70 Acts of Kindness - Kindness 31 to 40

Kindness 31

CNY Medley @ Tembusu Eldercare Center

The purpose of the project was to bring cheer and joy to Seniors during the festive Chinese New Year season through cultural music performances, showcasing how music serves as a universal language that transcends age, language, and personal backgrounds to touch hearts. This joint effort by the Service Learning Club and Guzheng Ensemble involved performing a medley of Chinese New Year songs at the Tembusu Eldercare Center. The experience proved deeply impactful for the students, as they witnessed the Seniors’ heartfelt appreciation through their smiles, enthusiastic clapping, and repeated calls for encores, despite any language barriers. The journey back to school was marked by quiet reflection, with students expressing how meaningful it was to bring happiness to others through music. The project’s return to live performances after the pandemic added a renewed sense of purpose and joy, fulfilling years of anticipation from the students eager to reconnect with the Seniors in person.

Kindness 32

Interaction with All Saints Home Residents

Students visited the home to allow residents of All Saints Home (Tampines Centre) to enjoy music from a live performance by Bartley Concert Band and to give opportunity for the residents to interact with the youths.

The students of the Concert Band first performed live in front of the residents in the Chapel in the All Saints Home (Tampines). After that, the students broke up into small groups with origami and colouring materials and conduct the activities with the residents. For residents who did not want to do the activities, the students attempted to chat with them or just be around them to listen to them speak. At the end of the interaction session, some students helped to push the wheelchair-bound residents back to their rooms.

Before the Concert Band left the All Saints Home, a small donation of food items (that the residents would consume, according to the coordinator) was given to the coordinator of the All Saints Home (Tampines).

The performance by the Concert Band gave an opportunity for the All Saints Home residents to enjoy live music performed by the band. During the interaction session, the residents had the opportunity to interact with the students through the activities. Besides being able to learn how to do origami from the students, some residents also shared their experiences and even did their own version of origami.

The time spent with the elderly created a memorable experience as we were able to interact with many elderly and spend meaningful time with them. As many of them shared that they felt lonely, this opportunity gave them moments of happiness and company. The elderly liked the colourful origamis that we did for them and the time we spent together to colour with them. Our band also performed a song called “Xi Shui Chang Liu” for them. It was heartwarming to see them join us in the singing and enjoying themselves. - Student, Estrada Stacee Mae Maluto

Kindness 33

National Day Celebration with Green Avenue Home for Aged

Green Avenue Home for Aged is a non-profit organization committed to care, support, and provide basic healthcare and welfare to needy senior citizens. Red Cross partnered this home for the community project. In this visit, most of the cadets were from secondary 1 and 2. The NCO’s led the team and organized various activities during our visit. This visit was in-conjunction with National Day celebration.

On the 22nd of August 2019, Red Cross Youth cadets, accompanied by our Senior Youth Officer Mr. Louis Isack Kumar and Youth Officer Ms. Ku Shu Min visited the Green Avenue Home for Aged. Cadets prepared their activities and rehearsed their performances two weeks prior to the actual day. They were very excited for the visit because they had spent time preparing performances for the old folks in the home. During the journey there, the senior cadets shared their experiences with the junior cadets on how to interact with the senior citizens.

Upon arrival at the Centre, the cadets were briefed by the Centre director Mr. Paul on the service rendered. The Centre provides a service which includes physiotherapy, health talks and counseling. During the visit, our Red Cross cadets performed National Day Songs, conducted games for the residents, and entertained the folks with an array of performances which included songs and dances. The performances brought joy and laughter to the folks.

After the performances, the cadets interacted with the old folks. They also organized Art and Craft activities like drawing and painting. Most of the old folks actively took part in this painting activity. During the activity, some of the old folks shared their life experiences with the students. For those who did not show much enthusiasm for drawing and painting, students played games with them.

Kindness 34

Good Neighbours

To promote the spirit of neighbourliness, our Secondary 1 Bartleyans embarked on a project to foster good neighbourliness.

Through this project, Bartleyans learnt how to show empathy by understanding the needs and concerns of their neighbours. At the same time, they built self-confidence through casual interactions with their neighbours. This is in the hope for students to learn to build, maintain and strengthen healthy and supportive relationships with neighbours to promote positive heartland living.

Bartleyans first attended “HDB Digital OHYAY! Secondary School Roadshow” where they learnt about the history of public housing, town planning, housing policies as well as the creation of active and cohesive communities. This was essential for them to understand the significance of fostering good neighbourliness and their role in actualizing it.

The students started their journey designing coasters for their neighbours. They included positive messages to encourage neighbours to tide through tough times. Upon completion, students presented coasters to their neighbours.

Kindness 35

Sec 3 VIA Project 2021

Covid-19 may have restricted students’ opportunity to step outside to the community to do their usual VIA project. However, the school used this chance to explore other avenues of VIA for the Secondary 3 students in 2021. Pre-Covid, students would choose an organisation they would like to partner with for their VIA project and liaise with the organisation on the activities that they could do. In 2021, this arrangement took the form of a fundraising project instead. Student bade for the VWOs that they would like to raise funds for and planned an activity to execute for their fundraising. We had groups planning game stalls and craftwork. The teamwork was evident in the planning and preparation stage. However, students were not able to implement their fundraising plans due to the change that occurred in safe management measures. Nevertheless, students did a presentation to raise an awareness on the cause and the beneficiary for the VWO that they had chosen. All in all, it was an enriching experience for the students!

“I feel that the event was not as good as it could have been due to restrictions. We were unable to actually set up the stall and have the games. Nevertheless, it was a good experience to learn about the charities and do our part to support them in our groups.” – Tan Jing Xian

“We shared ideas on the possible activities for the fundraising and tapped on our strengths during the preparation. We learnt more about our classmates. When challenges arose, we tried to manage it on our own as it was part of the process of working as a team.” – Andy Sim

Kindness 36

Upcycling Project 2021

The notion of recycling is something familiar to Bartleyans but the new wave of upcycling was a novelty to the students. In 2021, the school explored the idea of upcycling to students as an alternative to the annual recycling drive. To prepare students for the upcycling project, an introductory video was shown to students, together with examples of materials that can be used for upcycling. Needless to say, students unleashed their creativity in this upcycling project, coming up with unique ideas to use recyclable materials to produce items that has been repurposed.

“I felt that upcycling project was something that should be done by everyone as recyclable objects can be made into something useful and shouldn’t be neglected. It can also be a skill that I can learn slowly and make it into something fun.” – Abdul Hakim

“I felt really proud that we were able to make a product using scrap materials. Although we faced some difficulties, we learnt not to give up and instead tried our best to make it. It took a while, but we managed it. I was glad that we persevered and did not give up easily.” -

– Prescott Goh

Kindess 37

Raising Awareness on Maintaining Healthy Kidneys

As part of the Experiential Learning Week, the Secondary Two students created a school wide awareness drive on maintaining healthy kidneys by designing posters. This activity aimed to instil the value of compassion in our students and to inspire and equip them with the necessary knowledge to make a difference in the community. It was also an important call to everyone in school to maintain healthy lifestyles so as to prevent kidney diseases.

During the Experiential Learning Week, the Secondary Two students gathered their knowledge on the importance and maintenance of healthy kidneys by attending a virtual talk by The National Kidney Foundation (NKF). The virtual talk gave insights to the students on how they can adopt a healthy lifestyle and be free from kidney failure. At the same time, students were also able to seek a better understanding of the challenges and struggles faced by the patients as they listened to their stories. With this understanding, students were better equipped with the necessary knowledge to craft a digital poster using the Canvas. A total of 225 posters were created.

Reflection

“I feel bad for the kidney patients as kidney failures changed every aspect of their lives drastically. This activity is meaningful to me as I learnt many things about how important our kidneys are. Now, I can spread the awareness of kidney failure to my family and friends. This activity also made me realise that every action that we take can play an important role in changing someone’s life so I want to start to contribute to the community from now on.” - Keiko Aurelia Nathanael, 2E1 2022

“I feel that the kidney patients are very resilient as they have to go through tedious treatments not being able to live their lives the way they desire. Contributions to the community can be small acts like creating posters to spread awareness. It does not always have to be something big.” - Ariel Gael Djunaedi, 2E4 2022

“I feel sad because the kidney patients have to physically and emotionally suffer each day and here I am not caring much about my own health. This activity is meaningful to me because I get to help and feel better about myself that I have helped. I would like to explore other ways are to do my part to help other kidney patients.” - Danni Nur Ain Bin Zaini, 2N2 2022

“The kidney patients’ lives are so different from mine. It makes me feel grateful for my life and my future. Through this activity, I am now more knowledgeable about the severity of kidney failure. I feel confident that I can now share my knowledge with my family and friends and encourage them to live healthy lifestyles as well.” - Pavithra Suthan, 2E4 2022

Kindness 38

Willing Hearts

As Bartley Secondary emphasises on nurturing students to be Leaders for Others, the school highly encourages students to continue to reach out to the community at their own time and beyond what is planned by the school. In line with this initiative, a group of Bartleyans from different levels spent their morning weekends at the Willing Hearts Soup Kitchen. Known for its volunteer-run soup kitchen, Willing Hearts prepares hundreds of meals for the less fortunate daily. Arriving as early as 5.30am, Bartleyans who volunteered at Willing Heart began their work of cutting vegetables, cooking rice, cutting chicken and packing cooked food. In this project, students learnt the importance of having food as basic sustenance and to appreciate the food that they have. Also, it gave them great pleasure knowing that they were part of the team that prepares food for the less fortunate. This was a true outcome of the intent in developing students to serve with passion where students came forward on their own to volunteer for a good cause.

“It was a good experience for me. Through this volunteering opportunity, I learnt how to cut chicken for the first time. I was, of course, afraid but as the weeks went by, I got better and realised how important my role is to the whole preparation chain. This is something I would want to do even after leaving Bartley.”

– Mohamad Shakib

Kindness 39

A little Note Goes A Long Way

As part of the Experiential Learning Week, the Secondary One students showed their care for kidney patients by creating well wishes cards. This experience was aimed to instil the value of compassion in our students and to inspire them to make a difference in the community.

To equip them with the necessary knowledge, students attended a virtual health talk by National Kidney Foundation (NKF). The virtual talk gave insights to students on how they can adopt a healthy lifestyle and prevent kidney failure. After which, patients shared their life stories which enlightened students of the challenges they faced and how they coped and overcame them. With much enthusiasm, students then designed well wishes cards to lift the spirts of these kidney patients. A total of 534 posters were presented.

Reflection

“After listening to the speaker, I understand that kidney patients have to endure hardship, both physically and emotionally. I was disappointed that I was not doing much for the people in the community and that it was not possible to reach out to the kidney patients. Now, I realize that my small action of making a card is in itself impactful to cheer them up.” - Dylan Toh Shing Yuen, 1T1 2022

“I feel happy that the cards I have made for the NKF patients can go a long way in cheering them up. I used to think that I can only contribute to the community with cash donation. Now, I realize that even a simple card with sincere, warm and encouraging messages can make the patients happy.” - Emilia Qairsara Binte Khairul Nizam, 1T1 2022

Kindness 40

Secondary 2 VIA Project 2021

The aim of the Secondary 2 VIA is for students to show care and concern for the elderly. The school partnered Renci Nursing Home (RNH) and Ang Mo Kio Thye Hwa Kuan Hospital (AMK-THK). In previous years, students would head to partner organisations to conduct activities with residents. However, due to Covid-19 measures, the project was done online. Students were divided into groups, and they were required to plan activities to be conducted together with the residents through Zoom. Students came up with creative ideas ranging from sing-along, Kahoot games, musical performances, and simple exercise routines. The planning stage included students recording their activities and sending to the organisation for approval before the actual execution. On the day of the VIA experience, students learnt about adapting as some of their plans needed to be changed due to unforeseen circumstances. Nevertheless, students took the change in their stride and worked together with their teams to tweak their plans so that they could continue to engage the residents. Overall, it was an enriching experience for the students, having to contribute their part to the community albeit restricted by the then management measures.

Page updated

Report abuse