Charity & Volunteering 01 (Jun 08 - Mar 11)

[helios]

Somewhere in our Life, we meet People.
if you can make a change, give a chance to People,
everyone can play a part in helping and re-starting People's lives.

- on a corporate level, employers could pledge their companies to be profiled on SCORE's job bank, and indicated their willingness to give ex-offenders a second chance.

- on a community level, volunteers can participate in the CARE Network that is involved in the rehabiliation initiatives for reforming ex-offenders.

- i attended a Yellow Ribbon Project Award Ceremony & Concert, last Saturday. No doubt, it was star-studded with celebrities, but i guess, the Stárs were those [talented] inmates who dared to stand on stage and perform duo-musical items, songs with these celebrities. (O'how much courage, faith, integrity they have, and you don't have?)

Source: http://www.singaporesights.com/events/e ... oject-2008

About the Yellow Ribbon Project
The Yellow Ribbon Project is a nation-wide campaign to encourage families, employers and the community to accept ex-offenders into their lives. There are approximately 11,000 ex-offenders who are released from the various prisons and drug rehabilitation centres each year. As more ex-offenders have to return to their families and the community, the focus on rehabilitation and aftercare efforts alone are not adequate. The Yellow Ribbon project highlights the important part the community plays in the creation of an inclusive social environment where ex-offenders, who display strong desire to change, and their families can find the hope to start life afresh and become contributing members of society.

For more information, please visit: http://www.yellowribbon.org.sg

[sidney]

Hi all, here is the link for doing volunteer work. http://www.nvpc.org.sg/pgm/others/nvpc_ ... ublic.aspx

I have saved it under my favorites for long. For so long i suffer from a C diease ~ commitment.

Hope anyone doing volunter work can share the task and challenges faced as well as uncover any discrimination suffered by the less fortunate.

[millionairemind]

Sep 11, 2008
CHARITIES REVIEW OF SEVEN RELIGIOUS GROUPS
4 areas for improvement

THE Commissioner of Charities' first review of seven major religious groups has found four areas that need fixing.
The review of the seven - four churches, two temples and one Christian group that provides training - found that they 'generally' have proper systems and processes and 'largely' comply with regulatory requirements.

However, improvements are needed in areas such as having proper procedures when it comes to giving loans and preventing conflicts of interest, said a statement from the Commissioner yesterday.

The groups involved in the review are Campus Crusade Asia, City Harvest Church, Faith Community Baptist Church, Kong Meng San Phor Kark See Monastery, Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple, New Creation Church and Trinity Christian Centre. All have annual incomes of over $10 million each.

The Office of the Commissioner of Charities stressed that the review, which began last October, is not a probe into mismanagement, but is intended to help the groups improve on the way in which they are run.

On loans, for instance, it said that some had been given to 'related parties' without documented approvals by their boards. Specific groups were not named.

There was also no policy on extending loans to subsidiaries and related parties.

The office told The Straits Times that the loans may have been discussed at board meetings, but had not not 'properly documented'.

'For transparency and accountability purposes, there should be a proper record of the discussions and decisions...and clear and documented policies in place on the granting of loans,' it added.

The office also said that some of the seven groups have outstanding loans that have yet to be fully repaid.

The boardroom is another area in which the Commissioner wants improvements made.

Some of the chairmen of the boards of these groups are paid staff, and this may compromise the boards' independence and objectivity.

However, the Commissioner recognised that since the groups are religious in nature, it is not always practical to 'require the separation of spiritual leadership from leadership of the board'.

The groups were thus asked to come up with measures to manage potential problems arising from this 'conflict of roles'.

Procedures to manage conflict of interest situations and donations given to external parties were the two other areas highlighted: The Commissioner said that procedures for these need to be improved and documented, and also wants them enacted.

When contacted by The Straits Times, the groups involved said that the review was useful.

They said that they had followed proper practices, but agreed that these were not always documented.

At Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple, for instance, board member Mr Anand Karthigesu said: 'We have practised some methods of doing things, but not reduced this to a booklet.'

The groups have to submit a report on what they have done to fix the four areas highlighted by the Commissioner's review by the end of the year.

But many said that action had already been taken.

The Trinity Christian Centre already has a conflict of interest policy, as does the New Creation Church.

The latter's board is led by Senior Pastor Joseph Prince, a paid staff member.

Church spokesman Matthew Kang said that as a result of the review, Pastor Prince will not take part in discussions or vote in instances where there is a potential conflict of interest.

[millionairemind]

Boys’ Brigade Sharity Gift Box appeals for gifts, sponsors

SINGAPORE: The Boys’ Brigade Sharity Gift Box returns for its 21st year, but Singapore’s longest—running charity project is facing difficulties raising enough funds for its annual operating expenses.

So far, about half of the S$211,000 needed for the project has been raised. This amount will go towards warehousing, operations, transport and administrative support.

In these hard economic times, the Sharity Gift Box hopes to collect general household items and specific gifts for 28,189 beneficiaries.

Of these, 3,000 are on the Public Assistance Scheme, and the remaining come from 171 Voluntary Welfare Organisations.

[millionairemind]

Those who are interested in doing some volunteer work during the Christmas shopping season can try Salvation Army Christmas Kettling. You stand at the entrance of major malls and ring a bell (you may have seen these guys every Christmas).

The shifts is usually in 2 hrs rotation. It is quite a fun event for the whole family

http://www.salvationarmy.org.sg/smm/www ... enDocument

[blid2def]

Or simply invest in the market. Give money away. Very charitable also.

[kennynah]

or simply walk about at some old estate, see some very old and destitute ...offer them some food.... or give them some money.... the best charity work is done in silence and anonymity...

[winston]

Or give away some of your frequent flyer points or credit card points to your fav charity..

[kennynah]

w: you kidding right?

[winston]

No, not kidding. If u have some points and dont really need them, why not donate them to charity ?

You could be already travelling a lot for work and dont really like to to travel for holiday. And dont really need those gadgets. So why not give the points away ?

Actually, I think a lot of people have a lot of points that are expiring by year end. Check your points and dont waste them and dont let them expire worthless..

I've just given away some of my frequent flyer points to Oxfam today.

For the points from my Mobile Phone company, I have given them to my ex-secretary. I dont need some gadget eg. ipod shuffle or an external hard disk drive, so why not make somebody else happy ?