Update on Progress of Our Writing Team

Hi everyone,

We are blessed with a group of talented and dedicated volunteers for this team :)

Right now, 14 volunteers has been matched with a former residents; each one is crafted with a unique story angle. So far, we have managed to trace 17 former residents who are willing to work together with us. We have also gotten Jaime and Stephanie to be on board the project, as our editors.

As one of our aims is to highlight the multi-hands approach by our Home, we are actually connecting with the agencies, ministries and institutions and individuals who have significantly shaped each of the lives of the former residents. We are in the process of getting connected to MCYS, the Juvenile Court and even a Judicial Official to be part of our book.

Will keep everyone posted on the progress. I hope to get in touch with the other former residents real soon for the rest of the matching and get the 20 draft stories ready :). Happy Writing.

Chapter 10 : Proposed Project Timeline

Writing & Publishing :

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No. Task Date Due (09)
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1 1st briefing for volunteer writers 10 Jan
2 Submission of 1st draft, drafts are returned if more info is needed 28 Feb
3 Collection of 2nd drafts, additional writing, photographs/visuals Apr
4 Drafts returned to writers for sign-off & de-brief sess May
5 Final editing, proof-reading, design & layout Jun
6 Printing Aug

Marketing :

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No. Task Date Due (09)
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1 1st team meeting 25 Dec 08
2 Submission of marketing proposal 5 Jan
3 Approval by MWH mgt committee Jan
4 Approach all Malay MPs, supporters of MWH for initial support - media coverage Feb/Mar
5 Develop project website Feb/Mar
6 Approach corporations, individuals for sponsorship Ongoing
7 Signing of MOU (corporations, individuals) - media coverage Jun

Events mgt :

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No. Task Date Due (09)
--------------------------

1 Ist team meeting 10 Jan
2 Outreach to public during MWH charity event Mar
3 Create awareness through mailers, posters, exhibitions, blogs, facebook Aug
4 Book launch - media coverage Aug
5 Book reviews/talks Aug - Dec
6 Gala dinner/charity auction - media coverage Oct/Nov
7 Outreach to schools/community-based org/public Ongoing

Chapter 9 : Pointers for volunteer writers

We are delighted to have Jamie Koh and Stephanie Ho from the History Workroom, to work with Nisa to oversee the publication of the book. I have shared with you about our wonderful encounter with them earlier in Chapter 5. You can go to http://www.historyworkroom.com/ if you want to know more about these 2 warm, enthusiastic and committed ladies and their extensive work.

Here are their pointers for our volunteer writers before they embark on their writing journey for the book:

Writing the lives of other through;

- a life story through anecdote, incident, interview and description

- story of particular turning points in the person's life

• Interview

Interviews are one of the best ways to gather information when writing the stories of another person.

- Be well prepared. Find out as much information about your interviewee as possible before interviewing him/her.

-Prepare a list of questions, but be open-minded and flexible - you do not need to ask all the questions, answers to which may crop up when the interviewee is answering another question. The question should act as guiding and/or clarification points.

- Do not interrogate your interviewee. Treat the interview like a chit-chat session.

- Do not dominate the session. Let your interviewee talk. Guide the conversation back using your question-list if it is getting way off the mark.

- Do not expect to get all your information in one sitting. You may need to conduct 2 or 3 sessions with the interviewees. Each session should not last more than 1.5 hours.

- To help your interviewee remember, you may want to encourage his/her to look through old photographs, journals, letters, emails, school documents, reports, etc before the interview. You can also encourage your interviewee to bring some of those items to the interview. They may be more comfortable talking with some items in hand.

Some questions to ask if you are stuck:

1. What has been the biggest challenge in your life? How did you overcome it?

2. What are the challenges do you face today?

3. Who are the important people in your life?

4. What are your saddest moment? What was your happiest moment?

5. What are your aims in life?

6. What is the greatest achievement in your life?

7. What experiences have been important in shaping the kind of person you are today? How has your stay at MWH affected your life?

8. What are your talents? What are your weaknesses?

9. What is the funniest moment you remember?

10.What is the most embarassing moment you remember?

• Description

Details will greatly enhance your story. Description may be of the person's appearance, emotions, behaviour or quirks. You may also add descriptions of the environment. But use descriptions sparingly: do not spend half a page describing the clothes your interviewee is wearing or how s/he is fidgeting all the time. Pace your descriptions, where necessary, throughout the story.

• Anecdote & Incident

Anecdotes and incidents are good platforms to: start your story and show the personality of the interviewee. This information may come from your interviewee during the interview. It could also come from chatting with other people who know/have contact with the interviewee.

• Context

Another way of enhancing your story is contextualise. Talk to other people who may know the interviewee. In this case, you may want to talk to MWH staff and friends who know the interviewee to find out their impressions of the interviewee at different points in his/her life.

You can also contextualise by setting your story against a background. Highlight the significant contexts. For example, if you are writing a story on John Lennon in the late 1960s and 1970s, you can contextualise it on the socio-political situation in the US (where he spent most of his time then) - government suspicious of left-wing activities, anti-Vietnam protests, etc.

General writing guidelines

1. Show, do not tell (especially emotions)

2. Details

3. Story

4. Chronology - not!

5. Try to write as simply and clearly as you can

Confidentiality

In your story, check with your interviewees how comfortable they are with using their real names. If there are any doubts, use pseudonyms for your interviewee and the people they may refer to.

Visuals

Ask your interviewees if they are comfortable with providing photographs for their stories. The photographs do not have to be of their faces. It could be of a significant item or place. Alternatively, the interviewees may also draw or write poems/raps, etc.

I hope that the workshop held on 10 Jan 09 has provided an insightful experience for all. I specially thank the following individuals for taking time off to conduct/attend the session:

1. Jaime

2. Stephanie

3. Nisa

4. Rahim

5. Ruhainah

6. Kamaludeen

7. Juniper

8. Sharon

9. Peng Yen & son

10. Dora

11. Elaine

12. Renee

13. Akhtaar

I also wish to thank Juniper for his kind generosity - he distributed a copy of his self-published book titled 'My Students and I : A collection of warm stories' to everyone, including those who were unable to attend the workshop. Juniper has been a strong, dedicated yet humble volunteer of MWH for about 5 years. Juniper is known for his caring and kind-hearted gestures and I will never forget the 'epok-epok' or curry-puffs he brought for us each time he and his Ngee Ann Polytechnic students conducted their regular motivational talks to the residents of the Home. He is also among the first few volunteers I approached for advice on this project before it took off.

May God bless your thoughtful deeds, Juniper!

Chapter 8 : HAPPY TIDING 1

The term - HAPPY TIDING signifies any monetary/material contribution made to us, in support of this project. This alert will be employed throughout the blog as and when there is/are such kind donation(s) made.

Our first corporate sponsorship from China was pledged on Saturday, 27 Dec 08. At this point of time, this generous and humble Chinese lady, who wishes for her name not to be made known, has commit to support us with $10 000 seed funding for the project.


We are extremely touched by the kind deed. Thank you for believing in our endeavour, even before it has barely make its mark.

Chapter 7 : December 08 update on book project

Meetings

This has been an inspiring journey for me - to be able to interact and embrace diverse views from people of different culture, background. Nisa has been with me in most of the small group meetings and I am absolutely sure that she feels the same way too. Again, I would like to thank these individuals for making time to meet us.

Akhtaar, Yasmeen - 15 Nov 08
Shaifudin - 16 Nov 08
Rizal, Jamil, Rahim - 17 Nov 08
Fazidah, Nizan - 23 Nov 08
Akhtaar, Raidah - 3 Dec 08
Helmy, Iqbal, Shaifudin - 4 Dec 08
Sharon Choo - 17 Dec 08
Jaime, Stephanie - 17 Dec 08
Arfat Selvam - 17 Dec 08
Dora Yip - 17 Dec 08
Han Kiang - 20 Dec 08
Shahada - 22 Dec 08
Iqbal, Shaifudin - 25 Dec 08
Heriani Suliana - 30 Dec 08

Our volunteer team is expanding over time and I am pleased to witness this development. We warmly welcome the benevolent gesture. Your support, in one way or the other will certainly contribute to the success of the book project. You can view the updated list of names of our volunteers in Chapter 2.

We had our 2nd mass meeting on 6 Dec 08. An encouraging response, with 23 volunteer turn-ups. Volunteers had identifed area/s of contribution and were then grouped in respective teams for further discussions.

A. Writing & Publishing team (Nisa as co-ordinator)
Main Role : to oversee the production of book, which includes to write/find writers to write/edit stories & to conceptualise book

B. Marketing & Corporate Sponsorship team (Shaifudin as co-ordinator)
Main Role : to appeal for corporate sponsorship, to market product to various agencies locally, abroad & develop website & online sales

C. Events Management team (Ruhainah as co-ordinator)
Main Role : to organise, run various fund raising events

Working committee

• Writing & Publishing team:

1. Nisa (co-ordinator)
2. Hamzah
3. Jamil
4. Juniper
5. Azmi
6. Khairuddin
7. Martina
8. Nurulhuda
9. Fazidah
10. Nizan
11.Dora
12.Sharon
13.Heriani
14.Hamid
15.Hasnah
16.Raidah
17.Kamaludeen
18.Elaine
19.Mardiana

TEAM UPDATES
It has been agreed that a volunteer writer can take up to 3 stories and submit 1st drafts by end Feb 09. We plan to have the 1st print of the books between Jun and Sep 09.

We are fortunate to have 2 professional writers, Jaime and Stephanie, who will be available to guide our budding writers and eventually lend their expertise to gel the 20 human stories together into a book. A workshop for the volunteer writers is tentatively fixed on the 1st Saturday of Jan 09. More details on the workshop will be made known soon.

I applaud Fazidah for submitting the first written story on 20 Dec 08. She was unwell but able to take an amazing 1 night to complete a life story. Frankly, I do not think I am not capable of such feat. Thank you for the sincere and prompt effort, Fazidah! It is also heartening that some volunteers believe this publication could be a source for National Education for Singapore and every educational institution should have at least few copies of this book for its students and teachers. Yes, we can attain this objective! Let's produce a quality reading material for this purpose and strive to serve beyond this market.

• Marketing & Corporate Sponsorship team:

1. Shaifuddin (co-ordinator)
2. Akhtaar
3. Kamaludeen

• Events Management team:

1. Ruhainah (co-ordinator)
2. Iqbal
3. Tabrani
4. Rahim
5. Osman
6. Mohd Firoz
7. Aishah
8.Sopia
9.Rizal
10.Shahada
11.Elaine

TEAM UPDATES
It appears to me that the marketing team is severely short-handed. I hope that a few members from the events management and writing teams can play dual role to source for corporate sponsorship as well. Alternatively, we can consider to merge the 2 teams. I will also be checking with the rest of our volunteers of their areas of interest and involvement.

Volunteer Shaifudin has soaring hope for the trio to achieve target of $1 million proceeds from this project. Although a little sceptical of that expectation at first - considering the unpromising global economic situation, I am also truly motivated by his dedication. I support his aspiration, nothing is unachievable with strong determination and genuine conscience of intent to help the unfortunate others. So, marketing team, let's try our best and conjure some dynamic fund-raising/marketing strategies by this week. $1 million it shall be. Together, we can do this - all for the children-in-need!

Advisory & Editorial Committee
We would be inviting significant individuals to be part of the 2 committees. They will be offering ideas, rendering expertise and deciding on key matters pertaining to the book project.

Words of Gratitude
So far, the general support for this cause has been miraculous that even Katong Community Centre provides free usage of rooms for our volunteer meetings.

I also wish to extend my sincere thanks to:

Helmy and Juniper for your continuous encouragement and constructive suggestions. Khairuddin for helping to vett my written work.

Myself, on behalf of the Home and Muhammadiyah Association, deeply appreciate your time and commitment. Hope to foster a happy and enjoyable working relation with all. Have a wonderful festive holiday and a Happy New Year!

Here are the pictures taken during the last mass meeting. Till we meet again...

Chapter 6 : Faces behind the project

More pics coming up...

Chapter 5 : A meeting with book writers

Nisa and myself attended the Singapore Book club session at the Arts House on 14 Nov 08. We caught up with 2 distinctive local book writers. They have liking for children and enjoy writing stories for the young ones. Apparently, they are business partners and have set-up a company doing their own book writing, illustrating, photographing and surprisingly, even publishing and distributing. They spent time listening to us and provided their perspectives on the subject. We appreciate their sincere, warm attention and view this as an excellent opportunity to network with people who have relevant experience in this area. They were interested to collaborate with us in the project and would be submitting a proposal by 17 Nov 08. We will then discuss on how best we can further connect with them.

One of the writers was Stephanie Ho Lee-Ling. She is a former history teacher and museum educator who has completed a PhD in public history at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS). In 2006, with the FTWIPI grant, she wrote and illustrated for her first children's book, Samsui Girl. Her second book featuring Amber - Wayang Girl has just been released.
Stephanie is also the author of four stories for younger children based on the United Nations convention of the rights of the Child: The Boy with a Tree on His Head, The Shadow, The UGB and SHUSH! The books are published and distributed by the Ministry of Community Development, Youth & Sports. She is currently writing a reference book on the cultures and customs of Singapore and Malaysia.

Her partner, Jaime Koh has worked in the media and cultural heritage industry in Singapore, variously as a newspaper journalist, a magazine editor and an assistant curator in a history museum. Her work and interest in Asian history, culture and politics has taken her to China, Hong Kong, India, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and Australia. Jaime is bilingual in English and Mandarin, speaks several dialects and is a keen photographer and writer. Jaime has been engaged in several research and editorial projects into the history of several institutions both in Singapore and Sydney. She was also the event photographer for several major events in Sydney.
She is currently co-writing a book on the cultures and customs of Singapore and Malaysia.

We also spoke to R. Ramachandran, Executive Director of National Book Development Council of Singapore (NDBCS) for future friendly collaboration. Book project aside, he requested us to source for individuals who are interested to be story-tellers at the council. You can email him at info@bookcouncil.sg. Perhaps our student volunteers can consider it as a school holiday job to earn extra income and learning experience?