The Tenby International School Miri Community

Transcription

1 TENBY INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL, MIRI Haiyan Special Appeal Newsletter NEWSLETTER Volume 1, Issue 04S Special Issue Contact us: Phone: (+6) Fax: (+6) The Tenby International School Miri Community Works to Help Relief Activities in the Central Philippines What a REMARKABLE response our children, parents, staff and community have made after the devastation caused in the central Philippines, especially in the Tacloban City area. From an initial assembly request for the children to offer something of their own to support the recovery operation, especially for the children who might have lost members of their families and their homes, the commitment of our children and the wider community has been a revelation in so many ways. The staff and children combined to stimulate thoughts and that all-important quality of caring and our families and their friends all played their part in supporting the project. Another facet which developed from these activities was the impact of individuals, from the selling of handicrafts and creations to the swimmers in the pool. Its that realization that if each person did their part whether baking or buying a cupcake; selling a picture or buying a card then whether RM3, RM30 or RM300 it made a difference. By uniting their caring efforts the diverse activities of individuals, school and families created a ripple effect having a huge positive impact for the benefit of others. And. as the word spread about the actions of all at TISM, the efforts of the children were noticed further afield with reports of activities in the Star & Borneo Post (local newspaper) which helped reach out to the wider community resulting the Red Crescent adding their efforts to ours. On Thursday 6th March, I received an update from Dr Marilyn, President of the Cebu Kabanay Lions Club with this information and a photo of the Customs gate where our container has been unloaded in the Philippines Hello Phillip, basically some piece of good news: next week we will be going to the devastated areas and will do relief operations for the victims of the storm with some of the money your school sent: ) We will be going up north and give the families rice, noodles, etc. and we will also be providing one recipient of recovery to start up for a self-sustaining business. I will send you pictures of the activity next week. Dr Marilyn In this Haiyan Special Newsletter (or as the storm was referred to in the Philippines, Typhoon Yolanda) are sections from earlier Newsletters and updated new information.

2 Page 2 After Leaving the Shores of Sarawak, What Next? Below is the itemised account of financial collections as they were contributed to the office: these were held in a secondary school account, separate from the main accounts. We embarked on options to ensure that every cent of what was raised went as directly as possible to the work on the ground and after due consideration and investigation decided that the Lions Club offered the most direct route. For parents who may not know of the activities of the Lions Club, it is a global network of clubs of volunteers who wish to contribute to their communities and as such will have already been extensively involved in such activities previously. The contact is with Dr Marilyn Compano, President of the Cebu Kabanay Lions Club, Philippines. After a slight delay in how to submit the financial aid raised through the efforts of so many in our school and community, we received this message: Hello Miss Kathy received your transfer successfully to Cebu Kabanay Lions Club through Malayan Bank Dr Marilyn has also arranged for their Lions Club to collect and distribute the shipped items and will be sending us information on the distribution and how the funding is being used to benefit the devastated communities and families in the coming weeks. My apologies for not coordinating information over the busy period during December and the start of the new term. And my thanks to Yvette Warrlich who coordinated and negotiated these arrangements on the School s behalf. Phillip Brisley All Secured and Ready for the Ship! Typhoon Fundraising D Dress Down (4) ASC AT donation AK donation PB donation TTD donation SK KS ZS KS ZS KS M Dress down (1) 5.00 SK Shave donation Dress Down - from classes 1, Bake Sale 29 Nov , Dinner with Mr Nic Can recycling B donation G donation Coins 0.45 Swimming 15, HMCN donation Swimming later swimathon collections Y3 donation Rainbow Day Donation -Drop In The Ocean TOTAL (RM) 23,780.85

3 Page 3 Art Sale at the Piasau Boat Club for the Philippines After watching the coverage on the News from the Philippines of the recent disaster after the Typhoon Haiyan, Zuhayr Shaikh (Year 6) decided that he really wanted to do something to help. Earlier in the week he had spent some time drawing a number of different types of cars, all in various and exotic scenes. These included a Pick-Up in the Artic, a Rally Car doing a Drift through Heathrow Airport and a Luxury Coupe driving through the city of Johannesburg. Zuhayr thought that he could sell these drawings to raise some money at the Piasau Boat Club (PBC), but he knew that the number of pictures that he had would not raise that much money, so he scanned them all so he could make multiple copies of each. Armed with a total number of twenty five pictures the following Friday, Zuhayr headed out to the PBC to see if any of the Boat Club Members would be willing to buy one of his pictures for charity. Once at the club Zuhayr met up with his friends Zugs, Tobi and Sophie who decided to give him a hand selling the pictures and the four children were soon busy announcing themselves to the Club Members and giving them the chance to buy one of the pictures. Slowly and carefully the children pitched the idea and showed off the pictures. The response was magnificent and after about an hour all the pictures had been sold, with some members paying cash and others pledging money as an IOU which they would either get to Zuhayr at school or his father at their office. One club member even went as far as putting in a Commission Drawing which Zuhayr delivered the following week again for Charity. On arriving home Zuhayr carefully counted out the money. On the night, he and his friends had managed to raise RM145 cash with another RM94 to come in pledges. Quite an extraordinary effort but every little bit counts. Zuhayr would like to thank each and every one of the Boat Club Members who took the time to look at his pictures and donate money to this worthwhile cause. Well done Zuhayr and with your example other children have also used their imagination and talents to raise money for the relief appeal. Mr Phillip Zuhayr in the yellow shirt! And some more At the PBC Charity Bazaar, Georgette Warrlich was given the opportunity to sell her drawings and she raised RM92 for the Haiyan Appeal, well done. Ben Banna also made items himself and raised RM 23 as well! This caring spirit is obviously contagious and we should be proud of all our children as this is how we mould caring and intelligent leaders. Casper, Madison and Hunter (Yr1) and Norah (Yr 3) decided to show their creative side and make paper lanterns and paper snowflakes. They sold them at the end of the term party in Year 1 and raised a total of 94RM.

4 Page 4 Pictures from some of the Haiyan Appeal Activities.. On our dress down day when students and staff could wear day clothes but they needed to pay a RM5.00 fee to the Appeal. It was well supported as shown in this lunchtime photograph and raised in excess of a thousand ringgit. On Wednesday we saw the Swimming Squad raising funds through laps swum! As announced in the Bulletin, as the School Community had raised over RM by Wednesday Lunchtime, the Principal, Mr Phillip, had announced he would shave his moustache. Well, the money was raised so, with the assistance of Mr Nicholas and Mr Peter, watched by over 150 students Mr Phillip s moustache slowly disappeared for the first time in over fifteen years! Many Many Thanks We must state a huge expression of thanks to our children, families and staff for their support of all the activities undertaken to support the survivors in response to the terrible events following the landfall of Typhoon Haiyan in the central Philippines. From the generous donation of clothing, household goods, shoes and small soft toys to the pictures and writings as well as the cans and the cash activities, the response has been exceptional. This element of corporate social responsibility reflects our desire to encourage an understanding of issues outside of our community. In addition to all the work of groups and individual children some of which are mentioned herein; these activities have also benefitted from the dedication, commitment and energy of people to co-ordinate everything. Leading this has been Yvette Warrlich who has coordinated activities with Class Parents, the Lions Club, members of the PTA, staff at school and other interested parents. I also need to specifically mention Shin Yang Berhad who have kindly & generously offered to arrange shipment of goods to the Philippines and since making this initial commitment have expanded it to other local organisations for their contributions to be added to the container. Then we had Sin Poh Boon & Sons Sdn Berhad who arranged the boxes for the goods to be sorted and packed for shipping. Next was Little Laundry who saved the day when a pipe split and caused a flood in the donations room they kindly washed and dried all affected clothing which had been stacked on the floor, a mammoth task. As well as mentions to the Borneo Post, PBC's Charity Bazaar, Red Crescent, Jenny Soh and other local Charities, and the wider Miri community Finally there were the teams of Mums, Students and Staff who sorted the donated items for us. Whenever generating thanks for such generous support some names or companies may have not been specifically mentioned but I hope you will forgive me as your support and contributions we most assuredly appreciated. Thank you, Phillip Brisley

5 Page 5 Swimming Squad make a SPLASH Tenby School Miri is a great school with a big heart for everything that happens in the world. That was shown most clearly during the Typhoon Haiyan Relief Action. Many people have given their time and effort to help people in this part of the world and with actions like these we are made aware every time over and over again, how great it is to help people less fortunate. The swimming squad has done their bit in this event too, by raising money for a great cause. On the 4 th December they swam as many laps as possible and for every lap they were sponsored by family and friends. It was amazing to see how the younger children in our squad were able to swim more laps than expected and next to the pool you could see many parents having a great time and at the same time calculating the money their children were swimming together with encouraging calls from the sidelines.

6 Page 6 The older children just loving to push each other into swimming as many laps as possible and they really enjoyed working together in little groups, to get an amazing amount of laps together. And what an amazing achievement for all these children, whether raising tens or thousands of ringgit because together they collected RM and that is just fantastic!!! Congratulations on a swim very well done and thanks to all the sponsors for supporting this event.

7 Page 6 And more..from our Students Some of our Tenby Years 5 and 6 girls sold homemade crafts at the 'Animal Saving Club' they wore t-shirts they designed. In the photo are: Megan, Nagisa, Hana, Chloe, Bethany, Sophia, Elena, Naomi, Maya and Syzamin. Not in the photo are Anusha and Naqisha They originally decided to raise money to help save Sharks who are 'finned' then thrown back into the sea. When they are thrown back into the sea without their fins they die a slow and painful death, unable to eat or breath properly. Some sharks are now endangered partly due to this. They raised so much money that they decided they could give RM500 to the School Haiyan Appeal and are splitting the rest of the money between the sharks and polar bears. They are giving the money they raised to the WWF as it's a wellrespected organisation. They plan to carry on their hard work raising money for endangered animals. HAIYAN FUND RAISING AND DONATION WEEKS This has been a most successful week of Typhoon Haiyan Relief Action by Tenby School Miri. Fundraising for cash and donation of articles can be a daunting thought yet organising a great fundraiser is a fantastic way to raise a caring awareness in our school community and encourage a shared cause between the students, staff and families. combined enthusiasm has delivered a really successful programme. The great thing is that a successful fundraiser for such a deserving and harrowing cause, benefits all involved and delivers a lot more than money! Other Activities: Competition for collection of aluminum cans was successful with Cobras in the forefront. Lions Dragons Cobras All the fund raising ideas involved a lot of hard work and energy from our Tenby students in collaboration with our marvelous Class Parents and the support of PTA Committee Members. This The collection for clean/washed used new or nearly new clothing, shoes and non-breakable household items. Pictures and writings for caring children showing their enthusiasm a house point for each entry which will be displayed around school (above).