Community Builder Week 2014 - Impossible? I'm Possible

Community Builder Week was a truly meaningful and memorable one. It started off with the video presentation to the cohort in CC. The video made me realize that the importance of showing our care and support to the disabled. 

Activities held at the booth by the canteen were interesting. For example, I find the Braille keychain an appropriate souvenir as it is related to the theme of empathizing with the disabled. Students who got it will most likely hook it to the zip of their bag, which will serve as a frequent reminder that they should always put themselves in the disabled people’s shoes. 

The board of opinions on disabilities at the canteen

Monique (4th Advocate) is making a Braille keychain 

Saints are making Braille keychains

The activity I like the most is  ‘I believe, I can’. I was one of the helpers in the activity during my 1 hour break. As not many students came forward to the booth, I went around the canteen to persuade my fellow schoolmates to write on the board, while explaining to them the rationale of it. It was heartening to see some of my schoolmates write aspirations that they have on the board, clinging on to the hope that they have the ability and will achieve it someday. I feel that this activity is meaningful as it gives students some time to think about something they want to achieve. Through this activity, they are actually declaring that their dreams can be achieved, which can be a turning point of life for some students.

"I believe I can..."

Wheelchair bound challenge at the canteen

During the last day of Community Builder Week, we attended the Service Learning Convention where we listened talks and participated in activities on a specific scope of the disabled. The videos ‘Invisible people’ made me realise that we often neglect the homeless people on the streets. I then asked myself this question, 'if I could love my family members, why can’t I show a least bit of concern to the homeless people?’  I attended the “autism’ workshop and  I managed to learn more about how people with Autism behave. For example, information that they want to share with others cannot be well-understood. Through the activity of conveying a message via paper without writing, it helped me to put myself in the shoes of those with Autism and be better aware about who they are.

Student-led workshop on "Wheelchair bound" disability

Student-led workshop on Visual impairment

Service Learning Seminar

Community Builder Week task force with teachers and seniors

Presentation of Photo Montage to Simei Care Centre (Community Builder Week)

During our Community Building Week, the Saints Advocate worked to raise awareness for people with mental illness, and for the work of Simei Care Centre as a psychiatric rehabilitation centre. They then organised for willing students to take photos while holding hands, in the likeness of Simei Care Centre's logo. This school-wide effort was organised into a photo montage and presented to Simei Care Centre on 14th June 2013, with the words "Persevere! Fight On!".

It was the second time that I had been to Simei Care Centre (SCC), but this was the first time that I had the chance to interact with a few of the residents there. At first look, many of them seemed a little quiet and unfriendly, but during the presentation of the frame, I could see that they were very touched and happy that there were students who were willing to support them and learn to understand and accept them. Most of them had smiles on their faces and when we brought the frame on stage, and many of them came forward to take a closer look. It was very heart-warming to know that Saints Advocate had made an impact on these residents. Even though the impact was small, bringing a smile to their faces was enough to make me smile as well. I had the chance to speak to one or two of the residents and they were really very happy that so many people were aware of the work that they did. When Justin and Siao Yen, the staff at SCC, thanked us for all the hard work, all I could think of was how it had been such a pleasure to have worked with SCC over the past year. It is also great to know that there are such selfless individuals who are doing their best to help those people who may be a little different from us assimilate back into society. The work that they do is a lesson to all of us, that as long as you have the heart to do it, anything is possible. I was very happy that I had the chance to present this token of appreciation to SCC and to share in their happiness. I hope that all of them are encouraged by this and I also hope that we will continue to work with SCC in the near future. :)

-Rosabel Tay, 3rd Saints Advocate

Rosabel expressing SAJC and Saints Advocate's support for the Simei Care Centre patients 
and the work that SCC is committed to doing

Presenting the photo montage to SCC

Community Builder Week

From 29 April to 3 May 2013, the 3rd and 4rd Saints Advocate organised Community Builder Week to raise awareness among the students of the privilege they currently enjoy and encourage them to help those less fortunate in the community. During the week, there were many activities conducted, including collection of can tabs, photo taking and exhibition. Besides that, the Advocates also gave out various freebies to students, ranging from foam roses, encouraging messages on sticky notes to balloons to bring smiles to their faces. The week was ended off with a Service Learning Convention, where SL Representatives from each class gathered and had a hands-on experience of giving out small gifts to people around Potong Pasir to simply brighten up their day. Community Builder Week was after all a good reminder to all of us to be more aware of the needs of the community.

Community Builder Week is the first activity that I was in charge of. Through this priceless experience, I have learnt how to work in team with people I did not really know before and maintain effective communication with them. In this event, I was in charge of the exhibition. Initially, even though the seniors had already come up with all the plans, they were still open for suggestions from us. This, hence, allowed us to voice out our ideas to improve the exhibition. I was quite excited for the Community Builder Week in the beginning as it was my first time organising a school-wide project in SAJC.

During the preparation, I had the opportunity to go out and buy materials used for exhibition with my other task force members. As we wanted to display the models of two children from Singapore and third world country in the exhibition, we decided to buy 2 mannequins to make the models look realistic. Unfortunately, the seniors came to tell us later that we should not have spent so much money on the mannequins only although it looked nice. It made us feel quite guilty and sad about that.

Moreover, Community Builder Week project has actually taken a lot of my time. For the whole two weeks after school, we prepared the materials, set up the boards and exhibition. During the week itself, most of our breaks were occupied. It had also affected my studies a little bit because I had a very little time to complete my homework and it drained a lot of my energy. In the future, should there be another project that requires all advocates to be on duties during breaks, I would suggest that we have shifts only for half of our breaks so that we can use the other half to have lunch and/or studies. However, this has also taught me to manage my time well and effectively.

Freebies given out to students during the week

After all, despite all the problems faced, I am glad to say that Community Builder Week has been successful, judging from the fact that many SAJC students have responded quite well to our project. They were excited to take photos with our photo frame to show support to Simei Care Centre. They liked our gifts such as paper roses, ribbons, balloons and hair clips. Some of them were interested in our projects, asking us the objectives of our project and asking how they can support Autism. It was indeed a good experience with Saints Advocate.

SL Representatives listening attentively to the speaker during the Service Learning Convention

-Natasha Ratanapan, 4th Saints Advocate