Everyone loves a bargain and Singaporeans are no exception. The Singapore Red Cross Thrift stores are a bargain hunters dream come true! And every dollar spent helps to support the Red Cross in their disaster aid and relief efforts throughout the region. A win-win we say!

Piqued your interest? We promise you it’s rewarding, fun and something everyone should try at least once!

The Singapore Red Cross operates two thrift stores, one at 62 JalanKhairuddin and the other at 15 Penang Lane. Both of these offer new and pre-loved merchandise and at almost unbelievably discounted prices.

I spent weeks volunteering at the Penang Lane Shop and was asked to work on Mondays or Wednesdays or both. During the course of my days I saw newly received merchandise sorted, priced and stocked on Mondays. On Wednesdays from 10am to 4pm the store is open to the public and volunteers such as myself, helped customers locate items, try on clothes or shoes and bag or carry purchased merchandise.
Think volunteering needs a lot of time? As a volunteer at The Singapore Red Cross one is not required to stay for the entire day but simply to help out as long as one can. There’s also a $5.00 stipend to pay for lunch.

Most of the merchandise itself is new and donated by shops and stores in Singapore. When I was working there in January, a shipment of branded women's tops from Macy's arrived. All were priced at $1. Dozens of pairs of new women's shoes also came in and were priced at $1 per pair. Now that is a bargain!
In addition to clothing and shoes, the store also carries small kitchen appliances and dishware, costume jewellery and sunglasses and many toys and stuffed animals for the children.
The permanent staff members are friendly and very helpful so there is no need to be nervous or to feel awkward about coming in to help.

​​If you’ve got bargain shopping on your mind, head there soon or better still, give a part of your valuable time as a volunteer! If you are interested in volunteer opportunities at the Singapore Red Cross Shop, visit the expatgiving website or just click here to fill out a brief application. Giving back and scoring a bargain - what’s not to love!

After giving up my great job in the UK to move to Singapore for a new adventure with my boyfriend, I assumed it would be fairly straightforward to find a new job here and settle into normal working life quickly and easily.  However, for various reasons, it took me 6 months to find a full time job, which was about 5 months longer than I had (naively) anticipated. In between my days spent applying for jobs, writing and re-writing my CV, meeting with recruiters and interviewing, I managed to find time to volunteer. I had always been involved in various volunteer activities in the UK so wanted to continue this on while in Singapore. Aside from being a generally fun and fulfilling thing to do in your local community, I genuinely believe that my volunteer experience was one of the factors that helped me to finally land my job, and here are five reasons why:



1) Fills gaps in CV/Resume

I was only out of work for 6 months, but I was consistently asked in interviews ‘what have you been doing with your time?’ Volunteering gave me a great talking point and I was able to clearly demonstrate how I used my ‘free’ time wisely and effectively.


2) Network Building

There is a lot to be said for meeting a person ‘in the right place at the right time’. Volunteering enabled me to be regularly interacting with like-minded individuals, and I would often find myself meeting people who knew someone at the company I was applying to, or meeting someone who was already working in the field I was trying to get into.


3) Opportunity for career change and exploration

If, like me, you haven’t quite yet found your ‘perfect job’ but are also aware that hopping from job to job can have a negative impact on your career, then volunteering is a great way to try out different types of job roles or industries. For me, it was a case of needing more relevant and recent experience in a specific skill, so I found a volunteering role that enabled me to learn and develop that skill.


4) Helps you to integrate with local community

Being new to Singapore, meant that employers were sometimes ‘concerned’ with my potential lack of local knowledge or lack of experience in Asia. Therefore, volunteering meant that I could help to ease these concerns by demonstrating my local knowledge, connections and experience gained through volunteering.


5) Employers value people who volunteer

Most companies have some form of core value that surrounds charities and giving back to the community. Therefore, volunteering shows that you also hold these values in high regard. Personally, Volunteering also shows that you are passionate, hard working and dedicated by nature; 3 of the key words that are often written on resumes with little proof to back it up!

Coming to Singapore as an expat is a great experience! There is a lot to discover and explore but things can be tough and challenging as well. They say that Singapore is an easy starting point for expats, but in reality there is so much offered, you have no idea where to start.

When you have made a compromise with your partner to give up a full-time job back home, you find yourself having much more of this “free time” to over-think than you ever had before. While your partner and kids have a schedule to follow and a routine to keep them occupied, you are faced with the problem of figuring out what to do with your free time. You are given the luxury of time, the question is, “how do you make good use of this free time?”

In these moments, it’s great to make use of your valuable time and  be a part of a social organization where you can use your skills and be able to do something good for the society. These social organizations or non-profits give you the opportunity to be creative and come up with great ideas, and implement them on the spot! These non-profits will encourage you to come up with innovative ideas to help others.

Let me give you a nice example of what I have experienced.

I started living in Singapore at the beginning of this year. After reviewing alternatives to spend my time wisely, I started volunteering for HOME. HOME is a local non-profit organization that supports migrant workers who are having disputes with their employers. They offer all kinds of programs and workshops for domestic workers who are staying in the  shelter they  provide. Although they are being cared for, these women hardly have any activity outside their shelter. They live in the shelter for weeks or even months/ years  while they wait for their cases to be resolved.

I realized that they are stuck in a difficult situation and can use some help from someone who can make things seem a little brighter for them. I was already working as a trainer for “Mom in Balance” where I teach energetic outdoor workouts for pregnant women, women who have just given birth and mothers who want to be in shape again. So a great idea was born: bringing these women to East Coast Park for workout sessions every week.

The first time we went to East Coast Park was unforgettable. It was great to see the expression on their faces when we reached the beach and they felt the wonderful breeze from the sea. At first, they felt a bit uncomfortable with the exercises but they loosened up after a couple of minutes. They were able to relax and forget their worries and problems for at least an hour.

They love the experience and that gives me a thankful and positive feeling every week!

Suzan Grootscholten

Heeru, our guest blogger, recently attended one of the NKF cooking lessons as a volunteer. Here’s how she describes her experience:

“Eating right with our fast paced lives seems to be an ever growing challenge. We try again and again yet at the end of it we get so tempted with all the yummy foods that we give in and end up eating something that is not necessarily the best for us. Today, everything we eat is so loaded with salt, sugar and oil. Many times we don’t even know what is in what we eat. We can enjoy the tasty unhealthy food as long as we are healthy…But what if that changes? What will meal time be like then?

One of the most challenging experiences for the past week was cooking for the National Kidney Foundation. Even as a trained food technologist, this required a lot more preparation than I initially thought to ensure what I presented was not only nutritious, but safe for kidney patients to enjoy. ‘Why’ you may ask. Well a lot of what is recommended for us as healthy adults is actually not good for them. Did you know they have to restrict water intake? Even some leafy greens are not recommended for them because of the high levels of potassium. Suddenly, it seemed that a lot about what I knew about healthy eating was not going to work for the cooking class. But I knew exactly where to start: I asked for help! My friend Sheila and I figured that since kidney patients have to restrict water intake, they probably could not enjoy one of Singapore’s local delicacies: "Steam boat".

So, we created a "Waterless Steamboat". The only seasoning we added was a teaspoon of soya sauce. The rest were fragrant vegetables like lotus root, red and green peppers and cauliflower. What I loved about it was that it only took 30 minutes to make. I have to admit it was a lot different that the regular steamboat all of us are used to, loaded with salt and seasonings. However this is not to say the waterless steamboat tasted bad, that could not be further from the truth. It was just lighter in flavor and a lot more focused on the natural flavors of the vegetables. The meat and vegetables were sweet and succulent, a good change from out salty diet. It was not completely dry either. Many of the vegetables released their own juices and helped flavor the rest of the dish. The secret was to use a stainless steel pot with a lid to retain the heat allowing the vegetables and meat to cook slowly and nutrients to stay intact.

Everyone had a chance to try it. The program coordinators had lots of wonderful comments about the dish. Some patients took to the idea as well that they did not have to give up this prized dish despite their current condition.

Overall, a morning well spent educating myself and the wonderful kidney patients about cooking healthier and eating well!”

By Heeru Murjani

A few weeks ago the Expatgiving team was invited to participate in one of the activities organised by the National Kidney Foundation of Singapore through their volunteer programme ‘Circle of Hearts’. The aim of the programme is to inspire kidney patients to rise above their adversities so that they can lead a better quality of life. 

They told us about the enrichment programme, a cooking demonstration where volunteers explain, prepare and share a dish or two with dialysis patients, so that they learn about different (and healthy!) cultures of food. 

We were immediately interested to participate in this activity…and extremely glad we did! It is amazing to discover how easily you can make someone’s day just by dedicating a couple of hours of your time to cooking for a good cause. 

So, being both of us Spanish, we decided to make two of our favourite dishes which happen to be super healthy and vegetarian: tortilla and gazpacho (aka cold tomato soup). It was a huge success and you can find the proof below. 

If you would like to contribute to this amazing initiative, please read more about the programme in this link and get in touch with the National Kidney Foundation now.

Happy cooking!
​
Victoria