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1:05 AM Sunday, June 20, 2010
{ Street Sales – 18th June 2010 }
Our volunteers were really enthusiastic – some of them arrived earlier than expected, and we were all getting excited to start our street sales immediately! Soon after, rain started to fall – and this was something in which we were totally unprepared for! However, this did not dampen our spirits at all, and we still went on to do our street sales.
We must agree that the unexpected weather had affected our sales as lesser people were on the streets for us to approach. We also realized that people whom we approach on this particular day were less willing to buy jellybeans as compared to the crowd on Sunday. Competition was also present, as other Youth for Causes teams were also stationing at Orchard Road to carry out their street sales. Nevertheless, we still tried our best to sell our products!
Our morning street sales concluded at 1pm, and the amount of jellybeans that we had managed to sell did not really meet our expectations. However, we realized that Orchard Road was starting to fill up with the afternoon crowd – and we were all hoping that our street sales would improve! Besides an increase in the number of afternoon shoppers which greatly boosted our street sales, we also realized that many of our friends were also shopping along Orchard Road – and it was indeed such a small world, as we did not expect ourselves to meet people we know during our street sales! Well, this was actually advantageous for us as our friends had obligations to buy from us, since this was what friends are all about after all – ad this once again increased our sales to a large extent!
Personally, for both John and I, we actually stationed ourselves outside Somerset@313 to sell our jellybeans, and we found out that it was actually an ideal location to conduct street sales as people there were more willing to purchase our products! On the other hand, the girls used a different strategy to combat for street sales – and that is, they made use of their sweet voices to melt people’s hearts and constant persuasion to ensure that people were convinced to purchase for them!
We continued our street sales in the evening, as we thought that the evening crowd would be more receptive to our street sales. However, this proved wrong as our sales were no meeting our expectations at all! Even though we shouted our lungs out and made use of different kinds of stunts to attract attention, this did not really boost our street sales to any extent…
Overall, we were happy with our performance, as the amount of bottles that we had sold on Friday was rather remarkable. Of course, this would not have been possible without the help and passion from our volunteers – and we were really thankful for that!
Posted by: Eng Han
11:46 PM Sunday, June 13, 2010
{ 1ST STREET SALES! }
It was a bright and sunny Sunday morning, but unlike any other Sundays, this Sunday was extremely meaningful to us as it marked the start of our official street sales with volunteers. We decided to adopt a different strategy; thanks to the many learning points which we picked up from our recee trip on Fri!
We lowered the price of our products to $2, did up bigger and more attractive posters which explained our cause and VWO more clearly (kudos to Cheryl who spent hours on it!), and brought along some samples for people to try to show them that what we were selling were really delicious jellybeans, not medicine (well, even though they are supposed to look like pills)!
For our volunteers, we prepared info sheets, English-Mandarin translations, street sales licenses, emergency contacts, and appreciation cards! These wonderfully kind people who were there to help out were not getting CIP hours at all; they were doing it out of good will, and we truly appreciate it and thank them at the bottom of our hearts! (please refer to thanks section for specific names!)
We set off at around 11 and had lunch and dinner in between our batches of volunteers, and ended the day at about 7.30pm (with only three of us left!) but we managed to sell a total of 207 bottles in all, which is a feat and marked improvement from the last time! ONCE AGAIN, WE THANK ALL WHO GENEROUSLY BOUGHT AND/OR HELPED TO SELL OUR JELLYBEANS!
Other than the profits, I guess what was more important was what we learnt from the entire experience of street sales. Learning to be thick skinned and vocal, learning to accept rejection and failure, learning to persevere and stay determined despite the incessant bouts of “drought” (when there is no sales at all) , all these are part and parcel of the experience which we will treasure and apply in future to our lives.
Street sales also got us to see what the world was like, and both the good and not-so-good side of people. There were those who came forward and paid more than what a bottle was worth before walking off without taking a bottle of jellybeans; whereas there were also those who walked away without even hearing you out! (at some point in time, I felt like Violet from The Incredibles – yes, invisible) Well, I made a promise to make a little effort to shake my head gently or say “no, thank you” in future whenever people approach me!
Quotes from our volunteers
“I thought it would suck, like nobody would want to buy and I’d get very depressed…but it was fun! There were really nice people like a female cleaner who gave us two bucks without taking anything in return!” Fiona Lim
"Through this superlative experience i became ascertained the intricate yet adroit techniques of street sales with some remaining reticent and others even furtive- but i managed to sell a satisfactory amount and have No qualms about helping out again (:" Ang Wei Loong
Photos!
WHERE WE GATHERED OUR VOLUNTEERS
THANK YOU CARDS FOR OUR VOLUNTEERS!
SAMPLES!!
THE MASSIVE LOAD TO CLEAR!
YEAAA I AM A VOLUNTEER MAN~
Cheryl and her pretty posters (which helped us secure a great number of customers) - even though she keeps insisting they're ugly! They're fabulous, aren't they?
(Left) three members from Youth CrusAIDers! (right) the three musketeers! (centre) the powerpuff girls!
Together, WE SAVE LIVES! (It was a waste that we forgot to take a photo after Yunfei and Bryson, the hardworking pair, came back! We forgot to take a picture with the volunteers from the second shift as well!---Sabrina and Eusebio D'Almeida)
Posted by: Yuan Teng
12:57 AM Friday, June 11, 2010
{ Recce Trip for Street Sales }
It was a perfect morning. After unloading all our jellybeans into Cheryl’s abode, we went on to help Eng Han to do his shirt. Even though there were a few ink smudges on the shirt, the design looked perfectly fine – and Eng Han was so glad that he had finally gotten his Youth CrusAIDers shirt!
After getting all our baskets of jellybeans and money pouches ready, we were all set to head on for our recee trip. Well, the main purpose of this trip was to see just how receptive our target audiences were towards our products – and besides that, we also wanted to find out more about the ideal venues in which we could possibly choose for our street sales. With these objectives in mind, we headed on to Far East Plaza to have our lunch first before embarking on our street sales, with the girls forming one pair and the guys forming another pair.
Both teams tried out a different approach during the street sales. The guys chose to walk along Orchard Road while selling jellybeans, while the gals chose to stand at one location, just outside 313@Somerset. With our poster on one hand and the basket of jellybeans on the other, both teams used all our strength and might to sell our bottles of jellybeans. In the end, it seemed that the girls were better off in terms of jellybeans sales as compared to the guys, as they managed to sell a whooping number of 15 bottles of jellybeans while the guys only managed to sell 7 of them!
After almost 2 hours of jellybeans sales along Orchard Road, we had a change in our plan – and that is, we decided to head on to the heartlands to see whether sales would be better there. We headed to Toa Payoh, which is a widely known heartland in Singapore – and we tested out our jellybeans sales there. We realized that the number of people in Toa Payoh was much lesser as compared to that of Orchard Road – and we learnt that we should just continue to have our sales in the shopping district, since that was the only place in which we could expect a gargantuan amount of people for our sales.
Therefore, with this lesson in mind, the guys headed back to Orchard Road once again, while the girls headed to Bugis for their sales. Both teams continued to sell their jellybeans with all their might, and we finally concluded our sales at around 7pm.
Through this recee trip, we learnt that one should fix his/her position during street sales, as that was the more effective way to sell our products to the greatest extent. We should also learn to be thick-skinned and loud during our street sales, so that we can attract potential customers to buy our products. Lastly, we also concluded that shopping districts are still the most desirable venues for our street sales, as the human traffic in these places are perfectly suitable for us to carry out our sales.
After this trip, we are definitely more confident that we can handle our volunteers well for our future street sales!
Bottles and bottles of jellybeans in baskets bought by Yuan Teng!
Posters meant to attract potential customers!
on our way to orchard road
Posted by: Yunfei Edited by: Eng Han
6:18 PM Tuesday, June 8, 2010
{ 3 days to first day of street sales! }
We finally got our team shirts ready! This would be what we are going to wear during street sales for easier identification. With these shirts, we feel even more like a team now!
After completing our shirts, we head down to AfA to meet May to 1. Update her on the progress of our projects 2. Visit the anonymous HIV-testing clinic. May’s colleague gave us a little briefing on the programmes on AfA, which reaches out to different target groups, such as army men, homosexuals, sex workers etc.
The programme which reaches out the sex workers include having volunteers down at places like Chinatown to identify sex workers and handing them condoms to encourage safe sex. The greatest obstacle in this programme is to correctly identify who are the sex workers, and with recent police raids, many of the sex workers have gone into hiding, making it even more difficult to reach out to them.
We were trying to see if there were any publicity materials that we could use from AfA when May showed us this.
This won first prize at a postcard design competition held in an effort to heighten AIDS/ HIV awareness. We all agreed that this postcard is SUPER COOL!!!
After finishing updating May on our progress, Anwar, the clinic manager then brought us to the clinic which was in fact, really near to AFA (walking distance). We were extremely excited as it was the first time for all of us. The clinic was still not open to the public when we reached. Two of the staff volunteering there, Rick and Chris gave us a brief introduction to what the clinic does.
We were told that in the day, the clinic was a specialist clinic for skin diseases and sexually transmitted infections (STI). The place is only rented on Tuesdays & Wednesdays, 6.30pm-8pm, & Saturdays, 1.30-3.30pm to conduct anonymous HIV and Syphilis testing.
Basically, if you’re here for the testing, this is what you would be going through: 1. Fill up a form with your particulars (that does not reveal your identity) and pay $30 for the test at the counter. 2. Take your Q number. 3. Pre-counseling session 4. HIV/ Syphilis test where a drop of you blood would be drawn 5. Results released + Post-counseling
The entire test process probably takes about 45 min. We got to see how the test was done, there was no sophisticated machine required, the technique used was very much like a pregnancy test kit. Drop a drop of blood and buffer onto this “test-paper” (I have no idea what the correct term for that paper is), and let them run, if one line appears, it means you are HIV-negative, if two lines appear, it means you are HIV-positive.
The entire clinic is volunteer-run. This means that the counselors and administrative stuff there are all volunteers who are doing their job without receiving a salary. Rick and Y shared some of their experiences working in the clinic. We were told that majority of the people who come for the test are men, and are from a variety of backgrounds. There are many reasons why people come for the test, such as:
1. They had sex with a sex worker 2. They wanted to check before marriage 3. Routine checks (monthly, yearly etc) 4. Ignorant reasons (he gave us an example of how an entire family, including the children came for the test because they had a meal with a HIV-positive patient)
We learnt more about HIV/ AIDS/ STIs. There were many colourful boards at the clinic which were really informative, giving information regarding the various STIs, which basically can be split into 2 categories: Bacterial infection or Viral infection. The former can be removed from the body completely with the use of antibiotics, while the latter will remain in the body forever, like HIV.
Having listened to what the various volunteers had to say, we basically came to the conclusion that the best way to protect ourselves from STIs would be 1. Abstain from sex, 2. Practise safe sex.
We stayed on when the clinic opened, just to observe the people that come in. For the period while we were in the clinic, everyone who came for the testing were men, with the exception of a single girl. They were mostly young adults, probably in their early 20s, contrary to what we originally expected---old uncles.
The trip to the clinic was truly an eye opener and we learnt a lot from this little ‘excursion’. Thank you to everyone who spent time explaining and giving us information, and of course May, who gave us this opportunity to widen our horizons!
Pictures taken at the clinic:
Posted by: Cheryl
6:13 PM Saturday, June 5, 2010
{ Workshops #2 }
Another Saturday fully devoted to YFC workshops, but the takeaways were great and worthwhile.
1) Events Management Workshop We went through the entire process of events management with a young and aspiring graduate of SMU, Mr Jabriel (yes, not spelt with a ‘G’).
Step 1: Initiation (goal setting and critical thinking) Step 2: Planning (Actions plans, programme outline, timelines, contingency plans) Step 3: Execution (THINK FAST, ACT FAST – like firemen) Step 4: Closure (Settle remaining logistics and reflect upon initial goals)
After the entire workshop, it dawned upon us that we had been so focused on all our ACTION, we’ve actually left out quite a lot the PLANNING. We realized that we had deviated from our original goals and action plans a lot, and have been so engrossed in making our products and recruiting volunteers that we had forgotten to come up with new action plans, new objectives and new timeline for ourselves! We had become rather short sighted, with no goals or big plans, focusing solely on our upcoming street sales.
Thus, we decided to come up with a goal of 10 000 bottles of jellybeans to be sold, and new approaches to sell our jellybeans (which came about after meeting our mentor – Chirag!). After our meeting with Chirag, which happened after the workshop, we decided to have three ways of outreach – public, school and corporate sales. We now hope to expand our reach to hospitals to purchase our jellybeans, as well as other companies who are interested in supporting our cause.
2) Media Relations Workshop Ms Caren from Citbank imparted us important skills which will enable us to get ourselves on the papers (if we try hard enough). It seems like the process of getting ourselves onto the papers isn’t going to be an easy one – because there are so many activities going on everyday – we need to be very newsworthy. Well, thankfully, we have a friend who is a correspondent of the Chinese papers – Zao Bao, so hopefully, she will be willing to help us – Li Khee! Well, but even though it isn’t going to be easy, we may still try to get ourselves on the papers if need be – to reach out to more people (especially so if we get ourselves on The Straits Times which has super high readership in Singapore). And Ms Caren’s tips about writing in to the press will come in extremely handy!
We really hope that more people can get to know about HIV/AIDs and correct the misconceptions and bust the myths about HIV/AIDs! Singaporeans truly need “HIV” education, and it isn’t going to be easy for us, since HIV/AIDs is such a taboo topic here. Newspapers, which are seen as very reliable and believable, will be a good way to start.
All the best to us! Posted by: Yuan Teng
8:04 PM Thursday, June 3, 2010
{ Packaging Jellybeans! }
We started packaging our jellybeans today! Shall let the photos and captions tell the story (:
Filled bottles, jellybeans, empty bottles
Filling more and more bottles with jellybeans!
Using the filled bottles of jellybeans to create our team logo!
Our masterpiece~
Group photo with our masterpiece (:
Designing the sticker label for our jellybean bottles!
Printed out sticker labels!
Final completed product!
It has been a truly fruitful day!
Posted by: Cheryl
12:09 AM
{ Workshops #1 }
Last Saturday (30 May), our team spent a long but fruitful day at YMCA, attending four consecutive workshops in preparation for our project:
1. Financial Management This presentation was extremely useful because it taught us how to do up an Income and Expenditure Statement which is extremely important in order to keep track of our finances. We learnt about the 30/70 rule in greater detail, which basically states that not more than 30% of your income and expenditure statement can be spent on administration/ marketing. It is extremely important to be transparent, especially after what happened to NKF and Ren Ci Hospital. Only by being transparent, can we gain the trust and support from the public.
In addition, we also learnt of the various publicity tactics, such as creating a blog (which explains the existence of this blog!), publicizing our events in our school website/ newsletter, attracting attention during street sales using tactics such as holding huge placards, balloons etc. Basically, in order to gain public’s support, we have to: - Be different. - Be in-tune with our sponsor’s business and philanthropy objectives - Be responsive to the needs of the beneficiaries - Learn from best practices - Capitalize on special events - Be in touch with public sentiment - Create a product that carries our social mission and is still marketable
We are now more aware of how to properly managing our money matters and gain public’s support!
2. Sales and Marketing Strategies Through a very engaging presentation and discussion, Mr. Marco Low shared with us many tips on how to market our products to our audience so that we can raise as much funds for our VWO as possible. Amongst many other things, we had to look into how to make people want to buy our jellybeans when there are so many other places where they can purchase candy from:
- Necessity? - Trendy? - Desire? - Peer pressure? - Emotion? - For a good cause? - Support a friend?
We figured that the main reason why anyone would buy from us was to support our cause and beneficiaries, and decided that that would be our key selling point.
What touched our hearts more, other than his knowledge and expertise in marketing and sales, was his heart. Through his sharing about his experiences as a volunteer and a fundraiser (who raised approximately US$50000 with his friends via taking part in Iron man races), we were deeply inspired to embark on our project with great zest and gusto! A video he screened about Team Hoyt moved us close to tears. It was deeply touching and inspirational: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBjR1-0GVkI
The true spirit of lending a helping hand to others in need. And determination. Against all odds.
3. First Aid and Safety Management Ms Oscar Ng and Mr Tommy Koh did a wonderful job in reminding us of all the minor details which we had to take into account when planning our event, even something as simple as our street sales. We realized we needed to prepare emergency contact plans, first aid kits, volunteer safety briefings and the list goes on. The endless list of thing needed to be prepared before our street sales, thankfully they were there to remind us! Or we may jolly well end up in a fluster when we realized we had missed out so much safety protocol. We were also introduced to the first aid kit and trauma pack, and all of us are quite inspired to take up a first aid course now!
4. Volunteer Management Mr. Kelvin was the last to speak, but his workshop was nevertheless extremely interesting and enjoyable. We learnt about how to recruit volunteers, how to ensure that they are well prepared for the activity (in our case, street sales), and most importantly, volunteer appreciation! It was something which many of us would not have thought of, because in our lives, more often than not, we are more preoccupied with our own event (whether it went well, how sales was in general, etc) than the welfare of those who have helped out in one way or another in our event.
As such, our team made a resolution to never forget anyone who has made a difference or will make a difference in our YFC journey! We have decided to have a volunteer acknowledgement section to thank all the wonderful volunteers who help out in our street sales!
To sum up, it really dawned upon us that there were so many details to look into when we are planning an event. It always seemed so easy when we were helping out as volunteers, but being the organizers, we realised that we had to look into every small detail.
We are extremely grateful to those who took time off their busy schedules to come and speak to us, and we promise that we will make the best use of all advice given to make our YFC journey a fulfilling and awesome one.
WE ARE READY TO GO! Posted by: Yuan Teng
12:03 AM
{ Citibank-Youth For Causes 2010 Official Launch }
The official launch of YFC was held on 22 May 2010, at Mrs Lee Choon Guan Concert Hall, ACS Barker. We were really excited as this was going to be the day we would be receiving the $1600 grant.
The launch included a segment where a past participant shared his experience. It was truly enlightening, hearing the account from a past participant and how he has benefited from this programme. As he put it, the journey is going to be tough, lined with challenges, but I believe, just like him, we would be able to overcome all obstacles (:
The time we had all been waiting for finally arrived---the presentation of seed funds to individual team by mentors. To our disappointment, our mentor was not around to give us the seed funding, someone else gave it to us on his behalf. We later found out that he was not feeling well. Really looking forward to meeting him!
During reception, we had the honour of speaking to the Guest-Of-Honour, Professor S. Jayakumar. We shared with him our project and he, in return, gave us words of encouragement that was truly heartening! =D Sadly, we did not manage to get a photo with him on our cameras.
After reception, we had a short briefing on the do’s and do not’s, must and must not’s during the course of our project. We learnt stuff like how to not get into trouble with the law during the course of our project, how to do up an income statement, how to prepare ourselves for the project by attending the various workshops available etcetc. The briefing truly got us thinking about our project and how we should go about implementing it, how we should amend it to make it more feasible and manageable.
We’re now looking forward to the various workshops available to better equip us with the skills needed to make our project a success!
Posted by: Cheryl
1:05 AM Sunday, June 20, 2010
{ Street Sales – 18th June 2010 }
Our volunteers were really enthusiastic – some of them arrived earlier than expected, and we were all getting excited to start our street sales immediately! Soon after, rain started to fall – and this was something in which we were totally unprepared for! However, this did not dampen our spirits at all, and we still went on to do our street sales.
We must agree that the unexpected weather had affected our sales as lesser people were on the streets for us to approach. We also realized that people whom we approach on this particular day were less willing to buy jellybeans as compared to the crowd on Sunday. Competition was also present, as other Youth for Causes teams were also stationing at Orchard Road to carry out their street sales. Nevertheless, we still tried our best to sell our products!
Our morning street sales concluded at 1pm, and the amount of jellybeans that we had managed to sell did not really meet our expectations. However, we realized that Orchard Road was starting to fill up with the afternoon crowd – and we were all hoping that our street sales would improve! Besides an increase in the number of afternoon shoppers which greatly boosted our street sales, we also realized that many of our friends were also shopping along Orchard Road – and it was indeed such a small world, as we did not expect ourselves to meet people we know during our street sales! Well, this was actually advantageous for us as our friends had obligations to buy from us, since this was what friends are all about after all – ad this once again increased our sales to a large extent!
Personally, for both John and I, we actually stationed ourselves outside Somerset@313 to sell our jellybeans, and we found out that it was actually an ideal location to conduct street sales as people there were more willing to purchase our products! On the other hand, the girls used a different strategy to combat for street sales – and that is, they made use of their sweet voices to melt people’s hearts and constant persuasion to ensure that people were convinced to purchase for them!
We continued our street sales in the evening, as we thought that the evening crowd would be more receptive to our street sales. However, this proved wrong as our sales were no meeting our expectations at all! Even though we shouted our lungs out and made use of different kinds of stunts to attract attention, this did not really boost our street sales to any extent…
Overall, we were happy with our performance, as the amount of bottles that we had sold on Friday was rather remarkable. Of course, this would not have been possible without the help and passion from our volunteers – and we were really thankful for that!
Posted by: Eng Han
11:46 PM Sunday, June 13, 2010
{ 1ST STREET SALES! }
It was a bright and sunny Sunday morning, but unlike any other Sundays, this Sunday was extremely meaningful to us as it marked the start of our official street sales with volunteers. We decided to adopt a different strategy; thanks to the many learning points which we picked up from our recee trip on Fri!
We lowered the price of our products to $2, did up bigger and more attractive posters which explained our cause and VWO more clearly (kudos to Cheryl who spent hours on it!), and brought along some samples for people to try to show them that what we were selling were really delicious jellybeans, not medicine (well, even though they are supposed to look like pills)!
For our volunteers, we prepared info sheets, English-Mandarin translations, street sales licenses, emergency contacts, and appreciation cards! These wonderfully kind people who were there to help out were not getting CIP hours at all; they were doing it out of good will, and we truly appreciate it and thank them at the bottom of our hearts! (please refer to thanks section for specific names!)
We set off at around 11 and had lunch and dinner in between our batches of volunteers, and ended the day at about 7.30pm (with only three of us left!) but we managed to sell a total of 207 bottles in all, which is a feat and marked improvement from the last time! ONCE AGAIN, WE THANK ALL WHO GENEROUSLY BOUGHT AND/OR HELPED TO SELL OUR JELLYBEANS!
Other than the profits, I guess what was more important was what we learnt from the entire experience of street sales. Learning to be thick skinned and vocal, learning to accept rejection and failure, learning to persevere and stay determined despite the incessant bouts of “drought” (when there is no sales at all) , all these are part and parcel of the experience which we will treasure and apply in future to our lives.
Street sales also got us to see what the world was like, and both the good and not-so-good side of people. There were those who came forward and paid more than what a bottle was worth before walking off without taking a bottle of jellybeans; whereas there were also those who walked away without even hearing you out! (at some point in time, I felt like Violet from The Incredibles – yes, invisible) Well, I made a promise to make a little effort to shake my head gently or say “no, thank you” in future whenever people approach me!
Quotes from our volunteers
“I thought it would suck, like nobody would want to buy and I’d get very depressed…but it was fun! There were really nice people like a female cleaner who gave us two bucks without taking anything in return!” Fiona Lim
"Through this superlative experience i became ascertained the intricate yet adroit techniques of street sales with some remaining reticent and others even furtive- but i managed to sell a satisfactory amount and have No qualms about helping out again (:" Ang Wei Loong
Photos!
WHERE WE GATHERED OUR VOLUNTEERS
THANK YOU CARDS FOR OUR VOLUNTEERS!
SAMPLES!!
THE MASSIVE LOAD TO CLEAR!
YEAAA I AM A VOLUNTEER MAN~
Cheryl and her pretty posters (which helped us secure a great number of customers) - even though she keeps insisting they're ugly! They're fabulous, aren't they?
(Left) three members from Youth CrusAIDers! (right) the three musketeers! (centre) the powerpuff girls!
Together, WE SAVE LIVES! (It was a waste that we forgot to take a photo after Yunfei and Bryson, the hardworking pair, came back! We forgot to take a picture with the volunteers from the second shift as well!---Sabrina and Eusebio D'Almeida)
Posted by: Yuan Teng
12:57 AM Friday, June 11, 2010
{ Recce Trip for Street Sales }
It was a perfect morning. After unloading all our jellybeans into Cheryl’s abode, we went on to help Eng Han to do his shirt. Even though there were a few ink smudges on the shirt, the design looked perfectly fine – and Eng Han was so glad that he had finally gotten his Youth CrusAIDers shirt!
After getting all our baskets of jellybeans and money pouches ready, we were all set to head on for our recee trip. Well, the main purpose of this trip was to see just how receptive our target audiences were towards our products – and besides that, we also wanted to find out more about the ideal venues in which we could possibly choose for our street sales. With these objectives in mind, we headed on to Far East Plaza to have our lunch first before embarking on our street sales, with the girls forming one pair and the guys forming another pair.
Both teams tried out a different approach during the street sales. The guys chose to walk along Orchard Road while selling jellybeans, while the gals chose to stand at one location, just outside 313@Somerset. With our poster on one hand and the basket of jellybeans on the other, both teams used all our strength and might to sell our bottles of jellybeans. In the end, it seemed that the girls were better off in terms of jellybeans sales as compared to the guys, as they managed to sell a whooping number of 15 bottles of jellybeans while the guys only managed to sell 7 of them!
After almost 2 hours of jellybeans sales along Orchard Road, we had a change in our plan – and that is, we decided to head on to the heartlands to see whether sales would be better there. We headed to Toa Payoh, which is a widely known heartland in Singapore – and we tested out our jellybeans sales there. We realized that the number of people in Toa Payoh was much lesser as compared to that of Orchard Road – and we learnt that we should just continue to have our sales in the shopping district, since that was the only place in which we could expect a gargantuan amount of people for our sales.
Therefore, with this lesson in mind, the guys headed back to Orchard Road once again, while the girls headed to Bugis for their sales. Both teams continued to sell their jellybeans with all their might, and we finally concluded our sales at around 7pm.
Through this recee trip, we learnt that one should fix his/her position during street sales, as that was the more effective way to sell our products to the greatest extent. We should also learn to be thick-skinned and loud during our street sales, so that we can attract potential customers to buy our products. Lastly, we also concluded that shopping districts are still the most desirable venues for our street sales, as the human traffic in these places are perfectly suitable for us to carry out our sales.
After this trip, we are definitely more confident that we can handle our volunteers well for our future street sales!
Bottles and bottles of jellybeans in baskets bought by Yuan Teng!
Posters meant to attract potential customers!
on our way to orchard road
Posted by: Yunfei Edited by: Eng Han
6:18 PM Tuesday, June 8, 2010
{ 3 days to first day of street sales! }
We finally got our team shirts ready! This would be what we are going to wear during street sales for easier identification. With these shirts, we feel even more like a team now!
After completing our shirts, we head down to AfA to meet May to 1. Update her on the progress of our projects 2. Visit the anonymous HIV-testing clinic. May’s colleague gave us a little briefing on the programmes on AfA, which reaches out to different target groups, such as army men, homosexuals, sex workers etc.
The programme which reaches out the sex workers include having volunteers down at places like Chinatown to identify sex workers and handing them condoms to encourage safe sex. The greatest obstacle in this programme is to correctly identify who are the sex workers, and with recent police raids, many of the sex workers have gone into hiding, making it even more difficult to reach out to them.
We were trying to see if there were any publicity materials that we could use from AfA when May showed us this.
This won first prize at a postcard design competition held in an effort to heighten AIDS/ HIV awareness. We all agreed that this postcard is SUPER COOL!!!
After finishing updating May on our progress, Anwar, the clinic manager then brought us to the clinic which was in fact, really near to AFA (walking distance). We were extremely excited as it was the first time for all of us. The clinic was still not open to the public when we reached. Two of the staff volunteering there, Rick and Chris gave us a brief introduction to what the clinic does.
We were told that in the day, the clinic was a specialist clinic for skin diseases and sexually transmitted infections (STI). The place is only rented on Tuesdays & Wednesdays, 6.30pm-8pm, & Saturdays, 1.30-3.30pm to conduct anonymous HIV and Syphilis testing.
Basically, if you’re here for the testing, this is what you would be going through: 1. Fill up a form with your particulars (that does not reveal your identity) and pay $30 for the test at the counter. 2. Take your Q number. 3. Pre-counseling session 4. HIV/ Syphilis test where a drop of you blood would be drawn 5. Results released + Post-counseling
The entire test process probably takes about 45 min. We got to see how the test was done, there was no sophisticated machine required, the technique used was very much like a pregnancy test kit. Drop a drop of blood and buffer onto this “test-paper” (I have no idea what the correct term for that paper is), and let them run, if one line appears, it means you are HIV-negative, if two lines appear, it means you are HIV-positive.
The entire clinic is volunteer-run. This means that the counselors and administrative stuff there are all volunteers who are doing their job without receiving a salary. Rick and Y shared some of their experiences working in the clinic. We were told that majority of the people who come for the test are men, and are from a variety of backgrounds. There are many reasons why people come for the test, such as:
1. They had sex with a sex worker 2. They wanted to check before marriage 3. Routine checks (monthly, yearly etc) 4. Ignorant reasons (he gave us an example of how an entire family, including the children came for the test because they had a meal with a HIV-positive patient)
We learnt more about HIV/ AIDS/ STIs. There were many colourful boards at the clinic which were really informative, giving information regarding the various STIs, which basically can be split into 2 categories: Bacterial infection or Viral infection. The former can be removed from the body completely with the use of antibiotics, while the latter will remain in the body forever, like HIV.
Having listened to what the various volunteers had to say, we basically came to the conclusion that the best way to protect ourselves from STIs would be 1. Abstain from sex, 2. Practise safe sex.
We stayed on when the clinic opened, just to observe the people that come in. For the period while we were in the clinic, everyone who came for the testing were men, with the exception of a single girl. They were mostly young adults, probably in their early 20s, contrary to what we originally expected---old uncles.
The trip to the clinic was truly an eye opener and we learnt a lot from this little ‘excursion’. Thank you to everyone who spent time explaining and giving us information, and of course May, who gave us this opportunity to widen our horizons!
Pictures taken at the clinic:
Posted by: Cheryl
6:13 PM Saturday, June 5, 2010
{ Workshops #2 }
Another Saturday fully devoted to YFC workshops, but the takeaways were great and worthwhile.
1) Events Management Workshop We went through the entire process of events management with a young and aspiring graduate of SMU, Mr Jabriel (yes, not spelt with a ‘G’).
Step 1: Initiation (goal setting and critical thinking) Step 2: Planning (Actions plans, programme outline, timelines, contingency plans) Step 3: Execution (THINK FAST, ACT FAST – like firemen) Step 4: Closure (Settle remaining logistics and reflect upon initial goals)
After the entire workshop, it dawned upon us that we had been so focused on all our ACTION, we’ve actually left out quite a lot the PLANNING. We realized that we had deviated from our original goals and action plans a lot, and have been so engrossed in making our products and recruiting volunteers that we had forgotten to come up with new action plans, new objectives and new timeline for ourselves! We had become rather short sighted, with no goals or big plans, focusing solely on our upcoming street sales.
Thus, we decided to come up with a goal of 10 000 bottles of jellybeans to be sold, and new approaches to sell our jellybeans (which came about after meeting our mentor – Chirag!). After our meeting with Chirag, which happened after the workshop, we decided to have three ways of outreach – public, school and corporate sales. We now hope to expand our reach to hospitals to purchase our jellybeans, as well as other companies who are interested in supporting our cause.
2) Media Relations Workshop Ms Caren from Citbank imparted us important skills which will enable us to get ourselves on the papers (if we try hard enough). It seems like the process of getting ourselves onto the papers isn’t going to be an easy one – because there are so many activities going on everyday – we need to be very newsworthy. Well, thankfully, we have a friend who is a correspondent of the Chinese papers – Zao Bao, so hopefully, she will be willing to help us – Li Khee! Well, but even though it isn’t going to be easy, we may still try to get ourselves on the papers if need be – to reach out to more people (especially so if we get ourselves on The Straits Times which has super high readership in Singapore). And Ms Caren’s tips about writing in to the press will come in extremely handy!
We really hope that more people can get to know about HIV/AIDs and correct the misconceptions and bust the myths about HIV/AIDs! Singaporeans truly need “HIV” education, and it isn’t going to be easy for us, since HIV/AIDs is such a taboo topic here. Newspapers, which are seen as very reliable and believable, will be a good way to start.
All the best to us! Posted by: Yuan Teng
8:04 PM Thursday, June 3, 2010
{ Packaging Jellybeans! }
We started packaging our jellybeans today! Shall let the photos and captions tell the story (:
Filled bottles, jellybeans, empty bottles
Filling more and more bottles with jellybeans!
Using the filled bottles of jellybeans to create our team logo!
Our masterpiece~
Group photo with our masterpiece (:
Designing the sticker label for our jellybean bottles!
Printed out sticker labels!
Final completed product!
It has been a truly fruitful day!
Posted by: Cheryl
12:09 AM
{ Workshops #1 }
Last Saturday (30 May), our team spent a long but fruitful day at YMCA, attending four consecutive workshops in preparation for our project:
1. Financial Management This presentation was extremely useful because it taught us how to do up an Income and Expenditure Statement which is extremely important in order to keep track of our finances. We learnt about the 30/70 rule in greater detail, which basically states that not more than 30% of your income and expenditure statement can be spent on administration/ marketing. It is extremely important to be transparent, especially after what happened to NKF and Ren Ci Hospital. Only by being transparent, can we gain the trust and support from the public.
In addition, we also learnt of the various publicity tactics, such as creating a blog (which explains the existence of this blog!), publicizing our events in our school website/ newsletter, attracting attention during street sales using tactics such as holding huge placards, balloons etc. Basically, in order to gain public’s support, we have to: - Be different. - Be in-tune with our sponsor’s business and philanthropy objectives - Be responsive to the needs of the beneficiaries - Learn from best practices - Capitalize on special events - Be in touch with public sentiment - Create a product that carries our social mission and is still marketable
We are now more aware of how to properly managing our money matters and gain public’s support!
2. Sales and Marketing Strategies Through a very engaging presentation and discussion, Mr. Marco Low shared with us many tips on how to market our products to our audience so that we can raise as much funds for our VWO as possible. Amongst many other things, we had to look into how to make people want to buy our jellybeans when there are so many other places where they can purchase candy from:
- Necessity? - Trendy? - Desire? - Peer pressure? - Emotion? - For a good cause? - Support a friend?
We figured that the main reason why anyone would buy from us was to support our cause and beneficiaries, and decided that that would be our key selling point.
What touched our hearts more, other than his knowledge and expertise in marketing and sales, was his heart. Through his sharing about his experiences as a volunteer and a fundraiser (who raised approximately US$50000 with his friends via taking part in Iron man races), we were deeply inspired to embark on our project with great zest and gusto! A video he screened about Team Hoyt moved us close to tears. It was deeply touching and inspirational: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBjR1-0GVkI
The true spirit of lending a helping hand to others in need. And determination. Against all odds.
3. First Aid and Safety Management Ms Oscar Ng and Mr Tommy Koh did a wonderful job in reminding us of all the minor details which we had to take into account when planning our event, even something as simple as our street sales. We realized we needed to prepare emergency contact plans, first aid kits, volunteer safety briefings and the list goes on. The endless list of thing needed to be prepared before our street sales, thankfully they were there to remind us! Or we may jolly well end up in a fluster when we realized we had missed out so much safety protocol. We were also introduced to the first aid kit and trauma pack, and all of us are quite inspired to take up a first aid course now!
4. Volunteer Management Mr. Kelvin was the last to speak, but his workshop was nevertheless extremely interesting and enjoyable. We learnt about how to recruit volunteers, how to ensure that they are well prepared for the activity (in our case, street sales), and most importantly, volunteer appreciation! It was something which many of us would not have thought of, because in our lives, more often than not, we are more preoccupied with our own event (whether it went well, how sales was in general, etc) than the welfare of those who have helped out in one way or another in our event.
As such, our team made a resolution to never forget anyone who has made a difference or will make a difference in our YFC journey! We have decided to have a volunteer acknowledgement section to thank all the wonderful volunteers who help out in our street sales!
To sum up, it really dawned upon us that there were so many details to look into when we are planning an event. It always seemed so easy when we were helping out as volunteers, but being the organizers, we realised that we had to look into every small detail.
We are extremely grateful to those who took time off their busy schedules to come and speak to us, and we promise that we will make the best use of all advice given to make our YFC journey a fulfilling and awesome one.
WE ARE READY TO GO! Posted by: Yuan Teng
12:03 AM
{ Citibank-Youth For Causes 2010 Official Launch }
The official launch of YFC was held on 22 May 2010, at Mrs Lee Choon Guan Concert Hall, ACS Barker. We were really excited as this was going to be the day we would be receiving the $1600 grant.
The launch included a segment where a past participant shared his experience. It was truly enlightening, hearing the account from a past participant and how he has benefited from this programme. As he put it, the journey is going to be tough, lined with challenges, but I believe, just like him, we would be able to overcome all obstacles (:
The time we had all been waiting for finally arrived---the presentation of seed funds to individual team by mentors. To our disappointment, our mentor was not around to give us the seed funding, someone else gave it to us on his behalf. We later found out that he was not feeling well. Really looking forward to meeting him!
During reception, we had the honour of speaking to the Guest-Of-Honour, Professor S. Jayakumar. We shared with him our project and he, in return, gave us words of encouragement that was truly heartening! =D Sadly, we did not manage to get a photo with him on our cameras.
After reception, we had a short briefing on the do’s and do not’s, must and must not’s during the course of our project. We learnt stuff like how to not get into trouble with the law during the course of our project, how to do up an income statement, how to prepare ourselves for the project by attending the various workshops available etcetc. The briefing truly got us thinking about our project and how we should go about implementing it, how we should amend it to make it more feasible and manageable.
We’re now looking forward to the various workshops available to better equip us with the skills needed to make our project a success!
Posted by: Cheryl
Youth CrusAIDers
(left to right) Teo Eng Han, Qiu Yunfei, Lee Cheryl, Yueh Yuan Teng
Who Are We We are a team of students, and we are currently doing a project under the Citibank-Youth for Causes project grant. We are liaising with Action for AIDS as our VWO for our fund-raising efforts. All the funds that we are intending to raise throughout the course of our project will be directed to the AIDS beneficiaries from our VWO.
What is Youth for Causes? Put together by Citibank and YMCA of Singapore, Citibank-YMCA Youth For Causes (YFC) offers teens the platform to turn their ideas into reality, and mentors from both organisations will be there to guide, help and support.
Our VWO Action for Aids Singapore
Quick Facts:
a. Non-profit organisation
b. Formed in 1988
c. Operate the only anonymous HIV-testing facility in Singapore
Objectives:
a. Provide support and assistance to people living with HIV and AIDS
b. Raise awareness of HIV and AIDS infection
c. Remove stigma against HIV and AIDS patients and their loved ones
d. Encourage AIDS-related research locally
How Our Beneficiaries Benefit From Our Project All proceeds from our fund-raising efforts will go to Action for Aids Singapore, which provides support to people whose lives are affected by HIV/Aids in one way or another. The three funds under Action for Aids Singapore are:
-Care for the Family Fund: Subsidies for families experiencing income disruption as their HIV-infected sole breadwinner is temporarily unable to work due to HIV-caused illnesses.
-Medication Fund: Subsidies for HIV victims’ medication, which allows them to live normally and carry on with life
-HIV Pregnant Mothers’ Fund: Subsidize the medication for HIV positive pregnant mothers so that their child can be born healthy
How Do We Intend To Raise Funds We intend to do so through a three prong approach:
1. School outreach: Sales of products to various schools
2. Public outreach: Street sales
3. Corporate outreach: Sales of products to companies/ organisations
Our goal (to be achieved by 12th September 2010): Number of bottles of jellybeans sold: 10000 bottles
Our Products 1. Jellybeans (The number of jellybeans that are found in each medical bottle represents the amount of medication that our beneficiaries need to take in a period of 5 days.)
2. Pegs
3. Stress balls
Be A Volunteer!
Activity 1: Actual sales of jelly beans
none at the moment
To Be A Volunteer... 1.No prior experience required!
(half an hour training session would be held before the actual carrying out of any one of the above + Handbook will be provided for all volunteers’ reference)
2. Kindly fill up and submit your particulars below:
If you have any queries, feel free to email youthcrusaiders@gmail.com to clarify them!
Thank you!
Leave a Legacy!
Help Us Improve!
Facts & Figures about HIV
Statistics of HIV/AIDs in Singapore
As of the end of 2008:
3941 cases of HIV infected Singaporeans (but there may be more who remain undiagnosed):
>1228 of these people have died
>914 have AIDs-related illnesses
>1799 are asymptomatic HIV carriers
More information about HIV/AIDs
AIDS: Acquired Immune Deficiency System
HIV: Human Immunodeficiency Virus
HIV is the virus which causes AIDs. Over time, HIV can weaken one’s immune system, leaving the victim susceptible to infections which can be prevented in a normal person. An AIDs diagnosis is done by a physician based on CD4 counts or symptoms, and usually occurs some time after one is infected with HIV.
How is HIV virus spread: 1) Through sexual intercourse
>body discharge involved: semen or vaginal discharge
2) Through sharing needles or unsterile medical instrument
>a. body fluid involved: blood
3) Infection during pregnancy, childbirth or breast-feeding
HIV/AIDs is not curable, but the condition can be controlled with medication. It is a chronic illness which needs care and attention.
Test yourself!
True or False?
1. HIV can spread through mosquito bites.
2. You can get AIDS from sharing food with a person with AIDS.
3. The risk of HIV spreading is increased by sharing used needles/ syringes.
4. Condoms are 100% effective against AIDS.
5. HIV virus dies upon contact with air in 30s.
6. Mothers can transmit the HIV virus through breastfeeding.
Ans: F, F, T, F, T, T
Food for thought…
Are all HIV-positive victims responsible for their plight? If your answer is yes, think again. What about children who contracted the virus from their HIV-positive mothers? What about faithful spouses who happen to have contracted the virus from their unfaithful partners?
People who have volunteered
Amanda Chan
Ang Wei Loong
Bryson Lim
Charles Tan
Eusebio D'Almeida
Fiona Lim
John Choo
Liu Fuxin
Nobelle Liew
Novia Liew
Sabrina Tay
Shaun Thium
Stanley Koo
Tuieng Seok Yin
