RunForFunds 2007 - D'Joy Children's Centre

It's the time of the year when I bring up RunForFunds to everybody's attention. As I have mentioned earlier, the SuperFriends of RunForFunds will be running the Standard Chartered Bank Marathon and will be raising funds for several projects of which D'Joy Children Centre is our main focus this year.

Click here for my previous entry.

So anyway, mirroring the RunForFunds latest blog entry, we would like to showcase D'Joy Children Centre in the form of a pictorial.

Again, I would like to ask all readers and fellow bloggers to plug this on your respective blogs or simply via word-of-mouth and come get to know D'Joy Children Centre as well as the RunForFunds project.

If there is anyone who wishes to make a contribution (monetary and/or volunteer services), please drop me a note and I will link you up with the right people.

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1.  Entrance to D'Joy.  Level 3 @ Block 1, Maude Road.

2.  Main hall.

Like I shared, the place is extremely clean and tidy, credit to the staff of D'Joy.

3.  Door to classroom.
If you look carefully, the place needs a fresh lick of paint.
The door frame needs some repair too (and the kid needs to get out of my way ....hahah !!)

4.  Classroom facilities
are extremely basic.

5.  Main activity (dining) hall.
From what I understand, most of the furniture has not been changed since Feb 2001 when the centre opened.

6.  Mini library section.
I feel new books and kid's magazines will be a welcome addition.

I wish I could take more pics that tell a better and more compelling story of the important role that D'Joy plays to these kids in the neighbourhood despite having basic facilities.

But alas, I'm still struggling with the use of my idiot-proof camera :-)

I'd encourage you to visit D'Joy to check it out and explore how you can render assistance.

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- Voxeros

1. JesuaFreaK left...

Friday, 30 November 2007 1:06 pm

Are u back in singapore alr ?

2. JayWalk left...

Friday, 30 November 2007 5:28 pm :: 

JF: Not yet but soon! Why? Miss me har? Or want to jio me cheong Thai pub har? :P

Girl 60 vs Boy 3

Tycoon's Eldest Free After Buffet Assault On Boy, 3

South China Morning Post - 24 Nov 2007

Click To Enlarge

I read with disbelief on the South China Morning Post that a person who is 60 years of age would bully somebody as young as 3! That is 20 times!!

Won't paiseh one meh?

Anyway the person is question is Jane Ho (Please do not click to enlarge), daughter of Macau's casino mogul, Stanley Ho.

I was thinking that a person of her stature would have at least a certain minimum level of civility, than to resort to petty tactics like stomping on a little kid?

Yes, the kid was probably no angel either. How often do we see these brats running amok all over the place, unsupervised by their parents and causing a public nuisance? I would dare speculate that the kid was being kuai lan at the time of the incident that evoked such a violent reaction from Ms Ho.

Still, stomping on a kid's foot? Notice I used the word "stomp" while the newspaper article used "step"? Me exaggerate? Let's put it this way, had it been a gingerly step, you think Ms Ho would be hauled up to court for that?

I am not saying that the kid is without fault but the punishment (stomp) does not fit the crime (trip). Ms Ho's reaction could have been a spur of the moment madness. A brain fart. A gush of shit to the brain. Still, with all the shit and fart to the brain, I wonder how anybody is able to hantam a kid as young as 3?

Her rationale as I have highlighted above, was beyond belief. I mean like, WTF?

Imagine this visual where you are standing face to face with a 3 year-old. How do you hantam a kid who is barely taller than your knee?

Coming back to the kid, let me just say "Welcome to the modern era where the kids rule their parents."

Afternote: RedQueen has rightly pointed out that Ms Ho was suffering from Schizophrenia, as mentioned in the article. Schizo sufferers are known to have a higher probability of violent behavior.

So here is my question that I pose to one and all.

Was it just the kid's arse luck to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, thus giving Ms Ho the benefit of the doubt. Or was this Schizophrenia thing just some fancy mambo jambo cooked up by her expensive team of lawyers to get her off the hook?

You tell me.

Image Credit: http://www.scmp.com

- Voxeros

RunForFunds 2007 - Running My Last Marathon For D'Joy Day Care Centre

It's the time of the year where RunForFunds will once again run the Singapore Standard Chartered Bank Marathon and raise funds for the needy.

Below is the latest entry of the RunForFunds blog which I am mirroring to help spread the word.

As usual, I am appealing to all my friends as well as fellow bloggers to help spread the word via a plug and/or mirror of this entry, or simply word-of-mouth to create awareness of this project.

We hope that we are able to a) raise funds to continue our current projects. We skipped a year last year as we have sufficient funds to last a full year i.e. we only raise what is needed but not beyond. It is better to keep the house lean and clean, rather than having a fat reserve and end up with bad housekeeping like the recent spates of big charity scandals and b) inspire our fellow members of the community to start up similar projects and help more people beyond RunForFunds' limited scope and resources.

Cheers.

p.s. Please let me know if you have plugged this on your blog so that I can add you to the list of appreciation in the coming Thank You For Supporting RFF entry.

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Yep, folks, I've decided to join the obese couch potato club.

But seriously, this year's 42km run could be my 5^th and my last.

2 major reasons:

1. The arrival of my baby daughter in Nov 07. Those of you who are parents can empathise with me. Where got energy to train between round the clock feeds (for the baby, not me)?

2. I'm using more ko-yok (medicated patches) than an 80 year old ah pek. I cannot but admit that age has finally caught up.  My temple, I mean  … body, is approaching ruins (like Angkor Wat). I've become rather injury prone and it take me longer to recover from muscle aches.

Coupled my promotion to Papa-dom and demotion to Ah Pek-dom, the demand on my time training for the marathon becomes too much. (I typically have to spend an average of four 2hr sessions each week training for the run, 6 months a year).

Ok, enough of my sob story …. Who knows, with blue pills and animals parts (yep, the unmentionables), I'm may be able to run the full 42km in 2008.

Now, on to RFF 2007.

This year, unlike other years, my Superfriends and I will be running to raise funds solely for D'Joy Children Centre @ Maude Road near Mustafa Centre.

Why D'Joy?

• D'joy runs day care services for up to 120 children from ages 2 to 14 from the Jalan Besar neighbourhood.
  
• They cater to children from low income, single-parent or dysfunctional families. A number of them are referred by the MCYS (Govt agency that oversees social welfare amongst other things), social service agencies and schools with problems ranging from social behaviour, learning difficulties to physical and emotional abuses. 

• D'joy receives no operational funding from the Government. Finances are raised through the nominal fees charged for daycare services, donations from well wishers and charitable organizations.  However, the centre has struggled to make ends meet.

• The facilities are basic and to me, rather run down. Budgetary constraints limit the maintenance work that can be done. Recently, I found a good Samaritan in my friend Jerry O' Sullivan, who mobilized other good Samaritans to repair leaking toilets, rewire the lights and other repair jobs for free.

• If D'joy doesn't stay afloat financially, the good work that is done there ceases. The children lose a safe haven and will be left to their own devices and may be exposed to undesirable influences outside school.

Click here to see D'Joy's write up by Donna Tsang, Centre Director.

This year I look forward to your generous contributions to help D'Joy.

I am cognizant of the fact that the funds raised may not keep it afloat long term if the finances are really that dire.

However, every single day we keep underprivileged kids off the streets is a cause, I feel, worth giving to.

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- Voxeros 

Maximise Your Potential Award Ceremony (Sept 2007)

Update from RunForFunds.

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The combined Maximise Your Potential (MYP) ceremony for Geylang Methodist Primary School (GMPS) and Secondary school (GMSS) students was held on 8th September 2007.

This year, we celebrate the event with the presentation of the MYP awards to 10 GMPS Students and 6 GMSS students.

The conference room burst at its seams as parents, students, RFF sponsors streamed in.

You'd notice that this year, unlike past years, there are not individual photos of the recipients.

The reason: My resident photographer couldn't come due to work commitments.

So with the help of a stand-in photo-man (you know who you are, haha!) and a lot of photoshop magic, I present you with pics below of 2 teachers who are instrumental in the structuring and execution of the MYP programme since its inception in 2004.

Jessie Soh with GMPS student Jackie Thng

Theresa Thong with GMPS student Karin Low.

I'd also like to thank Ms Hazel Kaan for administering the MYP award for GMSS since 2006.

MYP will continue to receive top priority for RFF sponsorships as it impacts young lives where it matters most and makes a real difference to charting the future paths they take.

- Voxeros

Need A Pen To Get A Pen

Today's Dilbert strip reminded me of a story that MeePok once told me about when he was handling a case a few years ago.

It was part of the RunForFunds effort where he was helping some old guy to apply for financial/social assistance from the latter's grassroots agency.

Obviously, the old gentleman was in financial hardship which prompted the application in the first place. I supposed due to his lack of education qualifications as well as age, all he could, at best was to secure the odd job assignment here and there, sporadically.

Now, I can understand the concerns of the assistance agency whereby they have a duty to safeguard against fraudulent applications, which is rather prevalent, especially in some countries where people try to abuse the social security system even when they are economically stable.

So this agency said to the old gentleman that he needed to produce an IR8A (annual Return of Employee's Renumeration) form to verify that his income was indeed below a certain level in order to qualify for assistance.

Here's the problem. Being an odd job labourer, he didn't have the IR8A form as most of his income were most likely paid in cash on a daily basis. Hence no paper trail for verification.

Here's the kick in the nuts. No IR8A form. No financial assistance.

Despite numerous appeals to the agency's common sense, nothing seem to enter the grey matter of these red tape pen pushers.

It was certainly one of those WTF moments.

I didn't get the outcome of this case as it was still ongoing when MeePok related the story to me and we haven't talked about this since. Perhaps MeePok can update us on this case in the comments section?

Image Credit: http://www.comics.com/

- Voxeros

Black Spots On White Paper

Click To Enlarge

Anybody want to make a guess what the above is? I deliberately made it small so that it is harder to guess as a normal sized image would have easily given away the answer.

Anyway, click the image to enlarge and find out.

Due to quality inconsistencies in the ZhongShan sub-contractor factory, I am finding myself going up and down more often that I would have wanted. It's a 90-minute journey up and a 90-minute journey down. If you are heading back in the late afternoon / early evening, get ready for the massive traffic jam at the HuMen Bridge which means gawd-knows-if-your-bladder-would-hold-up.

So coming back, one thing about this ZhongShan place is that it is flies galore. You have these bugs flying all over the place. The paper you see in the image is a "fly paper" where it is coated with sweet smelling sticky stuff to attract the flies. Once the flies land on the paper, they are stuck for good and one less fly to bother you in the room. Unfortunately, as far as making an impact in reducing the numbers, one would be sadly disappointed for there are THAT many of these guys buzzing in the air. I guess this is more of a psychological comfort to see as many of them meeting their demise on the paper as possible when in your mind you know it is not making much difference in reducing the overall numbers.

What you see on the paper is about an effort of less than 10 minutes. You open a fresh sheet of fly paper and you leave out in the open, the paper would immediately still filling itself with black dots.

Eeeeeeeeeeee....

- Voxeros

1. nadnut left...

Wednesday, 21 November 2007 1:44 am :: http://nadnut.liquidblade.com

eeeeew. super big fly! brrr

2. JayWalk left...

Wednesday, 21 November 2007 9:36 am :: 

nadnut: Pretty normal size lah. Probably looked big due to the zoom in effect of my camera. Anyway, it's better for them to be on the paper than anywhere else.

3. JF left...

Wednesday, 21 November 2007 10:38 am

why dun u try smearing both sides with paper and throw the paper at them.... mebbe got better results ?
PS: ur verification can be simpler boh...aku tak mathematician or statician....jin tough

4. JayWalk left...

Wednesday, 21 November 2007 11:08 am :: 

JF: Too much trouble to have to throw the fly paper at them. I think it is less of a hassle if you are able to leave fly paper down and pick it up at the end of the day and dispose the sheet-full of flies.

Besides, smearing both sides of the paper dirties your hands which means a trip to the washroom. Again, troublesome.

The anti-spam verification is much easier now loh..... we used to have to quote Pi to 25 decimal places, calculus differentiation and integration, numerical analysis, just to name a few.

Mai hiam lah...

5. Chocolate gal left...

Wednesday, 21 November 2007 9:08 pm

A big word... EEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeekkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk...
So disgusting.. Made me itchy..

6. JayWalk left...

Wednesday, 21 November 2007 11:32 pm :: 

Chocolate Gal: Yeah. Tell me about it. Eeeee.....

7. Chocolate gal left...

Thursday, 22 November 2007 12:00 pm

**Scratch scratch**

8. JayWalk left...

Friday, 23 November 2007 10:00 am :: 

Chocolate Gal: Bad idea to scratch. Wait later you break the skin to expose a fresh wound. Then the flies would swoop in while you were asleep and lay eggs in them. Soon you are going to get maggots crawling out of you!

Dumb TV Layout

What is wrong with this image that I captured off the TV?

If you just look at it without the audio, probably nothing. I was walking past the TV in the morning where it was screening the news and I started to watch. For a while, I really catch no ball as the newscaster was talking about something totally irrelevant to the image presented before me.

I hadn't taken notice of the words at the bottom and at first glance, I thought it was some drug bust but the audio seemed to be talking about a certain trade mark. It took me a while before I realised that the image on the TV has absolutely nothing to do with the news reported at that time.

I calculated the area of the screen dedicated to while was being reported i.e. the audio part and it roughly accounted for 20% of the screen while the drug bust image took up 75% (the remaining 5% was the clock reporting the time and the scrolling ticket tape at the bottom).

The news station was Ta1wan's ETTV News and my gawd, it was really really bad programming.

Whoever responsible ought to be shot!

This is absolutely BAD TV!!

- Voxeros

1. LD left...

Tuesday, 20 November 2007 8:47 am :: http://littledowager.blogsome.com

if there is another thing wrong with it, I would say... INFORMATION OVERLOAD.

2. JayWalk left...

Tuesday, 20 November 2007 9:02 am :: 

Little Dowager*: Yes I agree. However, given that we are in the age of the internet, I also have to say that people these days have a much larger propensity to take in more information than the past.

Whether the information received are useful or relevant, remains a separate question.

3. aloe left...

Tuesday, 20 November 2007 10:20 am

cos the person in the drug bust is a celebrity mah. U know how they like to broadcast every teeny weeny bit of news and how they esp. like to broadcast news on celebrities, then u will know why they do this liao.

4. JayWalk left...

Tuesday, 20 November 2007 11:06 am :: 

Aloe: I think you missed my point. I don't have a problem with celebrity reportings. My beef is that if you show the celebrity news on the screen (or at the very least majority of the screen), then godammit, report the celebrity news instead of talking about something else that is totally irrelevant i.e. you report what you are showing on screen.

Is simple logic soooo difficult for the folks at ETTV?

Condom Hair Band

I was laughing my ass off when I read this news report in the South Ch1na Morning Post (13 Nov 2007).

Imagine hair band with free application of hair gel!

There's Something About Mary!

Ok ok... so perhaps the slimy icky texture wasn't spunk that one would straight away imagine (imagine that smell on your hair! mmm......).

Perhaps it was something more subtle like lubricant?

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Girl 1: Gee.... I like the strawberry smell on your hair! What shampoo do you use?

Girl 2: Nah... I use condom hair band. I got a banana flavour one in my purse. You want?

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Actually, the idea of lubricant on the hair band isn't that bad an idea.

How many girls have had the trouble of yanking a few extra strands of hair when they pull off their hair bands?

Ouch right?

So imagine now that there is lubricant for the hair to smoothly slip out of the hair band. Ain't that a great product idea? Throw in some aloe vera extract, ginseng extract, protein (the amino kind) and vitamin B2 into the mix and you have a condom hair band that is actually healthy for the hair!

I can see the new branding now....

Consperm Confirm sure sell like Portuguese Egg Tart, Donuts and Bubble Tea all rolled into one!

Any venture capitalists out there interested in investing some seed money?

- Voxeros

1. nadnut left...

Monday, 19 November 2007 2:29 pm :: http://nadnut.liquidblade.com

eeeew. special hair gel man.

2. Mr Moron left...

Monday, 19 November 2007 6:18 pm :: http://bearswithlaserspewpew.blogspot.co

won't the hair band be very flimsy?

3. JayWalk left...

Monday, 19 November 2007 7:36 pm :: 

nadnut: I hope that make the hairbands out of factory rejects instead of recycled ones that they send people to retrieve from other's people's garbage. Double eww!!!


Mr Moron: Welcome to the blog. Flimsy? I haven't the faintest clue.

4. okiedokie left...

Tuesday, 20 November 2007 9:18 am

i was listening to radio a few wks ago & the DJs were talking about various usage of condoms other than its intended function; and one of them was actually using it as hairband. Reason being condom is rather elastic... but the DJs' recommendation of coz is not used condoms but new ones: just tie a knot with the 2 ends to form the 'hairband'....
Ch1na's manufacturing reputation is bad enuff already & this comes along...

5. JayWalk left...

Tuesday, 20 November 2007 11:11 am :: 

okiedokie: I can see the instructional pamplet that come with the hair band.

"When in emergency, untie knot."

6. JayMaster left...

Saturday, 15 December 2007 4:31 am

They're easy to recycle...just turn them inside out and shake the f**k out of them!

Excuse Me, Is Your Car Halal?

BBC News - Malaysia Firm's 'Muslim Car' Plan (11 Nov 2007)
 
Read this in the papers yesterday with much intrigue as well as interest.

Har? An Islamic car? (Hey rhymes!)

And who better than our favorite Malaysian Proton to produce it?

I already have like 1,001 Proton jokes, I am getting a lot more popping into my head even as I type.

However, given that there is a little bit of religion involve in this, I better lock them up for fear of getting history's first ever Fatwa on a blogger.

Click here to proceed*.

* MSN me or email me at voxeros[at]hotmail[tok]com to obtain the password.

Image Credit: http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk

- Voxeros

1. aurore left...

Thursday, 15 November 2007 9:01 pm :: http://aurore.vefblog.net

hello Jay...happy birthday Faith !!! hum the good nice cake..and I love draw behind her, can I take your photo to put in my blog to show my friends your lovely daughter..Kiss

2. JayWalk left...

Friday, 16 November 2007 7:42 am :: 

Aurore: Sure. Be my guest. :)

3. aurore left...

Friday, 16 November 2007 5:43 pm :: http://aurore.vefblog.net

thank you dear, everybody say "happy birthday" to Faith ! she's lovely kiss

4. akk left...

Monday, 19 November 2007 1:41 pm

hmmm...does it mean that if Muslims don't get the islamic car if it's available, then they are not religious enuff?

5. JayWalk left...

Monday, 19 November 2007 7:16 pm :: 

aurore: Thanks!

akk: I have no idea. I don't even know the need for one to begin with.

Happy Birthday Faith!

Faith is 5!!!

Well, it was a week ago but I only got the pictures until today. Sigh...

- Voxeros

1. nadnut left...

Tuesday, 13 November 2007 1:47 am :: http://nadnut.liquidblade.com

happy bday faith! she's so pretty! she's gonna be a heartbreaker!

2. Red Queen left...

Tuesday, 13 November 2007 10:02 am

Wah your daughter so PWETTTY!!!!... Can I introduce My Ah Mal to her? Hahahahahah eh, how come the cake got all kind of cartoon character one... damn cool leh...

3. JayWalk left...

Tuesday, 13 November 2007 10:52 am :: 

Nadnut: Yeah.. not to mention super high maintenance one.

RedQueen: As a good friend, I say better now lah. You may think your Ah Mal is very good with the ladies, but this Super Carrot Chopper trumps your Super Buaya wor...

4. Red Queen left...

Tuesday, 13 November 2007 1:55 pm

Wahkaus how can u say my son super buaya... takes one to know one hor.... hahahaha so what carrot chopper.. Women are all carrot choppers, ie ME...

5. hiaoauntie left...

Tuesday, 13 November 2007 6:02 pm

big girl already... becoming more and more pretty

6. JayWalk left...

Wednesday, 14 November 2007 9:07 am :: 

Red Queen: Indeed they are....

Hiao Auntie: Yeah. Her hiao-ness is starting to kick in and wants to keep long hair now. We'll see how she looks one year from now.

7. aloe left...

Wednesday, 14 November 2007 11:32 am

oo... Happy Birthday to Faith! =)
erh.. I think my niece started her hiaoness much earlier than your Faith.... Go out, must change and chose her own clothes. hair must grow long long. Shoes must select... and she's only 4... aiyoh....

8. JayWalk left...

Wednesday, 14 November 2007 11:47 am :: 

Aloe: For Faith, the second word she uttered after "papa" was "bag". "mama" came in third.

9. aloe left...

Thursday, 15 November 2007 10:26 am

ok, Faith wins.... LOL!

10. JayWalk left...

Thursday, 15 November 2007 11:11 am :: 

Aloe: Yah. The future hubby loses. :(

11. Ruok left...

Wednesday, 28 November 2007 11:21 am

Thats one heart-breaker you've got there. :)

12. JayWalk left...

Wednesday, 28 November 2007 6:57 pm :: 

ruok: Yeah. I pity the boys.