A newsletter of Fi los Communit y Ser vices

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Nov | 2012

From the ED’s desk

MICA (P) 097/05/2012

A story is told of two friends who were walking through the desert. They had an argument, and one

friend slapped the other one in the face. The one who got slapped was hurt, but without saying anything, wrote in the sand:

‘ TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SLAPPED ME IN THE FACE.’

They kept on walking until they found an oasis, where they decided to take a bath. The one who had been slapped got stuck in the mire and started drowning, but his friend saved him. After he recovered from the near drowning, he wrote on a stone:

‘ TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SAVED MY LIFE.’

The friend who had slapped and saved his best friend asked him, “Why did you write in the sand, and then in the stone?’

The other friend replied “When someone hurts me, I write it in sand where winds of forgiveness can erase it away. But, when someone does something good for me, I engrave it in

stone where no wind can erase it.”

This issue of FACES is dedicated to the many friends who have done much good, volunteering to help us at Filos to extend a hand of companionship to the needy children, youth, families and elderly that we serve through our iCare services. Their good deeds are engraved in the hearts of grateful beneficiaries. Look out in this issue for the snippets of testimonies from clients who have been blessed by their deeds of kindness!

We also want to take the opportunity to thank the participants of Filos’1st Charity Golf event on Nov 7th, for their generous support! The funds raised will be channeled to benefit the elderly in the new programs we have recently rolled out for them.

These past few months have seen us expand our services to the Elderly, value adding our Befriending Services with our ‘More than Friends’ program and our ‘Active Minds’ program. ‘More than Friends’ sees us doing home based health screening(including mental health screening) for our elderly clients

and ‘Active Minds’ sees us going into individual homes to run therapeutic mental health activities for clients with early dementia. These programs ultimately help the elderly to age in place in the community as they journey through their golden years.

Write Kurt Vonnegut Junior has said: “What should young people do with their lives today? Many things, obviously. But the most daring thing is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured.”

We are grateful for volunteers, supporters and donors, who are indeed helping us do that through Filos Community Services!

Dr. Foo Fung FongExecutive Director Filos Community Services

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My daughter is 9 years old. She is very interested in knowing about how babies come about.

She wants to know how the sperm meets the egg. I don’t know how to explain that to her. What do I do?’

‘My son is 15 years old. He brings his girlfriend home and they go to his bed-room and he shuts the door. I dare not go into his room to talk to him, because I am afraid he will get angry with me.’

These are questions and situations that parents have highlighted as they strug-gle to deal with their children’s develop-ment in sexuality. Often parents don’t know how to begin to address these issues with their children.

Breaking the Silence – Talk to your Child about Sexuality, is a talk conducted by Filos Community Services to help parents understand the youth sexuality

scene as well as provide tips on how to engage children and teenagers in comfortable conversations about their sexual development. After all, parents pay such great attention to their chil-dren’s development in academics and in their physical growth matters. Yet when it comes to their sexual development, parents often become silent and do not engage their children in this discussion.

The world our children live in is fast changing. This also affects their world-view, including how they regard values and time honoured traditions and beliefs. The fast pace of progress in In-formation Technology puts information and access to pornographic and other websites, easily accessible to vulnerable teenagers. It becomes important that parents talk to their children early to lay down foundational values in their lives with respect to sexuality.The simple fact of talking to your child

about sex reduces the likelihood that they will have it.Filos’ ‘Breaking the Silence’ Parent-ing Talk is approved by the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS) for use in School Family Education(SFE) schools. Filos is also listed as a Consultant Agency on the Health Promotion Board’s www.parentstalksex.sg website for parents who need help and information on how to engage their children in conversations about their sexuality.

Filos provides consultancy services to 12 schools under the School Family Educa-tion (SFE) program funded by MCYS. Filos is also a Family Life Ambassador (FLA) organisation providing consul-tancy services in Family Life programs to Corporate organisations.

Breaking the Silence : Talk to your Child about Sexuality

Family Life Services

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Assistance and Referral ServicesNUS Freshmen go for House to House VisitsOn 2nd August 2012, a batch of NUS freshmen made a visit to the elderly living in 1 room flats at Blk 12, Bedok South . During this visit, they got to know the elderly, gave out goodie bags to them and shared with them tips on preventing falls.

z NUS Freshmen Distributing

Goodies from House to House

President’s Challenge 2012 Volunteer DriveIn support of the President’s Challenge 2012 Volunteer Drive by National Volunteer and Philantripy Centre (NVPC) , FILOS took part in Volunteerism Xperience on 1st September 2012 by having an open house and showcasing FILOS’ works in the community with members of the public who signed up for the event through SG Cares.

Volunteers also had first experience joining in our monthly bread distribution to the homes of the needy elderly.

z NUS Freshmen Volunteers

Hari Raya BlessingsOn Aug 12th 2012, Filos celebrated with our Muslim beneficiaries in their Hari Raya festivities by sharing blessing bags of groceries . We had the help of volunteers from SGCares . These volunteers came early in the morning to pack the goodie bags and then spent the rest of the day delivering them door to door to the elderly and families.

z Hari Raya Blessings Volunteers

z Packing Goodies

z Delivering Goodies

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Our Elderly Services provide a one-stop, home based preventive health service for elderly living in the community.

z Befriending ServicesHome visits to the elderly to provide social and emotional support and interaction, as well as assistance and referral services, leading to maintenance and improvement of their emotional health, well being and quality of life.

z Preventive Health Services › More Than Friends

Befriending services value added with physical and mental health assessments for early detection of hypertension, diabetes, depression and mild cognitive impairment / dementia

› Active MindsHome based intervention with therapeutic activities aimed at maintaining mental health in elderly with mild cognitive impairment and/or early dementia.

z Social Wellness ProgrammesRegular activities that provide a platform for the elderly to interact with one another to reduce isolation and to promote social and emotional well being as well as development and maintenance of community connections.

FilosFilos

Filos

FilosFilos

Filos

Preventive Health Service for the Elderly Elderly Services

z Befriending and giving assistance

Mdm Cheong Moi Chan

“I enjoy the Active Mind activities and always

look forward to the weekly session with Hon

Mun.”

Mdm Chan Yoke Lan

“I have weak legs and cannot walk far. Filos

befriender has been very kind to help me

buy some groceries whenever I need.”

z Befriending Session

z Empowering caregiver with knowledge and skills

thru Active Minds programme

z Home Visit and Assistance to an elderly

z More Than Friends - Blood Sugar Measurement

z Reminiscence activity with an elderly in Active

Minds programme

z More than Friends - Blood Pressure Measurement

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Inter-Generational

Outing! Gardens by the Bay

Filos organized an outing to the Gardens By the Bay on 4th September, with special thanks to

Swarovski Singapore for sponsoring the event and providing volunteers to help the elderly who came along.

It was an eye-opening walk through the massive structures that housed the vivid array of flora, many of which the students have never seen before. The children ooh-ed and ahh-ed as the waterfall cascaded from high above them, and enjoyed snapping

countless photos against the breath-taking backdrop. The evening ended on a sweet note- everyone had an ice-cream cone after our Texas Chicken dinner, which literally became the icing on the fabulous cake!

Mr Tan Kok Siong (ex-fisherman, lost one leg due to diabetes)“After joining the Gardens by the Bay outing organized by Filos, I feel more comfortable to join the activities at the Senior Activity Centre. I have more friends now and feel encouraged to move more independently without using my wheelchair.”

Ivan: I think that the Teachers (ie. Filos Staff) and volunteer jiejie and korkor were very friendly. I enjoyed myself.

Wynne: My favourite part of the Gardens was the mini Lights Show after the nice Texas Chicken dinner. The Supertrees lighted up according to the music played!

z Happy Smiles

z Happy Faces of Children

z Happy Faces of Children

z Smiley faces z Yummy Dessert

z Group Photo at the Garden

z Children enjoying flowers

z Pairs of Elderly and Volunteers

Walking in the Garden

z Dinner Time

z Happy faces

z Look at the waterfall

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Children’s Day Outing to the “Love Is Loud” Carnival

z Happy Faces of Children

Anti-bullying WorkshopChildren and Youth

Filos conducted an Anti-Bullying Work-shop at Bedok West Primary School on 29th August, 2012. During the two-hour workshop, the facilitators brought the students through a meaningful journey via a myriad of activities.

Once the basic definitions were covered through a fruitful sharing where real-life examples were given by both the facili-tators and the students, they began to see the similarities that exist between

the bully and the bullied - both are hurt and both need help. Then, students were learnt about impulse control through games. They watched videos that highlighted the consequences of bullying, heard stories about self re-spect and respecting others, buzzed in group discussions to enhance problem-solving skills and even gave suggestions on how to address bullying instances observed in school.

More than 80% of the students felt strongly that the workshop had been helpful to them!

At the end of the two hours, the stu-dents walked away with bookmarks reminding them of simple steps to take when faced with a bullying situation and more importantly, how making friends is a win-win situation for all :)

Fun-filled Mayor’s Club Outing at Pasir Ris ParkFilos works with Eunos Primary School in a resiliency life-skill programme for their students called Mayor’s Club. Students learn skills like: cultivating and maintaining good friendships, manag-ing stress, being diligence and persevering. The final Mayor’s Club session on 24th September was held at Pasir Ris Park to consolidate the lessons learnt previously through fun and games. There, adrenaline levels soared and the need for teamwork intensified.

Lai Wei Xuan P1/3“I learnt to play games. The outing was very interesting. The games were fun. I got splashed by water during the water game” Aina P2/3“I enjoyed the shark game we played where the shark had to catch us and we had to escape by reaching our friends.” Low Kai Jun 2/2“The outing was useful and fun. I learnt that we have to be united if we want to learn.”

Hannah 4/5“I think the outing was use-ful and I learnt team work. I think I was able to be nice to my friends. I like to go to mayor’s club. I wish that mayor’s club would never end.”

On 6th October 2012, in celebration of Children’s Day and the end of PSLE, Filos brought the Primary 6 students out to La Villa for the “Love is Loud” Carnival. It was truly a day of “Bless-ings in a Bag” (BIAB) (Note: this is the name of the charity initiative running the event!). The entire day was a bundle of exciting, fun-filled and memorable moments! Although it was scorching hot after the light drizzle at noon, we had tre-mendous fun in the Bouncy Castle howling in pain and with laughter. One of the highlights was the yummylicious buffet we had when we arrived at the Carnival which was sponsored by BIAB. With his huge plate filled, Ivan asked, “Teacher, is this cooked by a chef? What is this? It is extremely nice!” By this, he was referring to the croutons he had on a plate of mashed pota-toes, grilled dory, lemon chicken and penne cooked in tomato-sauce base. The other children also showed great interest in learning about the delicious buffet

food and their preparation methods, and were very appreciative of it all. The children had a chance to interact with their peers from other groups too. They threw themselves into a game of frisbee and soccer! The day ended well with a free photo session that allowed us to bring home photographs as tangible mementos, besides the goodie bags and balloons which they released into the Bedok sky upon reach-ing home :) One of the children’s mother gave feedback and said, “My daughter told me that it was very, very fun! There was good food, games, photo-taking and great company. She came back telling me all about it. Thank you very much!”

“The students said it was the best workshop that they even had. Thanks again :)” -Mrs Kooi, School Counsellor of Bedok West Primary School

 

  

  

Filos Community Services Limited UEN-Local 200408452G, An Institution of Public Character (IPC) 

408-B Upper East Coast Road, Singapore 466484 

Tel: 6242 5978 Fax: 6242 6039, Email: info@filos.sg, Website: www.filos.sg 

Please DonateFilos’ programs and activities are funded largely by contributions from donors. Your contribution will help FILOS improve the well being of the less fortunate in our midst as we endeavour to reach many more individuals in the community.

Cash / Cheque DonationCash donation can be made at our office.For cheques, kindly make cheques payable to “Filos Community Services Ltd” and mail to 408B Upper East Coast Road, Singapore 466484.*All donations to FILOS are tax deductible.

Online DonationPlease visit our website www.filos.sg or donate through SGGIVES website www.sggives.org/filos

THANK YOU Teachers!

THANK YOU Golfers!

THANK YOU Volunteers!