On 19 November 2016, the Raffles Interact club joined other World Vision youth volunteers to engage and educate children and parents at Family Survival Playstreets.

If I were to describe my job as a Resource Development and Communications Executive in World Vision in a nutshell, “Unconventional” and “Rewarding” would be the two adjectives I would use.

Farah joined us on a trip to Ende, Indonesia in 2016. Read about what she learnt and experienced on the trip!

7 individuals, drawn together by a love for music, a desire to use our gifts for a greater cause, and by Karen’s email blast. A quick round of introduction made it clear we were all from vastly different social groups and phases of life. There wasn’t much of an orientation; one hour into the introduction session we were launching into an animated brainstorming session on how to in a very practical way bring music to children in Cambodia. And yet two sessions later I find myself eager to meet these people again, from the very day we set a date to meet. So I asked myself, what was it about them? Before that though, what actually is World Vision Musicatalyst?

From 10-11 June 2016, I attended World Vision’s 30 Hour Famine Camp, which was held at Anglo-Chinese School (Barker Road) and different activity sites around Singapore. This year, the theme was Taking on the World and we took on the role of eco-exiles. We had to experience poverty worsened by climate change and were driven from our homelands as a result. 

As a professional Christian humanitarian organisation, we take our commitment to truth and transparency very seriously. For more than 65 years, we have stayed true to our mission to work with children, families and communities to overcome poverty and injustice around the world.

Due to El Nino, China has been plagued by prolonged rains and storms, resulting in severe floods since May 2016. Torrential rain across many parts of the mainland has further escalated the situation in the first week of July. Water levels in around 200 rivers have exceeded warning levels, hitting historical highs. A tornado has also hit Jiangsu province, which continued to suffer from rainstorms after.

Hunger. Poverty. These are major global issues that most avoid discussing, simply because the scale of the problem seems overwhelming, making it unbearable to talk about. But the 30 Hour Famine Camp proves that youths in Singapore can make a tangible difference.

On June 15th, 2016, Mohammad El Halabi, the manager of operations for World Vision in Gaza, was arrested on his way home from routine meetings. On August 4th 2016, after 50 days in Israeli state detention, Mohammad was charged with providing support to Hamas. World Vision was shocked to learn of these charges against Mohammad. World Vision is taking the grave charges brought against our Gaza staff member very seriously.