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RAS & President clinch Environmental Health
Stewardship Award & EcoFriend Award
RAS
was awarded the Environmental Health Stewardship Award 2009 for its
tireless efforts in raising the standards of public toilets in Singapore.
The award was presented by Guest-of-Honour Mr Bernard Forteath, President
of International Federation of Environmental Health (IFEH) to our President
at the Annual Dinner and Award Ceremony of the Society of Environmental
Health (Singapore)
or SOCEH on 18th July. This award recognises the work of  professionals
and organisations that have contributed to our community in the area of
environmental health.
[More Details] [View Photos]
Our
President was nominated and conferred the Eco-Friend Award under the
Non-Government Organisations category on 10th July for her noble
acts and achievements of promoting clean public toilets. The annual
EcoFriend Awards were initiated and launched in 2007 by the National
Environment Agency (NEA) to give recognition to individuals who have taken
the initiative to care for the environment. All efforts made by an
individual over the past two to five years will be taken into account in
the selection of recipients for the awards.
[View
Photos] [View
Video]
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RAS conducts
first Volunteer Eco-Assessor (VEA) training session for Koufu staff
After
conducting successive VEA training sessions for grassroots leaders from the
North West Community Development Council (CDC) and officers from the
National Parks Board (NParks) last year, RAS expanded its profile of VEAs
to include F&B staff by conducting the first training session for staff
of Koufu on 26th August. 15 staff comprising mostly of
supervisors and managers from various food outlets, attended the 3-hour
training session at their main office in Woodlands.
Koufu,
one of the most established local food court and coffeeshop operators, has
displayed its commitment to offer quality toilets by not only sending their
staff for our VEA training but also having about 50 toilets from  its
25 food outlets to be certify as 4 or 5-star Happy Toilets by the end of
November. They will also become the first food court operator to offer
5-star toilets. Its founder, Mr Pang, also expressed his interest to
participate in our Happy Toilet Programme to certify their office toilets
as Happy Toilets when he met us during the training session.
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RAS conducts
workshop and site visit for participants of Young ChangeMakers Conference
(YCMC) 2009
RAS
was invited as an integral resource partner for YCMC 2009 held on 18th
– 19th July at the Singapore Management
University. This
conference aimed to engage youth participants to plan and execute a
community project for one of the fourteen organisations including RAS.
After the opening ceremony officiated by Guest-of-Honour, Mr Teo Ser Luck,
the Chairman of National Youth Council, RAS conducted a workshop on
restroom etiquette and restroom-related projects which participants can
embark on such as R&D, case studies, design of collaterals, games and
outdoor hands-on projects on restroom initiatives.
In
the afternoon, participants were exposed to firsthand volunteer experience
on a site visit to the Night Safari restrooms. Participants were first
briefed on  the
procedures of assessing the cleanliness of the restrooms and eventually
tasked to complete our self-assessment checklist on the cleanliness,
effectiveness and maintenance of the restrooms in terms of its entrances,
hand wash areas, water closets, urinals and general areas.
[More Details] [View Photos]
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RAS collaborates
with Initial Hygiene to roll out Model Restrooms in schools
Over
the last few months, RAS and its valued partner, Initial Hygiene initiated
the Model Restrooms @ Schools initiative successfully launching it at 6 different
schools. These schools were carefully selected by RAS based on its valued
contribution to our school outreach programmes. Initial Hygiene generously
came in as our partner to adopt 2 restrooms (1 boys and 1 girls) situated
at areas of the highest traffic performing a thorough deep clean of each
restroom and installing important hardware such as a better placed hand
dryer, soap dispensers and toilet roll dispensers with the added commitment
to maintain the hardware throughout the course of this initiative. A
further assembly talk and mass hand washing exercise is currently being
conducted at each school for students to be well versed with the hand
washing steps and the importance of incorporating it into their daily
lives.
The
schools that were chosen were strategically selected from each of the 5
Community Development Council (CDC) areas along with adding a private
school. They are Zhangde Primary School (Central CDC), Si Ling Primary
School (North West CDC), Meridian Primary School (North East CDC), Yew Tee  Primary
School (South West CDC), Geylang Methodist Primary School (South East CDC)
and DPS International School. These schools have reaffirmed their
commitment to public toilet hygiene and towards maintaining their lucrative
status as a Model Restroom example for other schools to follow. As the
plaque states outside each of those model restrooms, ‘Welcome, a
pleasant experience awaits!’
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RAS shares
restroom-etiquette tips for kids with Singapore’s Child readers
 Following
PARENTS WORLD’s – a monthly magazine on parenting topics
– published article on restroom etiquette in May, RAS was approached
by an Editor of Singapore’s Child – similar monthly publication
on parenting topics – to share with its readers including teachers on
educating children to be civic-minded while using the restrooms at home, in
school or in public. Upon hearing the Editor’s account of
preschoolers misbehaving in shopping centre restrooms, Ms Susan Pereira,
our key person for preschool education programmes, penned down her thoughts
on the importance of practising good restroom etiquette.
Her
article was published in the well being section of the September issue of Singapore’s
Child, an early-education publication which features practical and in-depth
information on child development, behavioural and psychological issues
essential for parents and teachers. In her article, she offered solutions
to strengthen the discipline of children such as a step-by-step guide on
good restroom etiquette. She also shared on the three basic practices that
parents and teachers can adopt to educate and remind the children.
[Read
Article]
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RAS participates in NEA-MediaCorp Semakau Run 2009
 RAS
is deeply honoured and thankful to be one of the six beneficiaries for the
annual Semakau Run held on 8th August. The third charity run was
jointly organised by the National Environment Agency (NEA) and MediaCorp.
Gracing the event, Guest-of-Honour
Dr Yaacob Ibrahim, Minister of the
Environment and Water Resources not only flagged off the run but joined in
the run as well. After the run, he shared with us about the 5-star Happy
Toilets at Caltex Petrol Stations and expressed his wish to see 5-star
Happy Toilets at coffeeshops soon when he visited our exhibits.
After the prize presentation to the runners, Dr
Yaacob unveiled a commemorative book entitled “Habitats in Harmony: The
Story of Semakau Landfill” to mark the 10th anniversary of
Semakau Landfill. The book and an exclusive memento were given to companies
as an acknowledgement of their contributions to the run. This year, a
record number of 43 companies took part in the run and pledged S$359,000 to
support the beneficiaries. The funds will go a long way in supporting the
six beneficiaries including RAS. With the funds, RAS will continue to push
for cleaner and user-friendlier public toilets for all ages. RAS has been
actively participating in every run since 2007.
[More Details]
[View Photos]
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