Project Help Me Go HomeProject Help Me Go HomeOur story of Change fromCrescent Girls’ School, SingaporeImplementation Week: 9th to 15th August 2010

Zoe Fan, Ada Ong, Geraldine Wong, Jacqueline GweeMentor Teacher : Ms Namita Sarbahi.

About our causeAbout our cause• During a visit to the

hospital, we were shown a touching video about how ventilator assisted patients spend their last few days in the hospital.

• We felt sympathy for them. Since all of us are fit and able, we would like to do something to help them and at the same time, contribute to the community.

That's the reason why we chose to help the Ventilator Assisted Patients as the cause for this project!

Going out Going out • To further understand how we

could give them a helping hand and do our part, we did extensive research on the cause.

• We approached Tan Tock Seng Hospital and learnt more about their situation from the staff.

• In order to fully understand how the patients spend their daily life, we went for a hospital visit in Tan Tock Seng Hospital.

Tan Tock Seng HospitalTan Tock Seng Hospital

We visited patients in the Tan Tock Seng Hospital to bring joy to themDue to privacy and sensitive reasons, photography of the wards was not allowed.

What are Ventilator Assisted What are Ventilator Assisted Individuals?Individuals?

There are 3 groups of VAIs that are served in the hospital:• High spinal cord injured patients• Patients with end-stage neuromuscular disorders• Terminally ill patients with advance malignancies and/or end stage

organ failure

VAI patients cannot breathe by themselves. They need breathing equipment, a ventilator, to help them breathe. Strapped to the machine every day, these patients have to stay on the hospital beds and are only allowed 4 visitors at a time and only during visiting hours (according to hospital's policy).

The sad truth is, most hospital-bound VAIs spend the final days of their lives in the hospital. Many desperately want to go home if the infrastructure exists and more importantly, if they can afford to.

However, one ventilator machine costs around SGD$12,000-SGD$22,000!

Our team is glad to promote awareness and fundraise for this cause because we are helping VAI patients to spend their last days at home. Home is where these VAI patients are at their most familiar and comfortable environment. Best of all, they are free to meet all their loved ones.

Step 2: Step 2: IIMMAAGGININEE• We were all very passionate about this project

and came together to brainstorm of fund raising ideas.

• We thought of the idea of having street sales of hand-made straw heart pins to raise funds.

• Next, we applied under the Citi-YMCA Youth for Causes program, for a seed funding of $1,600. This would provide us with the necessary finances needed for the activities we planned.

• Another big project we did was to hold charity car washes in our own school.

    Why street sales and charity Why street sales and charity car wash?car wash?

• Street sales is a practical way to raise funds. It enables us to interact with the public and spread awareness. This way, we would be able to approach and impact a lot of people just in one day!

• Holding in-school car wash is another efficient way to raise funds. We are able to explain to the customer more about the cause while they are waiting for their cars to be washed. 

• In addition to raising money, we spent time to inform others about the patient’s plight, thus making an impact on others.

Preparation and procedurePreparation and procedure• We held a folding session with around 140 - 150

students from our own school to fold the straw heart pins needed for street sales. 

• Each straw heart pin was sold for a dollar.• Every volunteer brought their own basket to sell

the pins in.

Volunteers – How we recruited Volunteers – How we recruited themthemWe got our friends to ask their

friends, who in turn asked their friends to come along.

We emailed all the students in our school using the internal email system

Also, we created a Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=107882675925433

) and an official blog (http://www.projecthmgh.blogspot.com) to reach out to more people.

Street sales!Street sales!• On 8 August 2010,we

organized a street sales in Northern Singapore, Chua Chu Kang, with a total of 89 volunteers from various secondary schools islandwide!

• Imagine this! If one volunteer approached around 100 people, a very realistic figure, 89 volunteers would have reached out to around 8,900 people.

Briefing of the volunteers to tell them about the cause, and how to sell the pins.

Our lovely volunteers!

Our lovely volunteers!

Our lovely volunteers!

Our lovely volunteers!

What volunteers said…What volunteers said… “I think you guys did a good job, and street sales was

very fun” –Lai Shumin

“It teaches me how important even a dollar can make change to a person's life and that by volunteering/donating, one can help to make another person's life better” –Sng Kai Lin

“Knowing that we are actually helping someone in need really warms my heart!” –Natalia Kusumo

“Before this, I have never heard of VAI patients before, but I am glad to make a difference to them.” –Quek Shu Hui

“At first, I did not really care about these VAI patients but through this project, I have learnt a lot about them as well as helped them.” –Grace Yeo

Charity Car Wash! - PreparationCharity Car Wash! - Preparation• A few days before the car

wash, we distributed flyers and mass emailed all the teachers and parents about this event.

• We collected orders from teachers before the actual event, to make sure we would hit our target.

• We purchased cloth, sponges and car shampoo.

• Our school lent us the buckets to put the soapy water in

• On the day itself, our friends from various classes came to help us wash the cars.

• We split them up into wet and dry teams for more efficiency.

• Then, we briefed our friends about how to wash the cars correctly.

Charity Car Wash!

Hard at work, scrubbing the tyres

Working together, and having fun!

After the car wash..After the car wash..• We received a considerable amount of

positive feedback from parents and teachers about the carwash service we provided:

◦ “My car is sparkly now”

◦ “You clean better than the petrol stations!”

◦ “Will you be here next week, as I would like to come again to have my car washed”

All of our friends enjoyed washing the cars too!

We are really thankful towards all our volunteers and classmates who participated in this project with us.

In order to show our appreciation for their help, we gave them a goodies bag worth around SGD$10 from various sponsors.

And we would also like to thank all our teachers and friends who were there by our side and gave us continuous moral support.Also, Joanna from Tan Tock Seng Hospital, who gave us immense help and guidance throughout this project.

A very big thank you to…

  Raised a total of Raised a total of SGD$4,643.40SGD$4,643.40 within seven days!within seven days!• We manage to raise an astounding amount

of SGD$4,643.40 through one street sales and car wash!

• With the completion of other activities like additional street sales from May to September, we raised a total of SGD$22,774.46 from this whole project.

How we were ‘Changed’How we were ‘Changed’

Throughout this whole project, we have got to know more about ourselves; our strengths and our weaknesses. In addition to that we became closer as a team and as friends.

This project gave us a golden opportunity to understand the needs of our community and to promote volunteerism to the youths in this world, including us!

We have benefitted much from this project. For example, we learnt about the importance of teamwork, and how to improve on our plans and ideas to get the most out of it.

We also felt that this whole project has been challenging, yet fulfilling. It has given us plenty of real-world experience we would otherwise not have obtained.