Project Stable Staples — Moving forward as a community.

Project Stable Staples is the story of how 8 individuals stepped up in a time of crisis and looked out for someone we didn't know. It is the embodiment of the kampung spirit, where we move through a crisis together, as one. 

Project Stable Staples was formed before the start of Circuit Breaker when retail stores started to close. We got a little concerned with the disappearance of part-time jobs, especially since the support infrastructure from the government then did not include the folks who were mainly on part-time incomes.

Project Stable Staples founders then were running our respective initiatives, David and I working on IAmTalented, and Gillian, Francesca, Jesslyn, Kelvin, and several others working on Bringing Love to Every Single Soul. What brought us together was the fact that we saw many people in our communities being affected, and we decided we had to do something about it.

One of the biggest challenges that we faced was that right after our initial funding efforts had been completed at SGD60k, we had to raise another SGD60k to meet the needs of all the families that were referred to us by the FSCs and the SSOs. We had to find a balance between onboarding new families in the hopes of raising more for the existing families later on and making sure that the money that we had could support all the families that we had already committed to helping. Thankfully we ended up raising over SGD150k and were able to help most families that were referred to us.

I think it is a moral responsibility to give back to society when you are in a position of privilege during a time of crisis. I was lucky enough to have kept my job, to have not had pay cuts, and to have a job that allowed me to work remotely. And part of being lucky meant that I had to look out for those around me who were not as lucky.

Project Stable Staples has opened my eyes to even more of the challenges that many of the families face regularly. I wish people realize that sometimes some of these families make what we feel are bad decisions, not because they have bad judgment, but because the situation that they are in does not enable them to make what we think are good decisions. Often, they live week to week, and this results in a lack of long-term thinking. They are really constrained by the resources at their disposal.

One of the encounters that left a deep impression was when we onboarded a family who was not conversant in English, and no one on the team spoke Malay. Thankfully one of my friends stepped up and bridged the gap for us, despite not being part of the initiative before.

There were a couple of reflections here for me. The first of which was that our circle of friends is pretty much influenced by the folks we see around us daily, and we need to make an active effort to reach out to folks who are not like us. 

The other reflection came from the conversation my friend had with the family. The family was surviving on white rice and soy sauce daily and even shared while laughing to my friend that Ikan Bilis was a treat for them. After hearing that, one of my first thoughts was that I needed to be more grateful for what I had in life, and I also admired them for their tenacity and their ability to find joy in one another.

I wish people would realize that sometimes some of these families make what we feel are bad decisions, not because they have bad judgment, but because the situation that they are in does not enable them to make what we think are good decisions. Often, they live week to week, and this results in a lack of long-term thinking. They are really constrained by the resources at their disposal.

With Project Stable Staples, my team and I have identified 2 additional gaps that we are looking to attempt to bridge in the longer term. 

The first gap is access to technology. During CB, one of the support programs rolled out by the various CDCs across Singapore was free grabfood vouchers for kids on the financial assistance scheme. However, in the process of spreading awareness of this scheme, we soon learnt that many families were unable to make use of it because they weren't aware of how to, and we ended up spending days helping onboard families onto this scheme.

The second gap that we'll be looking to bridge is access to perceived opportunities. When kids have homogeneous role models, they end up thinking that that is what the future holds for them. What we hope to do is to expose the kids to a diverse set of role models, so that they have awareness of the various ambitions that they can have when they grow up, and work towards those.

My hope for Project Stable Staples is that we can close shop one day because what that means is that families no longer need us to get by. However, that is not the case yet, and we have to continue fighting to leave no one behind.