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RAS introduces the World Toilet Day Commemoration Fund
(WTDCF)
 World Toilet Day
(WTD) was first declared when the World Toilet Organization (WTO) was founded on 19th November 2001. RAS, one of the founding
members, has since organised activities every year to commemorate WTD.
RAS sees the need of heightening the awareness in Singapore after the United
Nations General Assembly officially declared 19th November as WTD. It
is pertinent for the younger
generations in Singapore to fully understand the importance of sanitation
and better appreciate the quality sanitation they now enjoy as compared
to 2.5 billion people still living without proper sanitation.
The WTDCF was thus introduced
for preschools and schools to organise toilet-related activities and
events at their premises and community in October and November to
commemorate WTD. Funding will be awarded to 20 selected preschools and
schools and the RAS will be working closely with the awarded preschools
and schools to provide the necessary assistance and mentoring. Outstanding
preschools, schools, teachers, staff and students can be nominated for
the LOO (Let's Observe
Ourselves) Awards. Application for the WTDCF must be submitted by 31st
August 2015.
[More Details]
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RAS garners support for its Happy
Toilet Programme (HTP) from Moulmein-Kallang Town Council (MKTC)
The MKTC has become the
fifth Town Council (TC) after Ang Mo Kio (AMKTC), East Coast
(ECTC), Nee Soon (NSTC) and Tanjong Pagar (TPTC) Town Councils to come on board the HTP. It however will
have the most number of hawker centres (15 in total) that will soon be
certified under the HTP with six hawker centres already awarded 3 or 4 stars . Since
the launch of the LOO
(Let’s Observe Ourselves) Campaign in 2008, RAS has been actively lobbying
the support of TCs. AMKTC is the first TC to participate since 2008 and
has clinched several LOO
Awards since 2009.
Currently,
there are 56 market and food centres on board the HTP. 25 are managed by
the National Environment Agency, nine by AMKTC, six by MKTC, six by TPTC,
five by ECTC, four by JTC and one by NSTC. Since the launch of the LOO
Campaign in 2008, the number of HTP hawker centres has never exceeded 50%.
With MKTC’s full participation, RAS is set to achieve a milestone of 60% Happy Toilet
hawker centres. There are a total of 111 hawker
centres and RAS hopes more TCs will soon follow suit to achieve 100% HTP
participation for all hawker centres.
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RAS certifies more preschools
under the new Happy Toilets @ Preschools Programme (HTPP)
Since
the launch of the HTPP in February, RAS had
been actively reaching out to preschools that had previously invited RAS to
conduct educational talks for their preschoolers
but were not accredited under the HTPP. Under the new HTPP, accredited preschools
must complete the Design phase - toilets to meet  the
minimum standard equivalent to the 3-star rating of the Happy Toilet Programme. A total of 40 preschools have
signed up with 11 already accredited for achieving the two thumbs-up
rating in Design and Education.
For
the Education phase, talks and workshops must be conducted for preschoolers
and at least one of the following target groups:
·
Preschool teachers
and associated staff
·
Parents and other family
members of preschoolers
Preschools
can aim for the highest three thumbs-up rating in Design, Maintenance and
Education. For the Maintenance phase, On-site training will be conducted
by qualified trainers for existing cleaning crew to equip them with the
right skills in toilet cleaning. Two preschools namely Generation Kidz @ Limau and PCF Sparkletots Preschool @ Telok
Blangah Blk 44, which
first piloted the HTPP with us,
have successfully achieved the highest three thumbs-up rating.
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RAS supports Inflammatory Bowel
Disease (IBD) patients
In November last year, RAS
was approach by the Crohn's &
Colitis Society of Singapore (CCSS) to help publicise the "Can't Wait"
card to be used by IBD patients. As the “Can’t Wait”
card coincides with the United
Nations World Toilet Day tagline "We Can't Wait", RAS sees
the need of supporting this noble cause. With the card, IBD patients stand
the chance of  getting priority in toilet
queues at high-traffic areas such as shopping malls. After the launch of
the card on 16th May, CCSS will partner with RAS to reach out to shopping malls and other high-traffic
locations currently under the Happy Toilet
Programme, to display posters to inform public toilet users about the
card.
RAS
aims to reach out to a total of about 600 toilets at 128 locations islandwide
to ensure IBD patients benefit as much as possible from using the card. Two
years ago, RAS also supported the Singapore Cancer Society on a similar
partnership to display posters at Happy Toilets to raise awareness on colorectal
and prostate cancer. RAS has always been supportive of social welfare by actively
partnering with other Voluntary Welfare Organisations (VWOs). RAS also
became the only Voluntary Welfare Organisation (VWO) in 2013 looking at
the welfare of low-wage cleaning attendants after its successful
application to the National Council of Social Service (NCSS) as an Associate
Member.
RAS was founded as a non-profit organisation in December 1998. It became
a charity in January 2004 and an Institution Of A Public Character (IPC)
in May 2010 for its efforts in improving the welfare of low-wage cleaning
attendants.
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School Cluster Operations Manager (OM) Training Workshops
RAS was able to extend its outreach
to more School Operations Managers (OMs) owing to the opportunity granted
by the Ministry of Education’s (MOE’s) Character and Citizenship
Education Branch (CCEB) and Public
Hygiene Council (PHC). Towards the end of the Keep
Singapore Clean Movement’s OM training workshop conducted at the
Marriot Hotel on 1st April, the MOE’s CCEB and PHC kindly acceded to an
impromptu sharing by RAS on its STAR (Sustaining  Toilets As Restrooms) Awards Programme.
Handy information was provided
to the OMs on effective education against students' vandalism and wastage
such as the positive collaboration with ITE College East on their ongoing +ACT
(Positive Action for the Care of Toilets) Campaign since 2011. The sharing was well received and RAS
was later invited to six other OM workshops in April and May, which were
conducted at Bukit Timah Primary, CHIJ Our Lady Queen of Peace, Edgefield
Primary, Marsiling Secondary, Pasir Ris Secondary and Unity Primary schools.
RAS reached out to more than 50 OMs, not only providing handy information
about its school programme but also fundings for participating schools such
as the recently introduced RAS World Toilet Day
Commemoration Fund.
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Happy Toilets @ Shopping Malls Service Learning Project
After showcasing its service learning project
– Happy Toilets @ Shopping Malls – to the Secondary 3 cohort at
the St. Hilda’s Secondary 3rd Annual Service Learning symposium on
27th March, a group of passionate students displayed their commitment to
collaborate with RAS to appreciate the cleaning attendants at the HDB’s
Tampines Central Community Complex (TCCC) shopping mall from 15th to 16th
June. The students also conducted mystery Happy Toilet audits at TCCC and
neighbouring shopping malls namely Century  Square and Tampines 1 so as to better
understand and appreciate the efforts of the cleaning attendants.
At the TCCC, the students organised an
appreciation lunch for the cleaning attendants - buying lunch and having
heartfelt conversations with the attendants to learn more about their
strenuous work which tends to be overlooked by the public. In their bid to
heighten public awareness on the importance of appreciating the cleaning
attendants, the students also organised games and activities to educate the
public. The group leader Ian Quek said: "My team of friends are very
happy to be able to raise public awareness and we feel more of these
projects should be done. We hope the public can be more gracious to the
cleaning attendants." Through this service learning project, students
not only acquire event and volunteer management skills but most importantly
build up their positive character through helping cleaning attendants.
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