Fall for you .

Dear Diary

HELLO, ACRES!

Monday, July 13, 2009 // I fell for you @ 1:00 PM

If any of you are not aware, ACRES is an organization which foster respect and compassion for all animals. Their mission is to create a caring and socially responsible society where animals are treated as sentient beings and where the environment is preserved for future generations. ACRES has the Institute of Public Character (IPC) status, which means that donations to ACRES qualify for double tax exemption.

ACRES is also open to all volunteers with pure intentions of helping out with the aspects of its work. Our team saw great interest in all the possible things we could do for the animals, thus we decided to play a part in this organization.

Before ACRES, we've tried to contact five more different organizations. They are the SPCA, The Helping Hand, the Rainbow Centre and The Salvation Army. However, due to some unfortunate luck, we were rejected by all the five organizations.

Keenan, our group leader, took the responsibility to contact ACRES. Upon Keenan's call, we were asked to help out with the gardening in the centre to make it more homely to the animals. However, due to safety reasons we were told to clean animal cages instead. Hygiene is indeed very important, both to men and animals!

Here are some pictures during our service in ACRES.

Getting there was really an adventure down the forest!

Other than the long-term volunteers in ACRES, the animals have been really welcoming too!

These are one of the many illegal trades made all over the world. (Click to enlarge)

This was us while we were cleaning the cages for the animals.
Ofcourse, we do it with smiles! :)

Our humble service at ACRES was really worth all the sweat and hard work.
Thank You.

{Back to the top}

RAIHANAH JAMSARI'S REFLECTION

// I fell for you @ 12:00 PM

Last Saturday, my group and I went to ACRES to do our C.I.P. The place is isolated and there’s no way to go there except by car or taxis. Our first mistake is that we took the bus. Our second mistake is that we alighted at the wrong bus stop. Our next problem is that we don’t know where it is situated. We tried asking an old uncle who is washing his bus beside the road but he doesn’t have any idea where it is either. Luckily, Melvin’s parents found us walking and drove us to the place.

At ACRES, we were greeted by two guard dogs. They were barking at us. Naturally, we grew scared. But a Eurasian lady told us not to be scared and just let the dog sniff you. So we stood still and allowed the dog to sniff us. After they sniffed us, they recognized us as friends.

While waiting for Ms Hema to give our task for the C.I.P, the Eurasian lady gave us a tour of the place. She explained to us the aims of the organization. She told us that wild animals are hunted for their organs, which can be made into traditional. They are also hunted down for illegal animal trade and cooked into delicacies. While she was giving the tour, the dogs, Scrappy and Sunshine, was also following us. I learnt that the dogs were also saved by Acres. Scrappy was abandoned at the gate of Acres without the ability to walk. The volunteers in ACRES helped to nurse him back to health, and now he is able to run freely. As for Sunshine, there is a mark behind her back which was caused by a fire.

When Ms Hema arrived, we were given the task to peel off the paper off acrylic boards. Sounds easy, but actually it’s a tedious work. The paper were hard to removed and it has aged over the years. First, we started using our nails. But it doesn’t do the trick. Luckily, we brought our wood cutting tools. One of us also found out that it actually helps if you wet the paper first. But it took too long to finish peeling everything. So we used a steel wool to peel the paper off. We did this 'till five in the afternoon.

After that, Ms hema signed a paper to prove that we did C.I.P work there and we went home.
Even though it’s tiring and tedious, I think we learnt something from there. We learnt how to improvise when using our fingernails didn’t work. We also learnt to cooperate with each other and help one another out. By doing C.I.P there, we got to learnt more about animal cruelty and how to support ACRES by not buying stuffs that are tested on animals and by contacting them if we see any wild animals made to be pets.

{Back to the top}

AMINAH BOEY'S REFLECTION

// I fell for you @ 11:00 AM

When i heard about ACRES, I thought it was just like any other ordinary animal welfare society.
SPCA and ACRES, they're the same; They save animals too. No one was prepared for what they are about to hear next.

We made our way to Acres Service Center at 91 Jalan Lekar. It was a long and exhausting journey. We were beginning to think that it was a bad idea volunteering at ACRES. However, we pushed ourselves and managed to arrive at ACRES Center.

During the tour around the facilities, we were told about illegal wild animals trades and mistreating of animals happening in Singapore and around SouthEast Asia. Many examples are of the bile extraction from bears, capturing dolphins from the wild, shooting down monkeys to get baby monkeys, harvesting fins from sharks, etc. Many may not be aware that their daily activities, daily food intake, and daily materials they use come from these unfortunate creatures. Initially, i thought nothing of shark fin's soup. So what? It is just a delicacy. However, I was unaware of the number of sharks killed to cater for a wedding; 40 sharks. If we get to enjoy our delicacies, what about the poor sharks? How can they survive and avoid extinction?

Next, was the cruel treatment of bears. A hole is punctured in their pancreas in order to extract bile from their systems. The hole is then left as an open wound. Imagine how painful it is to endure that everyday! Would we do the same to other human beings? Would we live with the face that our children are being hunted down and mistreated?

This kind of treatment cannot be tolerated for a civilized society such as ours. We declare that we have the right to live. But how about these animals who cannot fight for themselves? They have a right to live in this world and to be treated as humanely as possible. We are not superior beings and they are not the inferior. We are not owners of Earth, so what gives us the right to be dominant? As inhabitants of Earth, we all deserve to live together naturally in harmony. Cruelty to animals should be stopped!

There is a saying, "Don't do to others what you don't want others to do to you"
Imagine, if our roles were reversed..
How would you feel?

{Back to the top}

TSE EE'S REFLECTION.

// I fell for you @ 10:00 AM

I think we were lucky to be able participate in this voluntary work after being rejected by five different organizations continously. It’s was terrible, and I have never encountered this problem before.

We went to the organization by bus and we found that it is too far down the road. Luckily, one of our group member, Melvin, had his parents to bring us to the location. We were informed to help on gardening, but ended up “peeling potatoes". That is, in our term, peeling off the sticker of the acrylic. It’s quite tiring as the stickers were left untouched for centuries. We came out of the idea of splashing water onto the sticker to soften it for easy peeling. The funniest part throughout the day is that the water we used to peel the acrylic is the same water the volunteers use to clean the floor. There were still quite a lot of work to do when we left. Luckily, we don’t have to clear all the stickers in order to get the recognition by the organization .

It was quite meaningful to do voluntary work as we are able push ourselves further out the comfort zone.

{Back to the top}

KEENAN WONG'S REFLECTION.

// I fell for you @ 9:00 AM

After volunteering to work at ACRES, I am now more aware about the severity of animal cruelty in Singapore and other countries. One of the people working there gave us a tour of the place. There were beds for international volunteers, an education room where skits and informative talks are held, and a volunteer lounge.

The lady giving us the tour of ACRES included explanations of the different kinds of animal abuse such as, the extraction of bear bile where a tube is inserted into the bear through an open wound and the tube is always left inside. There is also the killing of elephants to get their ivory tusks to sell, and the is the act of keeping wild animals as pets which is unhealthy for the animals as they are not used to a confined environment and would die quickly. The one i find the worst is the poaching of baby orang utans and other monkeys because to get just one baby monkey, most of the times 19 monkeys would have to do die. ACRES really appreciates all the volunteers that sign up to help them as they are able to spread the awareness of animal cruelty to more people.

We had initially signed up for gardening. However, I assumed due to hygiene reasons, we helped them in cleaning the animal cages instead. While cleaning the cages, I learned how to improvise using many different ways to clean the cages. Figuring out which way was most efficient. This skill can be applied in the future to prevent some of the cases of animal abuse, like sharks fin for example. There are some restaurants that serve fake sharks fins which are made of flour which actually taste nicer than the real one.

I really hope that in the future there will be less cases of animal abuse which will help to benefit the earth and environment.

{Back to the top}

ELLA FLORES' REFLECTION

// I fell for you @ 8:00 AM

My experience in ACRES was something I would definitely remember for a long time. I have learned many different things about animal rights and abuse that I wouldn't have learnt from any ordinary animal-lover. Being a part of the ready-to-help team of volunteers surely changed my perspective towards many things, one of which has immensely increased my compassion and understanding for animals.

Before we began our assigned tasks, a friendly lady offered to tour us around the centre. From the tour, I have learned many horrible things that has been happening to all the animals over the past years. Perhaps with every species inhabiting Earth, men has created a special delicacy out of it. Monkey, snakes, lizards, you name it! It saddens me that these men would even dare to hunt such amazing wildlife animals for food.

The task that was given to us was to clean the cages for the animals to maintain its hygiene. It was very hard to do, but I honestly have to say that the hard work we've put in was for a well-worthy one. That is, for these poor animals. So even with an aching back and a sweaty shirt, I could still smile and be happy of what I'm doing.

I am a proud owner of a dog, shih tzu. So whenever I see dogs or any animal getting hurt, I would always react in a very unpleased way. For some bizarre reason, I would feel their pain too. These animals needs to be taken care of not any less than a human being. They should be showered with love and compassion like everyone else who deserves it.

{Back to the top}

MELVIN SIM'S REFLECTION.

// I fell for you @ 7:00 AM

Through this service learning project , I’ve learnt many things. One of which is time management. In the course of finding an organization to volunteer in, our group has faced with quite a lot of difficulties. With many school work from other modules, it was hard to put our focus onto this task.
In addition , things were not in our favour. We tried to contact different organizations (as the first step in this project) to initiate a volunteer event. However, we have tried many times and are rejected. We tried different organizations like SPCA , The Helping Hand , the Rainbow Centre and the Salvation Army, but were all rejected. In total we were rejected by 5 different organizations. This is perhaps due to the untimely outbreak of the H1N1 influenza, and also the fact that they do not need any help at that current period. Through this I’ve also learnt that sometimes, things may not always go our way in this harsh reality. Even with proper planning and preparation, if the organization really does not need any help, there is little we could do as forcing them is never a solution and never it be.

Our morales were dampened, but we did not give up hope. After the trip to the Army museum , I suddenly realized that we really do not have any time left. Actually, my group has sent the organization “ACRES” an email requesting for volunteer work after chancing upon the web page. They stated that they required urgent help on some gardening work , so my group went “Hey , this is our chance!".

However it took them forever to reply back to us, and a few days were wasted before our group leader, Keenan, decided to call the main-person-in-charge, Ms Hema. Therefore it marks the beginning of our volunteer work in ACRES.

The date is on 12th of July , 1pm at ACRES itself. The location is quite isolated and it is hard to find. After we’ve gathered there , they gave us a tour around the place. I’ve learnt from them how animals are ill-treated and abused. Even in zoos , animals are suffering even though they may seem “happy” doing what they do there.

After the tour we were assigned on our work to do. My group and I were expected to do gardening work, as we are all prepared for that. However, Ms Hema wanted us to tear off paper from the acrylic; which is originally a part of an animal cage. We were supposed to tear off the paper from quite a lot of cages. After proceeding with the tearing, I realized that it is not an easy feat and it is very tedious. I’ve also realized that we would be doing that all day as it would take extremely long.
All in all, we only did for around 4 hours of work, from 1pm until they're closing time, 5pm. There was really nothing we could do about the lack of CIP hours , but we’ve definitely learnt something through this project.

{Back to the top}

/} <body>

<$MTEntryDate format="%B %e, %Y"$>♥

SPONGEBOB ! <$MTEntryBody$>

[<$MTEntryDate format="%I:%M:%S %p"$>]

reminders .♥

♥ <$MTArchiveTitle$>

screammm .♥

CBOX CODE HERE
CBOX CODE HERE
CBOX CODE HERE
CBOX CODE HERE
CBOX CODE HERE

her ♥

your profile here [: bolditalic~~strike~~underline

wishlist ♥

spongebob

patrick star .

music ♥

your playlist here [:

sweet escapes ♥

{hover to see your comment from me}

spongebob

credits ♥

designer :SHE RYN
basecodes : (c)Jia Ling
image host : x
remember to say your thank-youhs [:
do not remove the credits or mr spongebob &his best friend patrick star will come haunt you at night ![: