Meet RAS volunteers
The volunteer gathering on the 26h
September, Friday was my first meeting with members and volunteers of the
Restroom Association. I was eager to know more about RAS, because as a
student, I only knew of organisations for the disabled or children. The enthusiastic
and vivacious volunteers and coordinators gave the small and humble
function room of Kallang CC a lively and
light-hearted atmosphere. In the course of the short briefing, I came to
realise that volunteering at RAS would engage and challenge me on a whole
new level. I probably wouldn’t meet needy groups of people, but I
would have to learn about social and economic factors that contribute to
the state of a toilet.
On the 19th November, the day everyone has
been waiting for – The LOO Campaign. The special venue of the event
made it more exotic. The highly anticipated event held at the zoo was very
significant to us because it marked the start of the quest to make at least
70% of all toilets in Singapore
clean and well-equipped. I took this opportunity to get my sister involved
and interested in RAS and its work. I certainly made the right choice, for
volunteering with my sister couldn’t be more fun. I later realised
that we were not the only siblings helping out in the event.
The speeches given by Ms Tan, the President
of RAS and the Guest-of-Honour
Dr Amy Khor had
inspired me to help RAS achieve their goal. A friend of mine questioned me
on the necessity of RAS’ work, since Singapore’s toilets are
by far cleaner than that of other countries. This is certainly a valid
comment, and after much thought, this is my response: Singapore may already have
relatively clean toilets, but improving them serves to increase our standard of living
from the most basic local, tying in with the national goal of a better
society. At the same time, RAS emphasizes good hygiene that should
accompany the affluence of Singapore.
That is why I have just registered to take part in the Volunteer
Eco-Assessor workshop, and sincerely hope to work with RAS in many other
activities to come.
- Lin Zhiyi, volunteer
5th and 6th
November were the 2 days of the schools carnival at Suntec City. My friends and I from Victoria
Junior College ODAC were helping out as volunteers for the Kinderland activity, under RAS. We were displaying a
booth for primary school and kindergarten kids to educate them about
sanitation and hygiene. Among the many activities was a large snakes and
ladders game where the kids were taught about what should and should not be
done in the toilet as well as a worksheet where the kids were supposed to
spot the bad toilet habits as depicted in the pictures.
As volunteers for this event,
we were given the opportunity to interact with kids and to actually teach
them about sanitation and hygiene. This experience was very valuable to us
as we were preparing to go to the village Yuksam
in Sikkim, India from 8th to 24th November to carry
out our Youth Expedition Project to build an eco-toilet capable of
converting waste into manure which can then be sold as fertilisers or used
by the community as well as to educate the students of the public school
about sanitation and hygiene. Therefore the experience allowed us to be
able to better interact with the kids over in Yuksam
and engage them.
Going all the way there to
help improve the lives of the people was really meaningful especially since
sanitation and hygiene is a basic necessity for everybody. The gratitude
that the people of the village showed to us was heart warming. From our experience
we learned that much more can be done to improve the sanitation and hygiene
around the world. We are very lucky to be living in Singapore where we have proper
toilets and adequate information on sanitation and hygiene and these should
not be taken for granted especially since other people around the world
might not have these luxuries.
- Loy Teck Boon, volunteer
Meet RAS staff
After
a very long time serving in the manufacturing sector, I was finally given the
opportunity by RAS to learn something new. The new tasks are actually a challenge for me because
previously in manufacturing, I do not have to meet clients, give talks,
conduct trainings or even doing recruitments. I feel honoured and proud as
the tasks I am doing now, is actually educating and promoting toilet
hygiene and health awareness to the public. So I am anticipating more new
things to learn in the near future.
- Rosmahwati, Project Executive
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