Ultimate Frisbee

Through partnering with ItsRainingRaincoats, my CCA, Ultimate Frisbee, gave back to the migrant worker community. I would like to share more about our project as well as my personal thoughts and takeaways on the experience.

Our Project and Partnering Organisation

ItsRainingRaincoats is an initiative for the benefit of migrant workers. IRR aims to improve the lives of migrant workers in Singapore, and build bridges to strengthen their integration into our broader community by using imaginative, innovative, authentic and nimble strategies.

Just like IRR, my team saw that this group of people were not getting enough support that they needed, especially in this COVID-19 situation. Hence, aligned with their aims, as well as our school's vision, my team has come up with a three-pronged approach - consisting of care packs with well-wishes, recorded English lessons as well as raising awareness.

Planning and Proposal

As this was my first time organising a VIA project, it was definitely challenging but very fulfilling. The initial plan to teach children with special needs had to be changed because of COVID-19 restrictions. With a large team of 25 people, it was also crucial to pick a target group that all of us were passionate about. After much consideration about feasibility and impact, we finally decided on the unheard workforce, the migrant worker community.

Firstly, with the COVID-19 situation ongoing, many migrant workers are struggling to take good care of themselves while earning money. Hence, our team donated 50 care packs in total and hosted an intra-school donation drive to collect daily essentials like toothbrush, toothpaste, towel and disposable masks. In addition to that, in every care pack we are giving to the migrant workers, we also attached a hand-written card that was written by Eunoians.

Secondly, after communicating with the organisation, we saw that we could contribute through education. By recording English lessons, we hope to teach the migrant workers basic English skills that will help strengthen their integration into our community and help ensure their safety at workplaces. Lesson topics included: ABC, common words and phrases; numbers and time; greetings, introductions and farewells; simple instructions, forms, notices and posters for workplaces and public areas; tools and office equipment as well as Singlish and its application.

Thirdly, by posting social media posts, we hoped that more Eunoians could hear their stories and thus provide help whenever they can.

Our VIA experience

A few learning points that my team and I would like to share are:

1. Adaptability: Even though our initial plan to teach children with special needs how to play Ultimate Frisbee had to be changed because of its feasibility, it is important to be adaptable and find other meaningful ways to contribute to the community.

2. Communication with your organisation: We originally had our own plans on how we can serve the migrant worker community. However, communication with our organisation allowed us to think through and contribute in a way that most benefit the migrant workers. Since we have much lesser interactions with our beneficiaries as compared to our organisation who has been serving them for a long time, it is important to communicate and ask politely how we can help them.

3. Thirdly, effective use of manpower. To ensure that all 25 members of my team are involved and are equally committed, something that I found particularly useful was appointing a few ICs and splitting the CCA into subgroups based on their interests and talents.

4. Lastly, on top of splitting workload effectively, time management is also extremely important. Since our project was not a one-day event, but extended over two weeks, I found it particularly helpful when we had a timeline and deadlines to meet. This ensures that we will be able to achieve our project objectives on time.

Overall, it has been a very meaningful experience for us and we hope that you can go forth to serve the people you want and make an impact in their lives! Throughout all this uncertainty, let's stick together and be the change we want to see in the world. Give back and make this world a better place, for it is in giving, that we receive.

CCA VIA Ambassador

TEO ZI NING (20-O5)