Temasek Poly student uses Telegram blasts to make it easier for younger teens to volunteer

SINGAPORE – After a school-based Values in Action project where she built terrariums with the elderly, Miss Ayuni Nur Izyanti Md Zuraimi wanted to do more.

Volunteering, she said, gives her “the power to make someone else’s day”. 

But just 15 then, she found it tough to find volunteering opportunities, as most were geared towards people at least 18.

Miss Ayuni also found the sign up-process unnecessarily tedious. Users had to first register as a user on a volunteer website before they could apply for a volunteering stint. Then, they had to wait for a confirmation e-mail to learn if they had been accepted or rejected.

To make it easier for young people – especially those aged below 18 – to volunteer, she and four friends started You(th) Can Do It (YCDI) in 2022.

The non-profit, which has since attracted 1,000 volunteers aged 15 and up, works with more than 70 organisations that need volunteers for activities like befriending dialysis patients at National Kidney Foundation Singapore or planting and maintaining gardens at Edible Garden City.

Unlike other volunteer matching platforms where users search for volunteering opportunities on a portal, YCDI uses Telegram, the messaging app widely used among young people here, to blast these opportunities to its volunteer base.

A link provided leads to a Google form or Microsoft form that gathers interested participants’ details, as well as their reasons for volunteering.

The experience laid the foundation for her to eventually participate in the National Youth Achievement Award (NYAA) programme.

The NYAA is for young people aged 13 to under 30 who need to complete activities of their choice in service learning, outdoor appreciation, healthy living and community leadership initiatives. Participants must clock a number of hours in each category, based on the bronze, silver, or gold award requirements.

Now 19 and a Temasek Polytechnic (TP) student, Miss Ayuni was among 308 young people who received a gold award on Oct 6.

Her volunteer work through YCDI helped her figure out that she liked helping families and children, which later influenced her NYAA volunteering choices in categories like service learning and community leadership initiative.

Through YCDI, she has cleaned fans in the homes of senior citizens, a project in partnership with Lion Befrienders.

Through TP’s Community Service Club, she was a tutor volunteer in a programme by the Singapore Buddhist Lodge Vision Family Service Centre.

Miss Ayuni also tutors primary school pupils from underprivileged families in maths, English and science.

She teaches Malay to the Malay pupils from time to time as well, after realising that one of her mentees had an upcoming mother tongue exam.

NYAA’s community leadership initiative segment saw her join Project Chey, her poly’s youth expedition programme to Cambodia. Students from TP foster cross-cultural friendships with pupils from two primary schools in Siem Reap, while teaching subjects like maths and science and life skills like cooking and first aid. 

During Project Chey, Miss Ayuni led a group of four fellow students in creating lesson plans that aimed to make science topics both fun and educational for the pupils.

One such lesson was on how vaccinations work. Miss Ayuni and her team came up with a physical game inspired by freeze tag. A group of children role-played the “virus”, chasing the other students. Those caught got “infected”, and were forced to stay in their spot until a fellow pupil – the “vaccine” – tapped them again.

Miss Ayuni, who aims to branch out to different communities she has yet to serve, hopes to continue to make volunteering accessible to youth through YCDI, so that they too can feel the joy she gets from volunteering.

“I really enjoy telling people that volunteering is really fun. It’s really something very meaningful and beneficial,” she said.

“I want to see those around me, and even those who are inspired, (start volunteering), because the moment those around me start volunteering, those around them will start volunteering as well, so it’s really a ripple effect.”