Saturday, January 17, 2009
heyyyy guys. UPDATE UPDATE!
we have finally gotten the green light to carry on with our community involvement project. i met up with our CT, Mr Sia Cheong Chua and the teacher-in-charge for CIP-related matters, Ms Susan Lim.
see you guys on Wednesday for our first meeting!
(:
Monday, December 8, 2008
latest update.
i've discussed with Mdm Lee. i did a proposal and Mdm Lee is kind enough to help us send it to the teacher-in-charge. so, now we'd have to wait for the teacher's green light before we proceed on with our discussion and plannings.
NOTE: MAJOR CHANGE. the whole class will be involved. READ ON to understand how that is going to work.
this post is gonna be extremely long. but i really need you guys to take the time and read everything very carefully.
here's the sample of the proposal which i'll be sending to Mdm Lee.
1) Area of interest
a. What kinds of projects are you interested in doing?
Befriending/interacting.b. Who, where or what do you wish to help?
Children.
c. Have you checked out the internet (or from any other sources) for any available projects that you can be a part of? If yes, what are some of these projects?
Yes. Reading programme for the kids at SINDA for over a period of 6 months, once a week for an hour. Other than that, Children Aid Society claims that we can help by conducting enrichment, reading, music, computer and cooking classes for the children, maintaining the furniture and equipment in the Home; or organising special meals or parties for the children. Basically,general play and participative interaction with the children.
2) Matching skills with interest
a. What are some of the skills/knowledge that you possess?
I can handle or communicate with children well. Besides that, i have former experiences working with children. When i was in secondary school, i was in the planning committee for 2 camps involving children from the age 5-10. One was a day camp with children from Macpherson Family Centre and the other was a 2D1N camp with children from De La Salle School. For this overnight camp, i was also one of the facilitators (led a group of children throughout the entire camp.) whereas for the day camp i was mostly behind-the-scene thoughout the entire camp. (Logistics and administrative work.)
b. Can any of the above skills/ knowledge be applied to the earlier project(s) that you are interested in?
Yes. That project would be the one which involves Children Aid Society. We were thinking of conducting a fun-filled day camp at JJC for the children,which is in line with what the home needs.
3) Objectivesa. What do you want your project to achive?
i. To make a difference in these unfortunate children’s lives in whatever ways possible. (i.e. entertain/interact with them, whatever they need.)
ii. For the class, to instill empathy and compassion for others in us.
iii. Be thankful for what we have and not take things for granted.
4) Time
a. When are you free to plan and carry out your project?
I have set up a class CIP blog (http://philanthropy-from-08s33.blogspot.com) for discussion of any CIP-related matters. This blog is already very much active now as of 6 December 2008. Aside from this, we hope to meet up twice or thrice a week to do verbal discussions over a period of one month, from 9 December 2008 to 9 January 2009. We aim to complete at least 80% of the planning by this period of time because we figured that once school reopens, we would not have much time to spare for the planning. We plan to hold the day camp later on March school holidays.(probably, 8 March 2009) We decided not to hold it before school reopens because half of our classmates are overseas. (they are international students) By conducting the camp on March instead, the whole class could participate. Hence, the remaining 20% of the planning would be done once a week or a fortnight (whenever needed). Our foreign classmates could also be involved in this remaining planning. In the meantime, while they are overseas, they could keep track and be involved with our planning through the blog. I could msn or email them to check the blog everytime there is an important update or discussion.
To put it simply,
9 December 2008- 9 January 2009: get 80% of planning done, strength: 9 people
9 January 2009- 1 March 2009: get 20% of planning done, strength: full. 15 people
8 March 2009: the day of the camp.
Therefore,
Start date of project: 9 December 2008
End date of project: 8 March 2009
5) Resourcesa. What do you need to carry out your project?
i.
Support from teachers
ii. Financial support
iii. Materials
iv. Equipment
v. Principal’s consent to let us use the school to conduct the camp and certain rooms for welcome address/briefings etc.
b. Budget
c. How are you going to obtain the resource(s) that is/are not available yet?
Our main concern of the entire project is the budget part. We need financial support. However, once the matter with the transport is settled, we dont need much financial support after all. We would not need more than a $100 as we only have to spend on lunch and miscellaneous stuff. In that case, our class fund would be sufficient.
6) Forming a teama. How many people do you want in a team, including yourself?
9 people. Those who are not overseas.
b. Who are your team members? (Planning Committee)
On the day of the camp:
7) Finding a voluntary or community organisation
a. Name of organisation: Children Aid Society
b. Address: 503 Clementi Road, Singapore 599488 (between Singapore Institute of Management and Ngee Ann Polytechnic).
c. Contact Numbers:
Tel: 64665758 or 64673095 Fax: 64620729
d. Website: http://www.childrensaidsociety.org.sg/index.phpplease click on the images to enlarge if the font is too small for you to see clearly. any comments, attack the tagboard yeah people?
that's all for now.(:
Sunday, December 7, 2008
i realised our main area of concern is that the idea might be too hard to be carried out. i agree wholly.
but then i was thinking. if we dont carry out a day camp, we would have to carry out all the games in the home itself. this would be equally laborious right?
number one, we are really unfamiliar with the home so how to plan the games? number two, we dont know what equipments they have for our games. three, we dont know where the nearest clinic/hospital (safety precaution), the route to it and all. so a lot of work has to be done also. plus, to ensure that everything runs smoothly, we would also need to do the same amount of preparation right? we still need to think of logs, safety and all.
but theres advantages too. no problems on matters like transport and food.
what do you guys think?
AHHHHH. where is the CT when we really need one?):
alright people. since i've gotten majority's replies... here's the latest update.
i was thinking that it'd be best if we hold A FUN-FILLED DAY CAMP (JUST ONE DAY. overnight camp would be far too tedious and i think we lack the expertise, time and manpower) for the kids there at our school. this is what the home needs. they claim that the kids need entertainment. (this is great cos it's important that we consider what the organisation really needs) so in order to do that, there are a number of starters that we have to consider.
- first and foremost, get the school's approval. (i contacted Mdm Lee to ask who she reckon we approach to assist us with the whole thing but she has yet to get back to me.)
- once that's settled, we can then start liasing with the home. once they agree about the day camp,
- we can then discuss in great details regarding the programmes. for this, we can have meetings once a week for the next 3 weeks (more CIP hours. we'd elect a secretary to keep track of the duration of our meetings and maybe take down minutes as well.)
the planning of this can be really tedious. we have to consider logistics, budget, transport and of course, the kids' safety and in case of emergency. (we can get jerome to help out in this area since he has done alike.) once i get all of your agreement, we will then share the workload, everyone of you will be the IC of the diff parts. i think this will look good in our testimonial. but of course, before anything, let me raise this question first, are you guys up for it? can you guys commit?
let me lay out the skeleton of the whole idea, of what i have in mind.
date: sometime in January before school reopens.
time: 8am-6pm (so, we only have to provide lunch for the kids)
venue: JJC.
according to organisation, kids are of age 6-10.
number of kids: 32 so, 8 kids to one facilitator. the other five of us would be behind-the-scene people.
reminder: only 9 people would be involved in this project; all the girls, jerome and dong hao.
actually, i have all the activities ready. just the activities that is. as in things (logistics) that we need for the games. rules of the games. safety guidelines for the games. icebreakers. you can have my word for that. (sorry, i was too excited that i planned all this before getting your consent/acknowledgement, whoops. so sorry!! haha) i will post them up once i get all of your word! so what's left are all the technical stuff; food. TRANSPORT (my main area of concern!!) camp theme. budget. where to get all the things we need. and etc etc etc.
so guys! i need to have your words! are you guys up for this?
if not, what other ideas do you guys reckon?
Saturday, December 6, 2008
hey people it's 4am and im bound to get some sleep already. so final edits soon!
oh and yeah tagboard's up! awesome.(:
hey 08s33.(:
to save my smses and your time for meetings and all, i figured that it'd be best that we discuss about our CIP here instead. our very own CIP blog. i've yet to edit the template of this blog, add tagboard and all. so meanwhile, just press the 'add comment' button for our discussions yeah.
the thing with SPCA is really cocked up. so i really think that we have to abort this idea. it's December already. i know, so late. i've looked up for other possible voluntary work.
1) SINDA (Indian self-help group). reading programme over a period of 6 months. weekly for an hour.
2) National Park. (this one's original dont you think for a CIP?)
further details are as follows:
HOW WE CAN HELP
Reforestation - Lead or join a group to restore degraded areas by removing aggressive weeds or planting native trees.
Plant propagation - Lead or join a group to propagate native plants and maintain the plants
Educational activities - Design or facilitate activities that create awareness and appreciation of the importance of protecting the nature reserves.
Field research/ surveys - Assist in collecting data for research projects and other field surveys.
Visitor services - To provide general information to visitors over the information counter at our Parks
Publications - Write articles about our parks/gardens/nature reserves and its volunteer activities for NParks newsletter and volunteer blog.
Design and artwork - Provide design services for our promotional and educational materials.
Photography - Help enhance our digital photo collection on the flora and fauna of the nature reserves for documentation and publication purposes and to take photos during events.
Computer work - Data entry.
personally, i think that the above two arent that great an idea. the first idea might not be that feasible because of our dear classmates from China. the second one, well, we're not so much of a nature lover are we? besides, the above two requires commitment. we have to 'vow' to do our job for a certain period of time. so in conclusion, i feel that the conventional idea seems to be most reasonable of the three. kids' home.
Children Aid Society. thats the name of the home which seemingly attracted my attention. how we can we help?
1) Tuition and learning support,
2) Projects (e.g. conducting enrichment, reading, music, computer and cooking classes for the children; maintaining the furniture and equipment in the Home; or organising special meals or parties for the children),
3) Excursions and outings,
4) Sports and structured games,
5) General play and participative interaction with the children,
6) Maintenance of the premises,
7) Undertaking fund raising projects and channeling the proceeds to the Home.
i think we can do number 2, 4, 5 and 6. some of us could interact with the kids while the rest could number 6 (do some cleaning of the home.) on my part, i've actually thought of all the games that we could arrange for the kids. i'll only go into details (on the next post) once everyone agrees with this idea; working with kids for our CIP.
i really hope to get your replies soon, Lovelies! i need to contact the home ASAP so that we can like finally do our CIP already. i really hope to get this done before school reopens. i would want to avoid postponing our CIP to the March holidays at all costs! agree, yes?
give me your replies via this blog yeah? i'll check it everyday!
On the day of the camp:
7) Finding a voluntary or community organisation
