Phase 1
We launched our Start Small Dream Big project on the 26 April 2021. This year, Riverlife Kindergarten is collaborating with Riverlife Church mission department to reach out to refugee children who have been housed in a temporary accommodation in a Refugee Centre in Serpong in Jarkarta and Papuan children who come from left behind regions in Indonesia. The Papuan children are given an education programme in Genius School in Indonesia, Jakarta.
For the launch, we had invited Ms Yenny Agustina Sari, Riverlife Christian mission worker in charge of taking care of Indonesia Missions to give a talk to our children.
Through this project, our children will learn to appreciate what they have in Singapore. Through sharing and giving of their items such as toys, clothes, stationery and shoes, our children will get to experience the real act of giving and learn core values of empathy, appreciation, respect and love.
The children, teachers and parents are all excited about taking on this journey and we can’t wait to share about the processes in our next write up.
Phase 2
During the phase 2 of the project, the teachers wasted no time in engaging the children by asking them on how to help the refugees and the Papuan children. The teachers documented the children’s ideas as a topic web.
A letter was sent to the parents about the project. A few dates were stipulated for the donation drive. Soon children came in with loads of bags with their pre-loved items and even bought new items for the ‘Package with Love’. They donated items such as clothes, shoes, stationeries, hats/caps, new water-bottles, board games, toys and such.
The children then sorted the donated items into labelled boxes.
Thereafter the teachers and staff at Riverlife Kindergarten helped to further sort donated items for consolidation and packed them into huge boxes for shipment to Jakarta. It was tough work indeed but we had the satisfaction that we were doing it for a good cause.
The K1 and K2 children also worked hard on making cards for the refugees and Papuan children to show their love. They then put these cards into one of the boxes to be shipped too.
Our donation drive turned out to be a success. We managed to pack 4 boxes in all. We already shipped 2 boxes out and will be shipping the other 2 soon. We at Riverlife Kindergarten hope that we can bring smiles and hope to the refugees and Papuan children. We are looking forward to sharing on phase 3 of our project soon.
Phase 3
Praise the Lord! The boxes had safely arrived to their destination in Jakarta. The ground workers of Riverlife Church Mission Department Jakart, helped sort and labeled donated items to be given away to both the refugees and the Papuan students at Genius School.
Below is a picture of Riverlife Church ground worker, Ibu Lidya, who helped give away the donated items to Mr Behrouz, an Iranian man at the Refugee Center in Jakarta. He thanked Riverlife Kundergarten for their generosity.
Below, you will find photographs of the students at Genius School and some children at the Refugee Centre in Jakarta posing for a picture to extend their appreciation to Riverlife Kindergarten.
We concluded our project on 13 September 2021. Due to COVID 19 restrictions we did a minimal celebration in class with slide shows, a little dancing and reflecting on the project.
A video of what the children said about their take aways from the project.
A peek at some of the journaling work done by the K1s.
Indeed it has been an eye opening learning journey for the young ones at our school as they had no insight about refugees. We believe that we have inculculated important values such as empathy and compassion to them and hope that it will continue to grow.
We have come to the end of our SSDB project on ‘Package with Love’ for the year 2021 and would like to leave you with videos of children dancing to the song “We love, we love because He first loved us” by Jana Alarya.
