• “Do Good” initiative championed by FairPrice Foundation involved schools all over Singapore and gives out $39,000 in grants to fund community projects by youths

SINGAPORE, 23 November 2013 – NTUC FairPrice Foundation wraps up its first national public education initiative – “Do Good” – at *SCAPE today. Targeted at youths and themed “Small Deeds, Big Differences”, the initiative was launched in March 2013 to inspire youths and the broader community to be kinder and more giving.

In these eight months, the “Do Good” initiative has engaged the community widely with varied activities. More than 62,000 good deeds have been pledged via the interactive Facebook application and microsite (www.DoGood.sg) with deeds, such as lending a helping hand to a friend or doing the laundry for a month. The initiative saw 67 schools participating in the Giving Store Challenge where students ran initiatives on the school grounds to raise awareness and encourage fellow students and teachers, to pledge a good deed.

The roving pop-up store, known as the “Giving store”, was brought to 14 locations during the initial months, which included tertiary institutions and public locations, to create buzz and awareness about the initiative. The initiative also saw partners such as The Singapore Scout Association, Singapore National Olympic Council, Girl Guides, nEbO, Singapore Kindness Movement, Netball Singapore and YMCA, come on board to spread the word about how small deeds can make big differences.

Mr Ng Ser Miang, Chairman of NTUC FairPrice Foundation, shared, “The “Do Good” initiative is an extension of FairPrice Foundation’s vision to provide a better life for the community. This objective cannot be achieved by the Foundation alone and the involvement of the wider community, in particular youths, is critical as a start to encourage more people to ‘Do Good’. We are privileged to receive the strong support from the community since the launch of the campaign.”

A total of $24,000 was awarded to various schools for the Giving Store Challenge. Amongst the 67 participating schools that participated, Tanglin Secondary School has emerged champion and received $10,000 to fund a meaningful community project and encourage more people in the school’s neighbourhood to do good. Saint Joseph’s Institution, Raffles Institution and Serangoon Secondary School each received $3,000 as the Most Creative Giving Store, Most Enthusiastic Do Good School and Most Aspiring Do Good Deed awards respectively. Five other schools received the Do Good Award and each received $1,000 as well.

Aside from the Giving Store Challenge, the Make A Difference Challenge was created to encourage the community to submit project ideas which aspire to make Singapore a better place. 39 entries were received from youths, teachers and working adults and three winners were picked to receive a grant of up to $5,000 each, as seed funding for their Make A Difference project ideas. The winning ideas were selected based on their innovation, effectiveness, potential impact and track record:

• Happyness in 5, a group of youths who will be conducting spontaneous and creative little activities to bring joy to everyone in Singapore from 16 to 20 December. Find out more at their Facebook page: Happyness in 5
• The Sharing Spree, a supermarket shopping simulation event where members of the public are challenged to put themselves in the shoes of the needy. Find out more at their Facebook page: The Sharing Spree
• The Hidden Good, an existing initiative by a group of Singaporean youths called The Hood Factory, which creates real-life scenarios to bring out the hidden good in Singaporeans. They record these scenarios and share the videos on social media. Find out more at their Youtube channel: The Hood Factory

Continuing to do Good for the Community

Over the past five years, FairPrice has donated more than $72 million to the Foundation to support its causes. In turn, the Foundation has given out over $45 million to provide assistance to the poor and needy, promote community bonding and advance workers’ welfare through initiatives such as FairPrice Food Voucher Scheme and through organisations like Renci Hospital and Community Chest.