Short Summary
I took Visual Arts as one of my subjects for my IB diploma, and produced 12 works over the course of the last two years. Myself, and ten other students have endeavoured to develop our creative selves with this class, and to celebrate and mark the completion of it, we are hosting an exhibition, entitled "Odyssey", in our studio in school (ACS International, Singapore) this Friday!
We have been granted the freedom to work independently from the beginning of the course right up till this moment as we prepare for the exhibition. While this is true, I also do not want to disregard the efforts of those who have supported us along the way, such as our school community, family, and friends.
Most of my course mates will be putting their work up for sale during the exhibition, and I am also doing the same. However, I would like to use this opportunity to give back to the world I live in - the one that has inspired me so much and been so integral to all aspects of my development. As such, I've collaborated with the team at SMU Pendeza to promote their cause.
SMU Pendeza is a student-initiated international volunteer project that works with a children's home in Meru, Kenya, providing these children with a means for education and a better life in general, so that they may learn to help themselves, and in this way help their community.
I know that with many initiatives, we often question their integrity and effectiveness, and that is why I've chosen to collaborate with SMU Pendeza to aid this home. The home, Our Lady of Grace Children's Home, is managed by a lovely lady named Rita, who I have had the pleasure of meeting on several occasions. I know that I can trust Rita with the funding she will receive, putting the interests of the children as her priority.
Perhaps you think that this effort isn't the best idea I could've come up with. I become genuinely angry and disappointed at the human race when I see those fundraisers that fly celebrities out to third-world countries and spend ridankulous amounts of money on flashy concerts and the like. I've always believed that if anything, we should try to help the community closest to us before even thinking of working elsewhere. However, I truly do believe in this project, and I think that they need this so much more than we do. With this in mind, I will also be donating unsold work to the Business Times Budding Artists Fund after this project cum fundraiser for Our Lady of Grace comes to a close.
This has been an unnecessarily long string of words, and if you're still reading this, thank you!
What We Need & What You Get
Our Lady of Grace was founded in 2006, in hopes of providing something of a safe haven for orphaned or abandoned children to learn and grow, and lead a more "normal" life. Our Lady of Grace doesn't just provide these children with a safe environment, but also tries to help them help themselves by caring for them and creating a close-knit community, as well as providing them with quality education.
I hope to be able to raise the bulk of the funding through the sale of my work. However, I wanted to be able to involve people who can't attend the exhibition as well! With this indiegogo page, you can invite friends of friends of friends of family, or even just other randoms of the general public, and although this might seem a very insignificant action, it really can make a difference!
Thus, I invite all of you, regardless of your relation to me or this project, even if you are looking at this by pure serendipitous discovery, to share this project with everybody you know! Spread the word by sharing this page on all your social media accounts, and through email, or text, or whatsapp, or youtube, or by post(?), and even just talking about it and telling others about it in real life (if people do even interact in real life anymore, I mean who does that right? HA!) (that was a joke by the way).
As a token of my appreciation of your support, I will be producing small works of art and sending them out to donors by post. These can be customised according to your preference, as long as I have been given notice through email or on facebook (or however indiegogo works??). Unfortunately, I'm currently still in the process of completing my IB diploma, so I hope to get right down to this the instant I'm done with this leg of my education, and have all the small works out by christmas! For larger donations, the larger works will hopefully be out sometime in early January. Whatever the case, I hope everybody receives their gifts by the end of February :)
I really hope this doesn't happen, BUT if we don't reach our goal (my goal?), all proceeds will still go to the charity, only in a smaller amount. This isn't really a bad thing, and I don't think there's any loss in not reaching the goal, but come on, $1600 isn't actually that ridiculous, is it?
Think about it. If fifty people donate $30 each, we'd have already gotten to where I hoped we would, and this would help to sustain the home, and improve the lives of the children, providing them with things we think of as basic, and often take for granted.
The Impact
Our Lady of Grace changes the lives of so many youths, and allows them to access things that we often don't even think twice about, like clean water, education, and safety.
This may sound cliche, but your small contribution can go a long way.
"No one should be left alone in the dark... all it takes is someone stepping forward and making a stand. You and I can make a difference, feed a soul, fill a heart"
Other Ways You Can Help
Some of you just can’t contribute, but that doesn’t mean you can’t help:
- Ask folks to get the word out and make some noise about your campaign. Get creative and be annoying about it! I give you my blessing.
- I'm not entirely sure how indiegogo works, but it says to remind you to "use the Indiegogo share tools!" so remember to use the Indiegogo share tools!
If any of you want more information about the SMU Pendeza initiative, you can go to their page: http://smupendeza.org/
And also, be sure to check out the ACS International art exhibition this Friday, the 27th of September! It'll be happening from five thirty to eight at ACS International (61 Jalan Hitam Manis, Singapore 278475; in the residential area near Chip Bee Gardens, which is near Holland Village, and there are some very interesting works to see. I'll also be performing three sets with my mediocre guitar strumming and bearable vocals haha hope to see you there! TELL YOUR FRIENDS PARENTS COLLEAGUES GRANDPARENTS RELATIVES TEACHERS STUDENTS GENERAL PUBLIC AND YOUR LOCAL BARISTA/PRATA UNCLE TO COME (I think it'll be fun!)
And that’s all there is to it.
Peace and love
Clarissa Jane/claire/clarissa/cleh (depending on how you know me) xx