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Advocating Changes, Inspiring Lives
7th Saints Advocate

Migrant Workers Week 2016

From 9th to 13th May 2016, a task force from the Seventh Saints Advocate decided to advocate for the migrant workers in Singapore.

Migrant workers are non-Singaporeans who work in Singapore, ranging from construction workers to foreign talents. However, this Migrant Workers Week focused the lower income group of migrant workers such as construction workers and maids. This is to bring awareness about the lives they live and to remove the stigma that many Singaporeans have against them.

For this project, the task force worked closely with the Migrant Workers Centre (MWC), which helps migrant workers who face problems such as not receiving their salary. MWC also hosted a May Day celebration for migrant workers on 15th May, and we hoped that through this Migrant Worker’s Week, some Saints will sign up to volunteer for this event.

From 9th to 13th May, daily announcements were made, stating facts about migrant workers. This helped the Saints to get to know more about them. A booth was also set up at the school’s fitness corner. The booth included articles about migrant workers in Singapore and provided more information about migrant workers in Singapore. There were also daily quizzes to let Saints find out how much they really know about migrant workers.

We also encouraged Saints to write or draw notes or drawings on pieces of paper. These pieces of paper will be combined and made into a scrapbook for the migrant workers which will be displayed at SCAPE on 4th June 2016. We received very good response for the notes!

Through this, the task force members learnt so much more about migrant workers and shared their knowledge with the other Saints. They also learnt more leadership skills and how to be a better advocate for the community. Here are some of their post project reflections:

“Quite a number of students visited our booth to write messages for the migrant workers, expressing their gratitude in simple words and drawings. Some even contributed to our booth by writing the translations of “Thank you” in their native languages. I was honestly very touched by their sincerity. This made me recognise the care and empathy that the student body in SAJC have the capacity to show. A majority of those who came to our booth, I observed, were scholars from other countries. I suppose that they would have a better understanding of what the migrant workers go through, and I felt happy to be the bridge between them and the migrant workers, to be able to connect them and let them communicate.

The daily morning announcements were also a great avenue for us to speak to the whole student body. I realised the influence that we actually do have, and that we must use it the best we can for the good of SAJC saints as well as the group that we are advocating for. It is very much a privilege and a great responsibility.”

-Maxine

“The response we received at our booth was much  better than expected.The saints were willing and happy to come down to write a short message for the migrant workers and they wrote it with much sincerity. This encouraged me as i felt that our saints have a greater heart of compassion than I expected as youths in Singapore are generally infamously known to be coldhearted. Apart from the writing of messages, the daily questions put up on the board also garnered more responses than I had planned for. We initially had 2 questions for the whole week as we thought many would be reluctant to answer. However, many saints answered the questions, hence we had to change the question every day.

On a side note, I felt that our task force members did well for the morning announcements as it was the first time for many of us and was quite nerve wrecking to stand up there in front of the whole school alone. Though it was pretty daunting, we did not let our nerves get the better of us and delivered what we had to, hence I feel proud of our task force members for pulling it off well.

All in all, through this whole process of planning and carrying out our proposal, I have learnt that prior preparation is very important and we should have a clear idea of what was going to happen in order for the whole week to run smoothly. I felt that this project has been an enriching experience for me as well as the whole task force. I have learnt how to handle situations on the go, work with people with very different personalities from mine and it has also given me the opportunity  to better understand my task force members and forge friendships with them. In addition, our project is self initiated and on a smaller scale compared to some of the other task forces. Hence it gave us the ability to be flexible and plan whatever activities we deemed fit.  However, this flexibility meant that we had to plan almost everything by ourselves and come up with the ideas which was quite challenging. Though it was difficult, we still managed to do it and everything turned out good, probably better. I am very proud of my task force and happy to have had the opportunity to work with everyone of them. I have benefitted much from this project and I owe the success of this project to every single member! :)”

-Gloria

“Looking back, I realize that I’ve learnt so much from this project. I gained so much more knowledge about the plight of migrant workers in Singapore. I also gained an insight as to what they feel and think about working in Singapore, including why they want to work here and how they view Singaporeans.

This project was really meaningful as I did not just learn more about migrant workers. Instead, I shared what I have learnt with other Saints through our Migrant Worker’s week. I learnt how to send my message across to the mass through morning announcements and daily quizzes. We also got Saints to write notes or draw something for migrant workers which will be compiled into a scrapbook. The response was very good and we collected almost 200 notes, with lots of effort put into drawing and writing them. Our Instagram page also gained almost 100 followers in a week. I felt very happy knowing that people were now more aware of the plight of migrant workers and I hope that this will help to remove the stigma which some Singaporeans have against migrant workers.

I have also learnt that it is very important to clarify everything in advance so that there won’t be any misunderstandings that will cause problems at the last minute. I also learnt that an attractive booth is very important in drawing attention for the Saints. In any future booths, I will remember to hang up the banner up from the ceiling instead of the table, so that it will be more noticeable.

All in all, it was a really enjoyable time doing this project and through it, I gained lots of valuable knowledge.”

-Calista

Get Ready for JC1 Service Learning (SL) Day 2016

Hi JC1s!

SL Day has been a college-wide program since 2004 And this year, it will be held on 8th August 2016, in conjunction with National Day, at Kim Seng CC!

This service learning (SL) day, we Saints will be able to make a difference in the lives of elderly in the Kim Seng community by offering them our time, companionship, friendship and respect.
We will have a chance to
- be Community Builders who actively take actions to enrich the lives of the elderly and strengthen the relationship of Saints with the Kim Seng community
- work together with our fellow Saints with a sense of oneness and Unity while serving the elderly.

-  extend a hand of friendship with Empathy to the elderly staying in Kim Seng community.

Many of these elderly live alone with little to no attention from their family. With many of them dealing with personal health issues (diabetes, high cholesterol, immobile etc.), they often find it a challenge to carry out household activities like cleaning and cooking. These elderly then seek companionship with their friendly neighbours and student volunteers, enthusiastically sharing about their life in the past.

This year’s project is called Silver Friends, whereby the elderly involved will be treated to a performance, and thereafter they will join in the fun at the carnival—all these will be organised and executed by us, Saints! Classes will be allocated to put up either a performance, or set up a games booth for the carnival!

The performance can include singing, a simple dance performance, or anything interesting that can engage the elderly! Take into consideration the genre of music and performances that will appeal to the elderly

The carnival would be interactive games or activities catered to the elderly, example bingo, throwback games, informative booths, art and craft, photo booths, etc. Do note that NO food booths are allowed. Do also take into consideration the agility of the elderly when planning the activities.

JC1 SL day 2016 will be an enriching experience in which we can all interact with the elderly and bring smiles to their faces :D We hope to have your enthusiasm and active participation in this event!

SL reps/class reps, please submit an idea for either a performance or carnival booth by 20th May, Friday via https://dropitto.me/sajc2016jc1sldayp. (upload password: sldayproposal (no caps)). You can download the templates via the links shared below:

Carnival Booth Proposal Instructions and Template

Performance Proposal Instructions and Template


Thank you!

Creating Memorable ‘Moments’ at NUS Community Engagement Festival 2016

 The Community Engagement (CE) Festival 2016 conducted by CAPT college of NUS was an insightful and fun event which allowed students like us, Saints Advocates, with a similar mission and vision to come together, share our experiences and know more about some underprivileged communities in Singapore.

“The Community Engagement Festival was so much more fun than I expected! I had expected it to be like an exhibition with little interactive activities but it turned out to be better. We got to meet people from different age group and backgrounds, and we interacted through many activities, like cooking urah pisang (I think) and churros, and planting kokedama (I think) from scratch! Not only was it a fun experience, I learnt many things too” –Karen

Planting kokedama to freshen up the days ahead!

Talking to the various groups offered us an insight into their world, the problems they suffer through and how many hardships they and their families have been through to continue living happily and finding a place for themselves in this world and today’s society. For example, we got to know that the Migrant Workers who are new in Singapore are often sexually and verbally abused and that disabled children are often bullied and looked down upon by other Singaporeans. This year’s theme “Moments” encouraged us to communicate and learn, from and with the other underprivileged community groups present like Migrant Workers, Elderly and children with disabilities. Here are thoughts and learnings by some of our Saints Advocates members and how the acts and words of the community members created moments which they are likely to remember for a long time:

“The most exciting activity for me was the activity where we had to make our very own dumplings. Both the migrant workers and elderly were very passionate and willing to teach us, since they have cooking knowledge and skills. They were patient and taught us step by step what to do. Unlike the usual image of migrant workers working long hours in the sun, it was very heart-warming to see a different side of them.” – Monika Ng

“While most people are usually under the impression that the elderly are boring and not tech-savvy, through the elderly in my group, I learned today that this is actually not true for most. One of the elderly in my group, Madam Sim was 81 years old and yet she was very proficient with using the iPhone.” Yi  Hao

Learning from elderly how to make roses from pandan leaves

Not only were we Advocates able to know more about the conditions and problems faced by the underprivileged groups in our community but we aim to use the knowledge we gained as a stepping stone to guide us in initiating projects or events which will aim to help these groups of people more and spread awareness about them to our fellow Saints. By doing so and conducting various other events or activities we hope to bring the Saints closer to the community which has supported us and encourage them to give back to the society. Here are some off the thoughts from our ambitious Advocates:

“One thing that I found really useful was my conversation with one of the facilitators. She shared with me some activities that the NUS people have done for the Migrant Worker project. It really gave me inspiration to do the same since I am currently also in the Migrant Worker task force”

-Yin

“I think CE fest is a great initiative by CAPT as it brings together like minded individuals and the more vulnerable groups of society together. Through this interaction, we can better understand their predicaments and also lend a listening ear to them. This probably sounds a little ambitious, but if we as Advocates can also organize a similar event for the community/SAJC, I think it will be quite suitable and meaningful since after all, we are the bridge between the community and the school.” -Ysabelle

Creating music with household items and with elderly and migrant workers, some of whom even sung songs in their Mother Tongue Language.

We Advocates are really grateful that we had an opportunity to attend this festival and were able to take away various learning points from it¸ which we hope will better enable us to fulfil our mission of ‘Advocating Changes, Inspiring Lives’.

Beautiful moment created at CAPT’s CE festival

Student Leadership Residential Program (SLRP) 2016

                                                                                                         

The SLRP is a programme held in Saint Andrew’s Hall (SA Hall) for members of the Saints Advocate to learn more about their roles as student leaders. The Seventh Saints Advocate were fortunate to have an opportunity to bond together as a batch and experience staying in the SA Hall from 29^th March to 11^th February 2016 under the SLRP.

During the stay, we attended talks and workshops such as Positive Intentions Workshop and INtercultural Workshop These activities helped us to grow and nurture ourselves. We learnt important leadership skills and bonded as a Seventh Saints Advocate.

Here are some reflections from the Seventh, as well as pictures of our stay:

“SLRP on the whole has provided me with insights into a lot of things and along the way, I understood myself better and can better understand why I joined Saints Advocate.

To know the actual meaning of servant leadership through the workshop was interesting as I never knew about it until I came to SAJC. It is indeed a great set of philosophy as it helps everyone to grow and to become a better person. I will mould myself into a servant leader too, not because our school require us to do so, not our cca require us to do so, but because I think it will be a right choice.”

~ Valerie

A sketch of our hostel bedroom

“Although I have been staying in hostel for quite some time, having SLRP is a different experience.The programme taught me how to be caring to others. Moreover, I truly cherish the time that as a Seventh spent together. Due to our workload and academic commitment, we sometimes tend to neglect the quality time of gathering together. Thus, by sharing rooms or at least, staying in close proximity to each other, I was given the chance to know my friends better. In fact, after the programme had ended, I would miss the time when I had the chance to do so. The sessions and workshops held throughout the 2 weeks are very meaningful to me. They allowed much time for reflection that otherwise would have been very minimal when I had busy schedule.”

~ Stefanus

Example of what we learnt

“The 2 weeks stay for the Student Leaders Residential Programme (SLRP) has been an enriching stay, allowing me to learn many different skills and gain a lot of knowledge about things happening around me in the society as well as increased my self awareness”

~ Pamela

Group picture with the Sixth after Cross Country

 

“I feel that this SLRP allowed us to bond very well together as a CCA as a 7th. It allowed us to know each other a lot better because we see each other close to 24 hours everyday for about 2 weeks. I feel very privileged to be able to have this programme right after the Leadership Training Camp LTC and at the beginning of the year because then we would be able to interact with each other even before our projects start, allowing us to be able to coordinate better in the future.”

~ You Xuan

 

Group picture outside SA Hall on the last day of SLRP