Taekwando

Topic: VIA on animal welfare in SG

Content:

I would like to share with the juniors the difficulties involved in working with animal welfare organisations in Singapore (and during the Covid-19 situation), the differences in what I initially expected of working in a team as well as what to expect when working with a project that is stretched out over a period of time instead of a one day event. Furthermore, as someone who was new to planning VIAs, I would like to share my thoughts and takeaways on the experience.

What is our project:

We partnered with the SPCA in our VIA project, Project Redamancy, which aimed to educate youths on the issue of animal welfare in Singapore. What we did was to conduct an online campaign on Instagram mainly clarifying the misconceptions surrounding the SPCA, as well as showcasing some stories to do with animal abuse and or animal rescue - this aided us in our goal of raising awareness of animal welfare in Singapore (and of SPCA's work). We also conducted a 2 week long donation drive in school collecting towels from Eunoians for the SPCA - during a meeting we had with our key SPCA correspondence, they mentioned that they needed towels for the animals, hence we made towels the item to collect for the donation drive.

1. Difficulties

It is good to be aware of your target audience, aims and possible limitations in your project.

1. 1. Have to be aware of which specific animal group you would like to work with (i.e. stray animals, dogs, wildlife, cats, etc)

   2. Have to work with the age restrictions for certain volunteering roles offered by the organisations and the Covid-19 restrictions that greatly reduces the range of opportunities offered

2. Differences in what I expected of working with my CCA mates

When I first started the project, I looked forward to working with my CCA to create a VIA project that was impactful and memorable for everyone involved. I had assumed everyone would be as equally excited as I was. But reality is that one cannot simply rope others into a big project when they have no interest or motivation to - especially since a VIA project is often not one of the priorities of stressed students. As this project was over the course of a few months, it was hard to stay motivated when fellow CCA mates do not take it as seriously or put in as much effort as I had hoped for - but of course, the project cannot not simply stop because some are not putting in effort.[3] With the help of fellow OICs and committee heads, and short term task assignments, the project was slowly pieced together by everyone's efforts, no matter how big or small - I actually thought this was really amazing to see, when I looked over my teammates' task submissions and saw everything come together :) Of course, there were still some who did not put in any effort at all, which I regrettably could not motivate[4] . But I could not afford to dwell on these few and overlook the several others who are in fact trying their best.

3. What to expect with a project stretched out over a period of time (i.e. campaign, donation drive)

Schedules and deadlines, as well as proper communication with the people involved in the project are very important. Plus, one must consider the sustainability of the project and the tasks/role distributions across the time period.

3. 1. A timeline and calendar is very important

   2. One must be aware of the how the project could clash with examinations and events such as orientation

   3. One needs to coordinate with the organisation, the teachers, the OICs and the CCA constantly and keep track of what needs to be done at regular intervals (for example, every week)

   4. As the organisation may need time to respond to some of your requests, and holidays may take place during the time period, one needs to be flexible with deadlines and be able to adapt should anything occur (e.g. delays and changes in plans)

   5. It is good to check in with the team on their progress from time to time and help them along with their tasks (in their committees)

   6. Publicity generation is important to sustain your audience’s engagement

4. Thoughts and takeaways

   1. As someone who had never done any large project planning before, it was overwhelming at first - there were multiple things to keep track of at the same time, be it a reply from the organisation, permission requests from the school (publicity through announcement systems etc), tasks that the team was working on

   2. I also get very anxious when it comes to correspondence with the organisation so it took hours at times for me to write 1 reply email to them

   3. Since my batch was the first batch in our CCA, I didn’t have seniors to rely on as an example to follow for this project[5]

   4. However, this whole project was rewarding in the end - I became somewhat confident in writing formal emails, now understand what to take note of when it comes to planning events, learnt how to be more adaptable to changes, learn how to create clear proposals and how to delegate tasks and roles

   5. Plus, working with the CCA over months and finally having a complete product in the end gave a great sense of accomplishment and pride that everyone’s efforts were not wasted and helped to make a difference

   6. The help from people around you really makes a difference - I tend to end up doing things alone as I am unsure how to ask for help (phrasing of request, delegation of responsibilities etc) but earnest members of the team, my fellow OICs and ICs, the teachers all helped to lead me along, motivate and get me back on track if I start to get overwhelmed

   7. All in all, even though I would never have believed I’d get this far months before today, here I am to give this sharing (which I hope the juniors had learnt from)

Miscellaneous point(s):

Need to remember to email the multiple organisations about your interest early so that they have ample time to respond (and you would have time to finalise the organisation you are working with)

CCA VIA Ambassador

Jeanelle Wong Xiang Ting (20-E2)