ComChest aims to raise record $72.3m

Community Chest Fund-Raising Launch 2012 on May 3, 2012. (Photo: NCSS)

The Community Chest aims to raise a record $72.3 million in the current financial year.

It plans to use the 30 percent increase in funds to better help families, youths-at-risk and the disabled.

Despite being diagnosed with mild intellectual disability, 21-year-old Ong Kian Peng successfully completed his vocational training in the food and beverage industry.

He earned the Singapore Workforce Skills Qualifications Certificate in Food and Beverage Service.

Kian Peng has been working as a service crew at a fast-food outlet for more than a year. And his good performance has landed him a permanent job with the company.

“I can meet new friends, and I can learn new skills, and I can earn a lot of salary,” he said.

ComChest aims to reach out to more people like Kian Peng by increasing its fund-raising target by $16.6 million.

The money will help 82 voluntary welfare organisations provide 219 social service programmes that will benefit over 300,000 people.

The newly-funded programmes will meet service gaps and cater to a growing demand for services.

More than half of the funds will go towards helping children with special needs. These include setting up three centres for the Early Intervention Programme for Infants and Children.

Jennie Chua, Chairman of Community Chest, said: “If children are born with special needs and you intervene and have programmes to intervene early, it will be effective. And in fact you do save a lot of money later on.) So if you have got the evidence that this is good for children with special needs, you need to put more money there.”

Funds will be disbursed to enhance curriculum and increase enrolment at special education schools, as well as to serve 500 more adults with disabilities and their families.

Abhimanyau, Society for the Physically Disabled, said: “Every single dollar that we raised or get government fund, we are trying to allocate 80 percent directly to the children. That means 80 percent will be used for service provision, 20 percent for administrative work.

ComChest will also co-fund the STEP-UP programme (Enhanced ‘School Social Work to Empower Pupils to Utilise Their Potential’) together with the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports.

It aims to support youths-at-risk in completing their education.

The funds will also be used to build three more family service centres to serve 600 more families.

This article was first published in CNA

Don’t release animals into the wild on Vesak Day

Do not release animals into the wild this Vesak Day — that’s a reminder from the National Parks Board (NParks).

This year’s Vesak Day falls on Saturday.

NParks said it is working with volunteers to carry out “Operation No Release” in the nature reserves and reservoirs this weekend.

They will keep a lookout for any case of animal release and will educate and advise members of the public on the harm of releasing animals into the wild.

NParks director of conservation Wong Tuan Wah said: “We would like to appeal to the public not to release animals into the wild as it means sending them to their deaths.

“As some of these animals are usually kept as pets, they are not likely to survive as they are not used to the surroundings and are not able to cope in the wild. If these animals carry viruses, they will also affect other native wildlife.”

Meanwhile, Buddhist Fellowship president Angie Chew Monksfield said: “We should be compassionate and considerate to animals both in captivity as well as in the wild as releasing certain animals could threaten those in the wild.

“It would be more beneficial to reduce our meat intake all year round than simply releasing animals during Vesak as this could also encourage vendors to increase the supply of animals for this very purpose.”

To complement efforts of the operation, NParks is partnering volunteers and students from CHIJ Our Lady Queen of Peace to conduct an outreach ambassador session at the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve on 19 May, from 9am to noon.

The session aims to educate and advise the public against releasing animals into Singapore’s reserves and nature areas.

This article was first published in CNA 

NTUC FairPrice to raise staff volunteering hours

Singapore’s largest supermarket chain operator NTUC FairPrice aims to raise its staff volunteer hours to 2,300 hours by 2016.

Last year, its volunteers clocked a total of 200 hours through ad-hoc projects.

NTUC FairPrice also plans to increase the number of volunteering activities from 12 in 2011 to 75 by 2016.

To drive this initiative, CEO of NTUC FairPrice, Mr Seah Kian Peng, appointed 13 volunteer leaders to develop a structured staff volunteer programme.

Mr Seah said: “We also hope that by doing this, we can encourage more, other corporates, to also play their part to create a bigger impact for the community.

“This we believe is our way – in being a big employer… we should lead, in terms of creating a bigger social impact and helping to build a better community.”

FairPrice will also work with YMCA and voluntary welfare organisations, such as Food from the Heart, Ren Ci Nursing Home and Society for the Physically Disabled.

66-year-old Chew Eng Huay is thrilled whenever NTUC volunteers visit her at the Ren Ci Nursing Home.

She said: “There are many NTUC volunteers who come during Chinese New Year to toss ‘yusheng’ (raw fish salad) with us. It makes us happy as we sing and dance.”

Data from the National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre, released last September, show that volunteerism fell from 23 per cent among 20 to 24 year olds to 16 per cent among those aged 25 to 29.

Research has also shown that volunteer activities organised by employers will attract more volunteers. They will also entice those who have stopped volunteering due to work commitments to pick it up again.

25-year-old human resource executive Chantal Ong used to volunteer when she was studying in university, but stopped when she started working.

She said: “I think it’s the time factor – because as a fresh grad, I will want to spend more time on my career, and then slowly adapting to the company and the work processes. So actually when FairPrice has this initiative, and I’m being nominated as a volunteer leader, I was quite happy to take it up.”

This article was first published in CNA