$85,360.58 to help Singapore underprivileged kids

15 February 2012 – Project Happy Feet presented a cheque of $85,360.58 to Straits Times School Pocket Money Fund at Bedok Community Library in the presence of corporate partners, sponsors, and volunteers.

Grassroots Adviser, Mayor of South East District and Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Defence and National Development Dr Maliki Osman graced the occassion as Guest-of-Honour and joined Project Happy Feet co-founders and directors Deborah Chew and Grace Chia in presenting the cheque.

The amount of $85,360.58 represented 80% of the $106,700.72 raised and collected through the Project Happy Feet Slipper Race 2011 event, held on 13 November 2011 at East Coast Park, Singapore. As part of PHF’s fund-raising principle, all 100% of funds collected through donations and the public must be given out to its identified beneficiaries. The cost of the event (which was capped at $25,000) was defrayed entirely by sponsorships in cash and in kind.

The remaining 20% would be distributed evenly to Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation based in Hanoi, Vietnam and This Life Cambodia based in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

Blue Dragon will be using the funds to build a library for Nghia Dao Primary School as well as to stock the library with books. This is part of a bigger ‘Stay in School’ programme of Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation that aims to keep students in schools to lessen the risk of them being exploited and trafficked.

This Life Cambodia will be using the funds to support the Lower Secondary School Development Programme in Chub Ta Trav Lower Secondary School. The programme allows for capacity building of school teachers, the Principal and school support communities, as well as improving on the school infrastructure. The funds will also be used to support the ‘Pedalling out of Poverty’ programme, which allows students to access and attend school. Some of these children would otherwise have to travel as much as 10 km just to get to school. About 60 children/families will benefit from this programme through the funds raised. Some funds will also be used in supporting student scholarships, which pays for one full year of lower secondary school education.

Volunteers from PHF would be visiting the organisations in March 2012 to deliver the funds directly to them.

During the cheque presentation event, Mayor also presented tokens of appreciation to sponsors of PHF Slipper Race 2011 who were unable to receive the tokens at the event last year. The receiving sponsors included McDonald’s Singapore, Markono Print Media and Food Empire.

Mayor was then printed with a token of appreciation for his personal support for the event. The token was a framed montage of photographs of the Mayor taken during the Slipper Race.

Ms Martina Wong, the General Manager of Straits Times School Pocket Money Fund, presented Project Happy Feet with a plaque as a symbol of appreciation.

PHF Director of Communications and Outreach Terence Quek also took the opportunity to share about the upcoming Slipper Race in Singapore, as well as the inaugural Slipper Race outside of Singapore to be held in Vietnam in the second half of 2012.

Several partners were then invited to share about their involvement and contribution to Slipper Race 2012. These included Hewlett Packard, Young NTUC, We Simplify Marketing, and BusAds Singapore.

PHF would like to thank South East Community Development Council for sponsoring the venue and reception at this Cheque Presentation event, as well as thank Dr Maliki Osman for taking time out to grace the occasion.