[This is a sponsored article with Visa.]
COVID-19 has turn into a distant reminiscence for many, however some Singaporeans are nonetheless preventing to unravel social points that have been amplified by the pandemic, 5 years on.
KampungKakis, a homegrown non-profit organisation (NGO), is one such entity that began from one of many founders’ experiences of being warded within the Nationwide College Hospital after testing optimistic for the virus.
Mae Tan had simply returned to Singapore from New York to flee the coronavirus disaster within the U.S. when she examined optimistic in March 2020. As she was recuperating in her ward, she seen the aged sufferers within the hospital have been having a tough time coping—not simply with their restoration, but additionally with the pandemic’s broader social impacts.
I began to consider how older generations of Singaporeans, particularly these staying alone, would react to this new state of affairs—would they be confused, or lonely as a result of they will not spend their days on the coffeeshops and senior exercise centres? How would they adapt to the web communication the federal government was utilizing to disseminate essential info, since quite a lot of seniors aren’t that tech-savvy?
Mae Tan, co-founder of KampungKakis
She contemplated these questions lengthy after her discharge, and dwelled on how the mutual assist from fellow sufferers helped her get by means of the unsure and making an attempt instances.
Mae additionally noticed that very same spirit of assist in her dad and mom, who typically supplied to share groceries and meals with their aged neighbour dwelling alone.
In these interactions, Mae noticed a possible answer to the assist hole for seniors. Thus, she based KampungKakis along with long-time pal Denise Tay and Michelle Lau, who was the chairperson of the residents’ committee for Mae’s neighbourhood.
How does it work?
The title ‘KampungKakis’ combines two Malay phrases: ‘Kampung,’ which means ‘village,’ and ‘kaki,’ which means ‘pal.’ It’s a web-based platform that matches seniors with compassionate volunteers, or kakis, from the identical neighbourhood, or kampung.
KampungKakis is a proximity-based buddy system for the aged. Based on Mae, seniors are referred to the KampungKakis by means of varied organisations, such because the Silver Generation Office and medical social staff, and volunteers can enroll on their web site.
The system would then match volunteer “kakis” with the aged based mostly on proximity, spoken languages, and the kind of help or assist required.
The organisation will e-mail appropriate volunteers with details about the senior, and make a mutual introduction as soon as they settle for the match. If the elder was referred by a social or case employee, they may even take part within the introduction.
It’d sound easy in idea, however the aim of assuaging social isolation amongst seniors requires sustaining human reference to a big community of seniors and volunteers, which is extra complicated and resource-intensive when put into follow.
With its present capability, KampungKakis is specializing in seniors dwelling in Ang Mo Kio, Toa Payoh, Jurong, Boon Lay, and Seaside Street.
The fact of operating an NGO
The volunteers at KampungKakis help seniors with important duties, together with shopping for groceries, serving to them resolve cell phone technical difficulties and alluring seniors to meals and outings.
“It’s not very prescriptive, the necessities are versatile,” defined Mae, who added that volunteers are inspired to go to their seniors not less than as soon as each two weeks.
“In the end, it’s not about checking off a field that you simply’ve visited them, it’s about making every go to a significant one for each events. So volunteers can go to their seniors at their very own time that works for his or her busy schedule,” she stated.
To make sure volunteers are ready to care for his or her seniors, KampungKakis gives coaching to make sure the security of each the volunteers and the seniors. This contains programs like psychological first support or volunteer self-care to fight compassion fatigue.
Put up-pandemic, a key problem that has emerged for KampungKakis is retaining volunteers, with the lack of time to volunteer after the pandemic being the largest impediment, Mae stated.
Managing funds as a younger charity
One other hurdle the NGO confronted was effectively managing funds, like fundraising, donations and expenditures. After they first began as a ground-up initiative, Mae and her co-founders manually tracked influx and outflow in a spreadsheet.
They have been additionally utilizing their private playing cards to buy related software program and carry out different monetary transactions. “It was very onerous to have a simple view throughout all playing cards, and one particular person needed to manually hold observe and enter that into the spreadsheet,” lamented Mae.
“Operating KampungKakis may be very very similar to operating a small enterprise. Like all enterprise, we wanted to determine strong processes for budgeting, expense administration, and accountability, in addition to leveraging expertise for effectivity.”
To streamline their operations, whereas sustaining funds oversight and expense controls, KampungKakis applied Visa’s digital card options throughout the organisation. This allowed them to create and assign digital playing cards to workers members, tagged to a selected goal together with a preset spending restrict.
“[For example], we assigned a Visa digital card particularly used just for funds on tech and software program. So not solely can we have a look at the whole lot inside a single platform, we have now a greater expense administration course of, versus making funds with our private bank cards and managing claims and reimbursement thereafter,” Mae stated.
Utilizing Visa’s enterprise fee options offered the workforce with peace of thoughts. Not solely have been they in a position to hold private and enterprise bills separate, however they might additionally schedule, observe and reconcile funds with none lapses.
These seemingly easy enhancements have supported KampungKakis’s progress. The charity has since elevated its full-time workers power and leveraged totally different software program suppliers, which require recurring funds, because it expands its operations.
This upward trajectory additionally helped diversify the avenues by means of which they will obtain donations, which is crucial for NGOs to proceed supporting the causes they champion.
Mae shared that previously, donors may solely donate by way of PayNow. Nevertheless, since changing into an official charity, Kampungkakis can now marketing campaign on platforms like Ray of Hope and Giving.SG, the place donors can simply make on-line donations utilizing their Visa playing cards.
Changing into a extra accountable NGO
Wanting ahead, KampungKakis is working in the direction of constructing a greater system to strengthen its accountability as an NGO. Being a charity requires a robust document of audit and governance, Mae added.
With Visa’s options, managing funds has turn into simpler for charities like KampungKakis, permitting them to dedicate time and sources in the direction of their trigger of making a Singapore the place no seniors are left behind.
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Featured Picture Credit score: KampungKakis
