Interns Diary 

17th - 28th October

Episode 02

Disclaimer: The Interns Diary is a compilation of several bi-weekly journal entries penned by MAU’s current Intern, Tanish Tanjil. Her internship period lies between September 2022 - January 2023. The purpose of this diary is to allow the readers a ‘Behind the Scene’ perspective of how MAU works! The MAU team hopes you will enjoy reading these bite-sized, broken-humour & fire-cracker-filled journal entries by our quirky 17-year-old intern. Bon Appetit! 

Title of the episode: “My Month Anniversary”

*Week 3: 17th October - 21st October*

Dear Diary, 

"Mental Health is not a destination, but a process"

was a quote I read while making MAU's poster for World Mental Health Day 2022. This week was eventful because we had consecutive posts on Mental Health, Deepavali, and Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM). Furthermore, we were preparing for the ultimate "Through Our Lens" Graduation Ceremony! The week started with me doing experimental design on mental health posters for MAU. Since fir wasn't here, I had no design guru. Hence, I had to make a poster, which was quite challenging as this was my first design for MAU. Then, we posted the CSAM content, and I wrote it! I especially enjoyed this post because it intrigued me to explore how a parent would deal with their child coming across explicit content. Reading multiple articles on this topic taught me how we can effectively and calmly handle the situation. (Head on to our Instagram post to read more...). The articles spoke about the importance of communication with the child and educating them about it. I had MAU's volunteer, Henry, help me design the poster. Henry aided with the Deepavali poster as well!

The next thing I worked on that week was emcee scripts for the Through Our Lens (TOL) Graduation ceremony! It was a hell lot of fun! Our child advocates were energetic and incredibly passionate about their project, and their dedication to planning the content for the scripts was fun to watch. We had Farisa from MAU supporting us through this process. The script had to be entertaining but straightforward so our audience could stay energised. With my limited stage experience and content writing skills, I tried helping them with speech starters, presentations, and smooth-flow tips. Sense of humour wasn't my cup of tea, though, haha! And with a blink of an eye, this week ended. 

Week 4: 24th October - 28th October

Bonjour Diary, 

It's been a busy few weeks at my internship, and it's only just getting started! I've worked with a great team, and we're all getting along well. With a "New Week, New Start" attitude, I started walking the journey of my fourth week with MAU! oooh, month-versary too!! This week was busy busy! But GUESS WHAT..."WELCOME BACK FIR!" sweet! The moment the lady came back, we started work again- sheesh! We had a rough start with loads of catching ups but eventually, we got back on track and everything went well!

I met the web designer, Fahim, and about all the magic he has been making with the content we provided him. Having website meetings is exciting because my instructions sound like a "wannabe website developer" but I fail ever so miserably because I don't know how to code, lol. Either way, one of the many contents I provided for the website that week was a Child Rights Writeup! This is the first time I am writing about children's rights on a professional platform, and I am excited to put this out there into the world because talking about children's rights is one of my biggest passions. Did you know? Although birth registration is a fundamental right of every child, it is estimated that there are 50,000 undocumented children in Malaysia... hmm I didn't know that either! Additionally, there is a strict Malaysian law that restricts publishing of any media content featuring a child (Section 15, Children Act 2001), which restricts the media from portraying children negatively. It was enlightening to come across all this knowledge!

The next thing I did that week was finish up the emcee scripts for the 30th of October 2022 Through Our Lens Graduation Ceremony! The talented child advocates made a fantastic script and both Farisa and I were in awe. The only thing left was to watch them shine on stage like rockstars, wohoo! (More about this next week, after the event!) The week ended with a sweet face-to-face meeting at NU Sentral with the Executive Team members (Fir & Mahera). We performed a rehearsal for the graduation ceremony and I had goosebumps! Really, Can't wait to see the show roll out 'smooth like butter' -BTS <3 All in all, it was a really exciting and productive week for us at MAU!. Stay tuned for Instagram stories to be a part of the crazy event with us :)