entrepreneurs

Innovative Event Management That Gives Back

As part of the vocational development programme, Club Rainbow organised a bake sale earlier this year, in which our beneficiaries and caregivers participated to gain new skills and earn supplementary income.

CSR with Club Rainbow (Singapore)

Dream Station, a local events management and production company, contributed to the sale of baked goods by purchasing items from our beneficiaries. When asked why they chose to support us, they explained that their CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) arm has the vision to collaborate with charitable organisations like Club Rainbow and to promote sustainability in their events. At the time, their client's CSR programme mandated that the items in their event's goodie bags have a CSR angle, and since it was around Chinese New Year, Dream Station had the idea of sourcing edible goodies to fit the theme. In addition, they also supported two other non-profit organisations (NPOs) besides Club Rainbow.

Dream Station initiated its CSR programme in 2020 and has been actively helping the community. During the Covid-19 pandemic, they provided hygiene packs containing masks and hand sanitisers to foreign workers living in dormitories and donated excess mask stocks to other non-profit organisations. They focus on in-kind contributions and efforts to give back to the community. Dream Station suggests that clients use services offered by charitable organisations and does not charge mark-ups or surcharges if clients decide to engage them. For example, from packing goodie bags to delivering them, it is passed on a cost-to-cost basis, which is atypical of events management companies that usually charge mark-ups for such services. Dream Station offers such angles to all their clients, especially MNCs with their own CSR arms, and the uptake by their clients depends on the business angle. However, Dream Station tries to push for the engagement of charitable organisations.

CSR with Club Rainbow (Singapore)

After emerging from the Covid-19 pandemic, Dream Station plans to restart its CSR efforts, focusing on giving back to society by providing services to help and encourage giving back to the community. If they have excess logistics or stocks after organising events, they give them back to society for better utilisation.

Moving forward, one of the pillars of Dream Station's CSR efforts is sustainability, which aims to reduce the wastage of consumables by encouraging clients to use sustainable supplies. They also want to empower underprivileged employees by hiring freelance staff from lower-income families who have teenage kids or mature workers looking for part-time jobs, providing them with another source of income.

Dream Station will continue fundraising campaigns on the giving.sg platform and will be directly involved physically in fundraising events, such as sourcing in-kind sponsorships for events management to run carnivals. They will also focus on empowering the community, which aligns with what Club Rainbow is trying to achieve through the rollout of vocational programs that support caregivers and beneficiaries, providing them with supplementary income while reaffirming that their journey is not just to take care of people with special needs, but also to show that people with special needs can contribute to the community.

Into the fourth iteration of the programme, one of the CRS participants could work in a baking establishment based on their experience and certification gained from the programme. Club Rainbow is grateful to Dream Station for their support towards the Vocational Programme.

Charting the Course Through Creativity

by Rachel Kok Chian Yee, Content Contributor

As our beneficiaries enter their teenage years, it is exciting to watch them develop their means of self-expression and their aspirations for the future. 17-year-old Kai Ann has found his calling in creative work and is especially intrigued by the design process of animation films. Similarly, 13-year-old Lisa has developed an interest in design, but while Kai Ann is considering undertaking a college-level course in design animation, Lisa hopes to learn more about the mechanics of mobile games.

Both Kai Ann and Lisa share a gift in creating artistic presentations through the Microsoft PowerPoint application. For Kai Ann, this skill was honed in secondary school, where he started converting the learning notes provided by his teachers to presentation slides to expedite his revision processes. Thereafter, he began to explore the use of PowerPoint in creating digital art. He has used his expertise to create ZOOM backgrounds for his online classes and notes for religious purposes.

“PowerPoint has a lot of stock images, and I like to design images and put them together to create something very beautiful,” he told us. “I find beautiful images very motiva[ting], and I feel very fulfilled when I can help my friends convert their notes to soft copy too. I’m very interested in designing things, [especially] when I get to activate my design knowledge to create useful [content].” - Kai Ann

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At the same time, Lisa enjoys her Info-Comm Technology (ICT) classes in school, where she has performed spectacularly in her software-related assignments. In an interview with Lisa and her mother, they shared that Lisa was particularly adept in using PowerPoint slides, where she designed a presentation deck on her pet dog, Angel, and her process of training her pet, to be presented in class. This process was enhanced by her keen interest in cameras and photography, where she has recently become a member of her school’s Media Club.

Beyond learning how to use the Microsoft applications, the two continue to cultivate their creative interests beyond the academic realm. As part of a project for his co-curricular activity (CCA), Kai Ann started to examine the use of mobile applications such as CapCut to create and edit video skits, a skill he hopes to further develop as a church volunteer. This self-teaching process has been facilitated by the accessibility of video editing tutorials on Youtube, which has also become his primary source of inspiration. Given his interests, Kai Ann’s school career counsellor has recommended him to enrol in a polytechnic diploma course in design animation upon graduation.

“I am very interested to learn how to sketch and combine images of cartoon characters in different motions,” he explained, “watching animation films has inspired me to learn more [about them], and hopefully, I can work for such companies [in the future].”

When asked the same question, Lisa delightedly held up her mobile screen to show us her progress on Roblox, an online game platform where users are invited to program and play games created by each other. Lisa has been actively practising her design skills on this platform, such as designing novel-looking avatar characters and, most recently, a murder mystery game that she hopes to share with her friends.

“I like these thriller games,” she piped, “it’s basically like police and thief, where [users can search for] clues to find the murderer.” - Lisa

In fact, Lisa discussed her hopes to develop her own mobile game someday, where she comically emphasized her desire to create “a fun murder mystery game”. As an enthusiast of hands-on activities, she is very interested in understanding how game developers create and process gaming-related systems and is particularly enthralled with the prospect of recreating real-life situations in gameplay.

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As someone who considers himself an artistic individual, Kai Ann also hopes to create animation films with novel cartoon characters which have not appeared on television. His lifelong ambition is to work for a renowned media and entertainment organization such as The Walt Disney Company, inspired by his favourite Disney film, Zootopia. He explained that he was moved by the story of Judy Hopps in the movie, whose small size and limited capabilities enabled many of the characters to despise her. Ultimately, her ability to overcome her circumstances and prove herself as a worthy police officer compelled Kai Ann to research more deeply into his design interest.

“I want to create animation films that can engage the audience by teaching them such life values, [such as] trying your best and not giving up. Zootopia really motivated me; it taught me that even if I fall, I can climb up again.”  

Kai Ann is working hard to develop himself creatively, as he considers it his strongest suit and a necessary ingredient for success.

“I think creativity will help you go further in life,” he expounded. “If you keep following the less creative way, it will lead to a dead end. But if you are creative, you can succeed and even expand your capabilities. I want to create cartoons that can inspire people too.” 


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Rachel Kok

a marketing university student in Singapore who loves bubble tea and coffee more than anything. She also enjoys music and film, and tries her best to read as much as she can.

As a language lover, she is proficient in English, Mandarin and Japanese, and enjoys the occasional debate about the areas these 3 languages have in common, especially when it comes to dissecting song lyrics.

Rachel identifies her purpose in life as engaging with like-minded people and bringing joy to others through her words.

Dyslexia Awareness

The month of October is dedicated to Dyslexia across the globe.

What is Dyslexia? How does it affect a dyslexic daily?

Dyslexia is a type of specific learning difficulty identifiable as a developmental difficulty of language learning and cognition. It is a learning difficulty that primarily affects the skills involved in accurate and fluent word reading and spelling. It can occur in people coming from all backgrounds and intellectual levels.

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What is so often taken for granted like going around with daily routines, a simple act such as taking a newspaper to read could prove to be a daunting task for a dyslexic.

Based on an international research conducted and shared by Dyslexia Association of Singapore (DAS), dyslexia affecting Singaporeans falls within the international range of 4% to 10% of the population. It is a lifelong condition with no cure because it is not a disease but with the appropriate reading specialist and therapeutic trainer, a dyslexic can successfully learn to read (and even to spell). It is a condition that does not limit one’s success in life as supporting organisations of Dyslexia around the world shows a strong link between entrepreneurs and dyslexia.  

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Today in Club Rainbow (Singapore), about 1% of our beneficiaries diagnosed with dyslexia are recommended by doctors through our satellite offices in KKH (Kandang Kerbau Hospital) and NUH (National University Hospital). Through the efforts of our teams from Social Work and Client Services, beneficiaries will have access to different types of therapy and our core services depending on their overall medical condition. Cases of dyslexia without other chronic or rare illnesses will be referred to Dyslexia Association of Singapore (DAS).

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Sources: Dyslexia Association of Singapore, Austin Learning Solutions, Dyslexic Advantage