“To Live is to Give” is a motto that we embody here at Japan IPL Express. It’s why we spread the love through giving customers free IPL Shots and other perks. Beyond that, we believe in giving back to those in need, and every year, we host the One to Give Charity Drive.
Giving back can be done in many forms and we can all play our part in society. So we launched our One To Give Charity Drive to be an avenue of information for customers to learn about various causes and get involved themselves. Since 2017, we have been identifying at least one cause to contribute towards every March.
2017: Down Syndrome Association
On 12 March 2017, we at Japan IPL Express gave 100 free IPL shots to all our customers and 50 per cent of the sales proceeds made on the same day were donated to The Down Syndrome Association (DSA). We raised $10,000. DSA was founded by a group of parents raising children with Down syndrome in 1996. Today, it is a strong network of support for individuals living with Down syndrome and their families.
Everyone deserves to lead happy and healthy lives. Besides lending a hand through financial means to enrich the lives of people with Down syndrome, Japan IPL Express helped raise awareness on Down syndrome, caregiving, and the World Down Syndrome Day event.
2018: Buy 1 Give 1 (B1G1) Charity Drive
We believe that every human being should have access to basic necessities, such as food, water, and the means to earn a livelihood. However, this isn’t the case in countries where poverty persists. Wanting to help and empower people in marginalised communities to be self-sufficient, we collaborated with global social enterprise Buy 1 Give 1 (B1G1).
Through B1G1, we dedicated efforts to 3 projects helping fight poverty in India, Kenya and Cambodia. By the end of March 2018, Japan IPL Express successfully contributed proceeds to the promised projects:
Provided 1,213 Kenyan families with chickens for breeding and to supply eggs (to become food or be sold).
Enabled 2,500 Cambodian families to have access to clean water, so that they could save themselves a two-hour trip to the nearest pond, quench their thirst, and grow better quality crops. The crops could potentially provide them with greater nutrition and income.
Supported 2,000 Indian students across 360 schools with meals, which encouraged poor families to enrol their children in schools and regular class attendance among students. Hunger and illiteracy are two of the most pressing problems in India.
2019: B1G1 Charity Drive and Exclusively Mongrels
Following the success of 2018’s B1G1 projects, we continued to collaborate with B1G1 in 2019. This time, the goals were to equip underprivileged women, special needs children and children from disadvantaged communities with practical skills and education to climb out of the poverty cycle.
With the support of our customers, we successfully raised $12,400 on behalf of the following 3 causes:
Funded sewing training for a total of 389 women, because it enables the women to gain employment and kickstart businesses. Selling clothing with intricate embroidery and embellishments is a means to bring in the dough — making sewing a valuable skill for women living in rural India.
Provided 160 special needs children from disadvantaged backgrounds with 2 months worth of proper education and food, so as to increase their chances of integrating into society. The point was to open doors to children who might’ve been denied a proper education, because mainstream schools refuse to accept them or parents are unaware of alternative education paths
Fed 110 students school lunches over 6 months to provide them with the necessary nutrition. They could focus on school without worrying about their meals.
A second initiative we ran in 2019 was in collaboration with a local dog welfare non-profit group – Exclusively Mongrels. Singapore has hundreds of mongrels in need of homes and if nobody adopts them, they get put to sleep after a life on the streets. They deserve better. Our mission was to raise awareness about pet adoption among the public, while giving stray dogs a chance at finding a loving family and home.
Wanting to turn everyday social media habits into something that transcends beyond the superficial and into tangible results, we organised an “Adopt a Best Friend” online charity drive. We let our customers call the shots — by “liking”, “posting” and “reposting” under #OTGCharity2019. For every engagement, we donated $1. We successfully raised awareness on animal adoption and fundraised $6,000 for Exclusively Mongrels.
We also organised “Chase The Monday Blues Away”, a 3-hour event at Chevron House in Raffles Place, during which we brought the dogs out and about, to “chase” the office crowd’s Monday blues away. The interaction between dogs and passerbys further raised awareness on supporting animal shelters and animal adoption amongst the public.
2020: Eden Reforestation Projects
In the midst of the global wildfire crisis — the Amazon, Siberia, California and Australia experiencing more frequent and intense forest fire seasons than ever before, there is no denying that we need to take climate change seriously. Seeing the degree of destruction in the aftermath, we decided to participate in tree restoration efforts to shape a better future for environments and communities.
We turned to Eden Reforestation Projects, a non-profit organisation that works in developing countries to rebuild natural landscapes destroyed by deforestation and reduce extreme poverty by employing locals to plant millions of trees every year.
With $5,000 sales proceeds, we managed to plant 50,000 trees across Indonesia, Kenya, Madagascar, Nepal and more!
2021: Sian Chay Medical Institution, Silver Ribbon and Habitat for Humanity Singapore
2020 was a tough year for everyone due to the COVID-19 outbreak and the new normal opened our eyes to more ways in which we could put our “to live is to give” motto into practice. Despite unprecedented circumstances, we could still help one another by creating better living conditions.
Amidst the social isolation, loneliness and anxiety exacerbated by the pandemic, mental health concerns and the heightened demand for healthcare support were 2 key struggles we noticed. This led to us choosing to team up with local traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) charity clinic Sian Chay Medical Institution and mental health non-profit organisation Silver Ribbon.
Mental health challenges are more common than publicly recognised and we believe that to bring awareness to these struggles is a stepping stone towards solving them.
Silver Ribbon and Sian Chay Medical Institution have been providing complimentary consultation and TCM services respectively. With higher demand for healthcare, we wanted to support their daily operations and ensure that regardless of their financial standing, everyone has access to healthcare services.
Unlike previous years where sales proceeds were donated to the organisations of our choice by default, this year, we allowed customers to decide which charity they wished to contribute towards. Under this initiative, we donated a total of $15,580 to Sian Chay Medical Institution and Silver Ribbon!
We also joined forces with international housing charity Habitat for Humanity. They organise Project HomeWorks clean-up sessions, during which volunteers help to clean and declutter homes of vulnerable individuals in Singapore. We chipped in by donating $3,000 to enable them to improve the living conditions in over half a dozen homes. The beneficiaries were mostly the elderly, people with disabilities and low-income families, who receive little to no social and financial support. Everyone deserves to live with dignity. One’s home being a safe, sanitary and comfortable space is also the first step towards improving our physical and psychological state.
The donations went towards replacing furniture, buying painting supplies, covering the cost of professionally-conducted fumigation sessions to eliminate pests, and more. We also sponsored an episode on Singapore YouTube channel – Just Saying, which showcased the behind-the-scenes work of a Project HomeWorks clean-up session.
Overall, we believe our words, actions and donations are able to make a difference in the lives of others, which is why no matter what we do, we hope to make a positive impact. And we hope to inspire you to do the same!
