Project Serbia

Our group “Give A Little Warmth” is already into our 3rd year.

This year, our facilitator, Ms Eileen Ong, kickstarts a new project with Tzu Chi Deutschland e.v.  (Tzu Chi in Germany).  All handmade items will be distributed to refugees stranded in Serbia, a country in the Balkan Peninsula, south-eastern Europe.

REGUGEES IN SERBIA
The refugees are displaced from civil wars/conflicts in the Middle-east, South Asia, and Africa, they travel across the Mediterranean Sea or overland through Southeast Europe with the hope to start a new life in Western Europe Country. However, the rising number of such migrants led to European migrant crisis in 2015 and some countries in the Balkan Peninsula decided to block the migrant route in 2016, leaving many refugees stranded in Serbia to face one of the worst humanitarian crisis nowadays. It is estimated that there are 7000 stranded refugees in Serbia. Winter temperature in Serbia ranges from -20C to 10C, with an average winter temperature of 0C.

ABOUT TZU CHI
Tzu Chi volunteers in Europe started some relief works in Serbia by organizing food and clothes distribution which is especially needed during winter.

HOPE
We hope to collect 2000 pieces of scarves and beanies. 1000 for men and 600 for women and another 400 for children.

COLLECTION
Date : 23 Jul – 29 Jul so that items will be distributed in Sep/Oct before winter
Venue : Two locations – Woodlands and Pasir Ris, Singapore
* There will be a one week time-frame for all of us to drop off the items. Those who cannot drop by can opt to send them via Singpost or courier service.

If you are living in Singapore and are keen to join our group, do check out on our Facebook Give A Little Warmth.  This is a closed group.

 

Give A Little Warmth

I chanced upon this “Give A Little Warmth” project on my Facebook. The Facebook group was created by Ms Karen Mitchell, together with Zhang Weiya on 21 Jan 2015 and as at to-date the group has 347 members and it is still growing.  The project was created in support of one of  Swanfund Group’s many missions. The main brief of this ‘Give A Little Warmth” project is to gather like-minded knitters who wants to share and contribute their creation with yarn. The group will contribute scarf, as it is the simplest starting-project for beginner knitters to attempt. It is also an item that the receivers will have close to their heart, keeping them warm. Anyone who knits, crochet, or have an interest in both, can contribute. You could not imagine how ecstatic I was, to finally chanced upon a charitable project organised by a Singapore group.  I have been wanting to use my passion in crocheting to help in some forms but most of the projects were organised by overseas volunteers, usually from the USA. My heartfelt thanks to Karen for taking the trouble to get in touch with Swanfund and came up with this wonderful idea. It provides a platform for the knitters to get-together to do something good for the society. Anyone keen to contribute can go to the link here to join.  The collection date is in end June 2015.

Heart Birthday Cake

Shortly after Monica got the rainbow slice cake for her mom, she came up with the idea to make a birthday cake for her boyfriend with a heart.

I have never made a whole cake and this is something challenging for me.

The whole cake is purely designed by me 🙂

 

 

Little Yellow Mice

Shhh…found a litte mice squeaking in a corner…he looked so scare and helpless.

 

So pleased to come across Green Dragonfly’s blog. Love her clean and clear picture tutorial.  You can find her mousie’s pattern here.

1 more picture of my yellow mousie.  It really brighten up my prince’s desk!

 

Happy Birthday Ryan!

My brother sent me this photo of my nephew with his birthday present..

He loves the super hero monkey that I have made for him. By the way, Ryan is born in the year of the Monkey.

Wishing my dear nephew, a supreme day!

Conceptualising…

My younger sister, Janet, is leading the KidsRead Program ( you can read about the program here). I am not competently eloquent enough to read for the kids but  I wanted to do something for the kids to show my support.  It was agreed that I could work out 25 gifts for the kids for the coming Children’s Day.  Wow, I was getting nervous.

I wanted to come up with something that the

1.  the kids would love

2.  no duplication so they wouldn’t fight over it

3.  hopefully something small and handy so they could bring with them.

After weeks of researching, I am now conceptualising on my idea….

Minion No. 2 and 3

More Pictures

 

 

Hello Kitty Haze

Singapore is experiencing a really bad haze situation so when my friend sent me this picture, I really believed that McDonald’s was having this Hello Kitty plushie promotion! I was still think how cool was McDonald’s to be able to catch on with the haze situation so fast!  Well, I was wrong. It was only a prank my friend played on me.

In return, I decided to pull a prank on my friend instead. I have decided to make one plushie similar to the picture and tell my friend “look! I have got the Hello Kitty!”.

 

 

This is how I came up with this Hello Kitty with a mask. Purely made for fun and yes, this is the only one in the world for now!

Hello Kitty Craze

 

McDonald’s is having the Hello Kitty Collection craze again!

They are sooooo cute but  I am not someone who is so crazy enough to queue hours for the toys but I am crazy enough to make one myself!

Everyone knows how a Hello Kitty looks so it was very difficult to ‘capture’ her look. After several tries, managed to get the right eyes. Thanks to Elsie, my sis-in-law, who helped me with the eyes cutting.

House of Blessings, Chiang Mai

I have been mentioning to you on House of Blessings since my first post. I would like to share with you on my recent visits to HOB.

House of Blessings is situated in Chiang Mai, Thailand. It is a Christian home for the orphans, poor and abandoned kids. It was through the contact of my colleague OCH that we came to know this home and since then, my company has been actively involved in helping the home to raise money to improve their infrastructure so that the kids can have a better environment to live in and grow well. Money was also raised to buy baking equipment, sewing machines and building a motorcycle workshop etc to teach the children a skill of survival.

Pictures comparation of HOB from my 2 recent visits in 2011 and 2013. You could see the vast improvement we have made to the living condition of the kids.  God bless!

July 2011-taken inside their function cum eating hall

April 2013-taken outside their new function hall

July 2011-road to HOB

April 2013-road to HOB

I was surprised with the vast changes when I visited them again in April this year. The houses have turned into concrete buildings!

Chapel 2011

Chapel 2013

 

Admin Office 2011

Admin Office 2013

 

The kids dormitories in year 2011. It really pained me to see the condition. The whole place was very dark with scarce necessities, soft lumpy mattresses, no cupboard to keep their clothes and 2 kids had to share a bed.

I was very heartened to see the vast improvement in the living condition of the kids. Now they even have matching pink cabinets to keep their stuffs.

Girls’ Dormitory 2013

Boys’ Dormitory 2013

2013-exterior of dormitory with simple playground

 

Lastly, a picture of me and 3 prettiest young ladies I have come across!