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RAS holds its first preschool seminar
RAS
held a pre-school seminar on the 2nd September at the Ceylon Sports Club
for preschool Principals and Teachers. The aim of the seminar was to
re-introduce its updated program for preschools and provide solutions to
dampen the rising numbers of Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease. Its community
partner, Initial Hygiene once again demonstrated its commitment to
enhancing school education and awareness by participating in our seminar.
Attendees were given a detailed presentation of the programme and were
also made aware of how they could play an active role in monitoring the
quality of their restrooms and general areas.
After
the presentation, the principals and teachers were treated to a live
demonstration by Initial Hygiene on the importance of hand sanitisation
and surface sterilisation. Apart from the above first-hand experience,
they were  also
equipped with the knowledge of different restroom standards –
three, four and five-star standards – and the solutions to sustain good
restroom standards through adopting good restroom design, employing
trained restroom cleaners and training working staff to assess the
standards of restroom. After this seminar, we have seen more preschools
participating in our school education programme.
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RAS shares its
involvement in the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) with Nanjing’s Jinling Wanbao
On 16th
August, RAS was approached by a Chinese journalist from Nanjing’s
Jinling Wanbao who had expressed keen interest in our partnership with the
Singapore Youth Olympic Games Organising Committee (SYOGOC). RAS caught
his attention when he was browsing through the official YOG website which
stated RAS as one of the non-government partners that had work with the
SYOGOC to give participants and spectators a clean and hygenic restroom
experience during the Games. In 2008, we assisted in the restroom
assessment of all sports and swimming complexes and provided a detailed
assessment with recommendations to the Singapore Sports Council.
Given
the nature of the games, the journalist requested for information about
the youth involvement with us. We shared two of our key initiatives
supported by the National Environment Agency (NEA) namely the school
education  programme
which inculcates students with the right restroom etiquette and the
Eco-Assessor programme which trains students, youths and aged as
volunteers to assess restrooms. In his article, he also
related that the clean restrooms he had visited during his YOG-reporting
trip left him with a good impression of Singapore.
[Read Article] [YOG Website]
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RAS appears on
Channel U’s “On the Beat”
After
the filming
of various locations at two shopping malls, a school, hawker centre and coffeeshop on 4th June, it was finally featured on
the 5th series of “On the Beat” on 10th August after a much
anticipated wait of two months. The approximately 10-minute segment of
the programme was hosted by Ms Vivian Lai, Mr Lee Teng and Mr Jeremy Chan
and covered interviews with our  President
Ms Tan Puay Hoon and Senior Manager Mr Emerson Hee. Ms Tan shared that
the purpose of the inception of RAS was to foster a gracious society
embracing a good restroom culture. She also added that RAS had been
actively certifying star-rated restrooms under its Happy Toilet Programme
and educating students through restroom decorations under its school
education programme.
At
a guided tour of a female restroom with host Ms Lai, Ms Tan explained on the ergonomics – a
one-stop concept of hand washing and drying i.e. users can wash their
hands and dry their hands without moving about – of washbasin design and layout.
During a guided tour of a male restroom with hosts Mr Lee and Chan, Mr
Hee commented that the provision of full-height urinals could cater to
users of all ages including children. He also added that the provision of
modesty boards could help to protect the privacy of users. The guided
tours offered viewers an entertaining and informative experience with a
touch of humour.
[View Video]
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RAS
participates in Zhenghua Primary School Open House & Bukit Panjang
Community Racial Harmony Day
Zhenghua Primary School, a
long term partner in our school education initiatives, invited us to its
event on 30th July. We were pleased to participate and also
sought our community partner, Initial Hygiene to add value to the booth
space provided. Gracing the event was Guest of Honour, Dr Teo Ho
Pin,  Mayor of
North West District who was enlightened by Zhenghua’s pupils about
the model restroom culture established by the school, when he visited our
booth. The pupils demonstrated zeal and enthusiasm when conveying to the
Mayor about their achievements in restroom-related projects and
showcasing RAS initiatives.
The
event proved to be a success with an impressive turnout by residents from
the North West District. We would like to thank Initial Hygiene for its
kind donation of souvenirs for the visitors and Zhenghua
Primary School for its gracious invitation and look forward to similar
initiatives that strengthen our mutually beneficial partnership.
[View
Photos]
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RAS supports Tao Nan
School in their restroom learning excursion
Earlier
this year, Tao
Nan School
became the latest welcome addition to the school education programme. As
part of its commitment to educate its pupils, Tao Nan teachers sought RAS’s help in organising a LOO Tour of
restrooms from other schools and commercial buildings. This ambitious
plan saw RAS and Tao Nan School seek five schools and five commercial
properties to accommodate 400 pupils on 26th August. The morning
of the 26th saw RAS staff conducting a training workshop for
the pupils and that was followed by the visit to the ten locations to
gain practical experience and knowledge from the sharing sessions with
our experienced partners.
We would like to thank our
valued school partners, Greendale Secondary,  Holy Innocents’
Primary, Meridian Primary, Park View Primary and Tampines North Primary
schools as well as our commercial partners, the Housing Development Board
(Dawson Place Shopping Centre), Joo Chiat Complex, Thomson Plaza, Bedok
Reservoir Road Market & Food Centre and Tampines Round Market &
Food Centre for generously extending its hospitality to Tao Nan pupils
and teachers during their visit.
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RAS attends talk show as
part of Ngee Ann
Polytechnic students’ project
A
group of seven enthusiastic students from the Ngee
Ann Polytechnic Film & Media Studies extended an invitation to our
President, Ms Tan, to be the guest for their talk show titled
“Inspiration” which was broadcasted on 1st July. They strongly
felt that Ms Tan will be able to inspire and motivate the youths through
her life story especially the obstacles and difficulties she has
experienced. They believe that she would also be able to inspire youths
who are currently interested in pursuing a career in the people
(non-profit) sector in the future. The talk show also helped to generate
awareness in youths regarding the progress of the restroom culture in Singapore.
The students staged the talk show as
part of their TV production assignment and the first episode of their
talk show actually focussed on the theme, “Environment”. The
aim of their talk show was to educate, entertain, expose, entice, and
enlighten youths about the current issues at  hand so that they
can partake in improving the situation without any fear of failure even
if it happened to be a taboo subject. The students shared with us that
their assignment was a huge success and they had obtained a commendable
A-grade for their project which was deemed as the best topic by their teachers.
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