In response to Mercy Relief’s (MR) appeal for public and corporate donations for the recent Southeast Asian floods crisis, the Singapore Polytechnic’s (SP) CD Lionhearters Club members organised a ‘Cyclothon’(short for cycling marathon) fundraiser at the Shaw House, today to do their part in helping the affected communities in Cambodia, Thailand and the Philippines.
More than 150 youths of the SCDF-initiated CD Lionhearters Club from the Singapore Polytechnic (SP), ITE College East, ITE College West and Temasek Polytechnic and members of the public turned up for the ‘Cyclothon’ and pedalled continuously for 10 hours (10am –8pm) on MR’s bicycle-powered water filtration systems, which have been previously deployed at various floods-stricken locations in Asia inter alia Taiwan, the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia and Pakistan.
President of the SP CD Lionhearters Club, Jowin Lee said, ““We discovered the scale of the devastation after gathering news from the media. Today’s ‘Cyclothon’ which is a cycling marathon has two objectives –first is to raise funds to support MR’s efforts in the countries they are currently serving. Secondly and significantly too, we hope to be able to raise the awareness on the sufferings of the affected communities, especially in the area of water where its sources have been largely contaminated by the floods. So we hope this little effort can bring some relief to our friends whose lives and livelihoods have been badly affected or lost.””
Photo 1: The first of 150 CD Lionhearters commenced pedaling at 10am.
Photo 2: MR director Michael Tay and SP senior director Lim Cher Yam ‘peddling-off’ to officially launch the ‘Cyclothon’ fundraiser.
At 11am, member of MR’s board of directors, Michael Tay and Senior Director of Singapore Polytechnic, Lim Cher Yang officially launched the fundraiser by pedalling on the bicycle-powered water filtration systems. Also present at the event was MR’s Advisor, Abdullah Tarmugi and other directors of the MR Board. Shaw House had provided the complimentary use of its premises and facilities.
Over in the streets around the Island, about 270 volunteers roved with donation cans to encourage the public to make a contribution towards the ongoing flood relief efforts by MR. Student volunteers from the National Police Cadet Corps ‘armed’ themselves with tin cans and prowled the streets in search of good characters to open up their wallets and authenticate their hearts through monetary donations
Photo 3: 270 volunteers sacrificed their Sunday’s rest to participate in the streets collection.
Photo 4: Old and young reach for the cans to lend their hands.
33-time award winner and MR’s goodwill ambassador since 2004, Stefanie Sun, was at the event and took to the pedals to lend her support towards this fundraiser, which is a first of its kind in Singapore. She said, ““MR has always been quick to respond to an appeal made by our neighbours. What is important now is to sustain those efforts and to continue stabilising the situations on the ground which would require further resources. Today’s efforts by the CD Lionhearters and other volunteers who have sacrificed their time and comfort to help collect more donations from the public, would allow MR to extend the Singaporean hearts to our fellow Southeast Asians who are in need. The participants and organisers of today’s activity are largely young volunteers and this augurs well for Singapore’s future as a caring nation.”
The Thai and Cambodian ambassadors, and the representative from the Philippines embassy to Singapore also attended the event to participate in the activities and personally thanked the volunteers for their initiative, care and efforts.
Photo 5: CE Hassan Ahmad explaining the functions of the bicycle-powered water filtration system to MR goodwill ambassador, Stefanie Sun.
Photo 6: MR Advisor Abdullah Tarmugi took to the pedals to give the Lionhearters a break, observed by the Thai Ambassador to Singapore, H.E, Nopadol Gunavibool(in blue).
Photo 7: Cambodian Ambassador to Singapore, H.E, Sin Serey meeting the 33-time award winner Stefanie Sun.
Photo 8: CE Hassan Ahmad sharing with Mr Jed Llona from the Philippines embassy, on MR’s latest relief engagements for the floods and typhoons.
About Mercy Relief
Mercy Relief is a Singaporean humanitarian organisation which engages in both disaster relief and sustainable development programmes. It was established in 2003 as an independent non-governmental humanitarian charity responding to the human tragedies in Asia. Mercy Relief’s aid programme focuses on providing timely and effective assistance to disaster-stricken communities and has maintained the delivery of emergency aid within 72 hours from the point of appeal for assistance.
In the past 12 years, Mercy Relief has disbursed over S$32 million in aid across 40 disaster relief and 53 sustainable development initiatives. Mercy Relief has impacted an aggregate of 2 million lives in 24 countries and areas, namely Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, DPR Korea, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Laos, Lebanon, Malaysia, the Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Palestine, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam and Yemen.
For more information, you may call us at 6514 6322 or email corporateaffairs@mercyrelief.org
