military has tried to "Burmanize" the country, eliminating the local languages and cultures of the minorities.
2. Human Rights Violations: Many Zotung refugees arriving in Kuala Lumpur are fleeing direct abuses committed by the army (the Tatmadaw), including:
2.1.- Forced labor: Civilians are forced to serve as porters or guides for the military in conflict zones.
2.2.- Expropriation of land: The government often confiscates farms and homes for military use or state projects.
2.3.- Armed conflicts: Since the 2021 coup in Myanmar, violence in Chin State has intensified dramatically, forcing entire villages to flee.
3. Language and Identity: The Zotung people have their own language, Zotung, which is distinct from other Chin dialects. This makes centers like the ZRCLC vital, as they not only teach English but also serve as a cultural haven where they can maintain their identity while "in transit."
4. Life in Malaysia
It is important to note that Malaysia is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention. This means that Zotung refugees:
-They have no legal right to work.
-They cannot attend public schools.
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The Burmese students at ZRCLC are between 5 and 15 years old, while those visiting our school are around 10-11. Some come from Myanmar, others were born here. Their families have been forced to leave their homes and are currently in transit in Kuala Lumpur. Eventually, they hope to move to other countries.
In December I visited their school in Kuala Lumpur. It’s a building with no courtyard or space where students can run or do physical activities. On Tuesdays, when they visit us, we divide the time into two parts:
-From 3 to 3:45pm – they are taught a lesson prepared in advance.
-From 3:45 to 4:30pm – they play on the fields of the school facilities.
It’s an activity I really enjoy; it’s wonderful to see the students at ZRCLC enjoying something they don’t have and that most schools around the world take for granted: a playground where they can run and play. On that note, this month my colleague Chika wrote this short article on the school’s website: " Running Around and Being Kids : A Basic Right or Privilege?".
"Running and being children: A basic right or a privilege?"
In urban environments, access to safe spaces where children can "be children"—running and playing without worry or fear of cars—is often limited. Our fellow members of the ZRCLC community were able to do just that over the past few weeks, thanks to the availability of our campus sports facilities during after-school community activities with the Key Club.
This brought the members of the ZRCLC and the High School Key Club (HS) closer together, sharing moments of simple, genuine fun in wide-open sports spaces. They discovered each other’s talents: the ZRCLC elementary school (ES) students proved that you don’t have to be tall to shoot a basketball, and the ISKL high school students turned out to be quite good at both hula-hooping and soccer!
Community alliances between different age groups can sometimes have awkward moments due to the generation gap and the difficulty of finding common interests and passions. However, "running and playing" proved to be the best icebreaker for strengthening bonds between students, regardless of age, gender, or other categories. These activities and well-equipped spaces can bring out the best in everyone.
Keep exploring and playing, Service Panthers!
~ HS Service and Sustainability
The ZRCLC students who visit us on Tuesdays are usually about 35, aged about 10-11 years.
Aside from the Tuesday activities organized by the high school’s Key Club students, other interesting opportunities occasionally arise. Here are a couple of examples:
-In January, the elementary school students at our college were preparing a play, " Finding Nemo ." The drama department invited us to the dress rehearsal so that ZRCLC students would have the opportunity to attend the play.
Next Wednesday, March 18th, the students of the Middle School Youth Orchestra will give a concert at 6:00 PM. The middle school music teachers organized a fantastic activity the Saturday before the concert. They invited students from schools like ZRCLC, with which my school collaborates. They arrive around 9:00 AM and:
---The MS students from the orchestra prepare breakfast for them.
---Then, they take them to different music classes and teach them about the different instruments, allowing them to interact with them.
---finally they listen to the concert rehearsal.
And this is what we did this Saturday morning.
It is always a pleasure to welcome these students and teachers from ZRCLC to our campus.
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I’ll have a couple of busy Saturdays in April:
Saturday, April 11th and Sunday, April 12th: I have signed up for a workshop led by Aaron Moniz of Inspire Citizens , called "Student Agency, Student Leadership and Community Engagement. Empowering Youth for Purposeful Action ".
On Friday, April 17th and Saturday, April 18th, I will participate in the Youth Summit on Service and Sustainability organized by my school.
So these are the kinds of things we’ve been involved in these days.
