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Food waste

Context:

Food waste makes up about half of the average 1.5kg of waste disposed of by each household in Singapore daily. Of which, more than half of household food waste can be prevented, with rice, noodles and bread being the most commonly wasted food items.

Current Measures:

Ongoing food waste reduction publicity and outreach programme to increase awareness of the food waste situation in Singapore, as well as to encourage consumers to adopt smart food purchase, storage and preparation habits that can help them minimise food wastage. More than 400 Food Waste Reduction Ambassadors have also been trained to help spread the word on food waste reduction with their communities, families and friends.

Developed Food Waste Minimisation Guidebooks for Food Retail Establishments/ Food Manufacturing Establishments/ Supermarkets to further reduce food waste across the supply chain. The guidebooks provide a step-by-step guide and case studies to help such establishments develop a food waste minimisation plan tailored to their needs.

Ongoing Love Your Food @ Schools project at 10 schools to encourage students and staff to reduce the amount of food waste they generate and to garner the participation of students, staff and canteen stall holders to segregate their food waste for treatment using on-site food waste digesters.

Unaddressed gaps:

Some of the measures are not widely known by Singaporeans and they still view the food waste problem to be minor

Desired outcomes:

Reduce food wastage

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CTC

One issue would be lack of knowledge regarding challenges the intellectually disabled face in Singapore. The intellectually disabled face various difficulties in many different aspects, such as education, working in the real world and even functioning normally in day to day life. They could suffer from communication issues and be unable to coherently speak, or suffer from more severe issues such as their movement being impaired. There already exist a few measures that were implemented to aid the intellectually disabled, such as the setting up of special schools like Pathlight to support them. Various movements also exist, such as MINDS, which have 9 branches each targeting different groups of the intellectually disabled, like MINDS CW which stands for "children's wing". Despite this, many still lack sufficient knowledge about the intellectually disabled. Unaddressed issues would be lack of publicity of these measures and lack of active contribution from the public. Thus a few measures could be organizing talks or events in schools or within communities. This would allow for more to know and understand the situation and thus contribute more significantly.

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Cause to Champion: Increasing numbers of lonely elderly in Singapore

The Problem

Silver tsunami: According to a publication by ocfps.org, by 2030, 1 in 4 singaporeans will be aged 65 and above.

Estimated that 83,000 seniors will be living alone by 2030, compared with the 47,000 seniors aged 65 and above in 2016.

From a study in 2016 and 2017, 34% of the Singaporean citizens and permanent residents who participated in the survey perceived themselves to be lonely. This proportion increased with age, from 32% among those aged 60-69 years to 40% among those aged 80 years and above.

The study findings show that people aged 60, who perceive themselves to be sometimes lonely or mostly lonely, can expect to live three to five years less, on average, compared to peers who perceive themselves as never lonely. Similarly, at ages 70 and 80, lonely older persons can, on average, expect to live three to four and two to three years less, respectively, compared to non-lonely peers.

Older persons are potentially at greater risk of loneliness as a result of pandemic control measures.

It is important to distinguish loneliness from ‘social isolation’ or ‘living alone’, say the experts. While loneliness represents an individual’s perception or feeling of being socially isolated, social isolation is an objective or actual state of having few social relationships or infrequent social contact with others.

In the same way, living alone in a single-person household without any family or friends does not equate to being lonely. Conversely, having a wide social network, frequently interacting with friends or family, or even living with family or friends need not mean that an individual does not feel lonely.

Previous studies have reported that loneliness increases the risk of poor health outcomes, including death.

This issue is more prominent among elderly, with a Straits Times article suggesting that elderly folk living with their families may be surrounded by people but they can still feel socially isolated.

Of the 1,021 seniors who provided data that suggested social disconnection, 804 lived with their family, 70 lived with other relatives or friends and 147 lived alone.

More than half of those who felt socially disconnected said they do not have someone they can go to for help, the study said.

Current Measures & How it is helping?

Poor health and mental illness isolate them from society. But a widening community network is striving to ease their loneliness and make sure they’re taken care of.

Social organisations like volunteer group helping joy, NTUC Health Care@home services, and the Senior Activity Centre are playing their part collaborating with the Social Service Office to look after the mental well-being of elderlies.

Unaddressed Gaps

Extent of coverage

Stop in activities due to pandemic

Nothing concrete is being done to help them forge new relationships

What can we do?

Organise bonding activities for seniors in the same neighbourhood

Organise campaigns to raise awareness and teach people to look out for their elderly neighbours living alone

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Lack of attention paid to teenagers’ mental health in our society

Problem identified: There has constantly been news reports on teenagers‘ mental health. Our society needs to pay more attention to it as the matter is getting worse due to the rising stress teenagers have nowadays. When push comes to shove, there can be dire consequences.

Current measures: There are existing health organizations providing psychosocial support and recovery programmes for youths with emotional, psychological and psychiatric issues in the community. There is a hotline where people can call and seek help from. Unfortunately this is not very well-known.

Unaddressed problem:

At least one in five youth aged 9–17 years currently has a diagnosable mental health disorder that causes some degree of impairment; one in 10 has a disorder that causes significant impairment. The most common mental illnesses in adolescents are anxiety, mood, attention, and behavior disorders.

teenagers with mental health issues might not know what to do and where to seek help from. If they have light symptoms, they themselves might not even realise it. Knowing what consequences they can get if the issue is not dealt with properly is important.

Parents do not recognize the issue in their children, and they do not know how to deal with it.

Possible model to employ:

To promote and raise awareness on mental health, there can be more campaigns to educate the public on the importance of mental health.

Schools can cooperate with health organizations or specialists experienced in dealing with mental illnesses by inviting them to the campus and talk to the students.

Outcome
Hopefully when more people recognize and pay more attention to the issue, less teenagers suffer from mental health problems

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Problem identified: Raising awareness on challenges the visually impaired individuals face of being unable to assimilate into society.

Significance+background:
Being visually impaired can be a very significant issue, when more members of the public are becoming more prevalent to being visually impaired, while the growth of the ageing population is also contributing to a substantial number of people being affected.Vision impairment not only affects the individual, but also brings about global financial burden,productivity due to this. According to the World Health Organization,young children with early onset severe vision impairment can experience delayed motor, language, emotional, social and cognitive development, with lifelong consequences. Adults with vision impairment often have lower rates of workforce participation and productivity and higher rates of depression and anxiety. People that are visually impaired result in a higher rate of social isolation, and a greater likelihood of early entry into nursing or care homes.

Current measures in place:Singapore association of the Visually Handicapped with vision rehabilitation programme, skills development and job placement with centres that helps the visually impaired like translating English into braille.

Unaddressed gaps: Awareness not raised among the youngsters like talks in school and more online workshops that increases awareness on how to prevent being visually impaired with good practices in daily life, which will lift the economic burden for the country. There can also be a page where news can interview visually impaired about their challenges they face in daily lives and how to better help them, which can also be used to raise awareness to improve their quality of live.

Desired outcome: With training of the visually impaired individuals, they would be able to better assimilate into the society and find a job more easily. In this way, their quality of life can be improved and the society can be more inclusive at the same time.

Possible models to employ:
Cooperation with Community Centres to educate the public so that they will be more included in the society. Through training of the visually impaired, they will be acquired with more skills and be able to find jobs and increase their quality of life more easily, thus better assimilate into the society.

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Large usage of disposable packaging amongst hawkers.

83% of people eat at or buy takeaways from hawker centres at least once a week. As Covid-19 increases the demand for takeaway food or delivered food, more and more disposable packaging, ranging from plastic utensils, styrofoam boxes, oil paper wrappings, to plastic bags in general, are being used. An survey done by an alumni from the National University of Singapore's Master of Science (Environmental Management) programme had found that there was an extra 1,334 tonnes of takeaway packaging - equivalent to the weight of 92 double-decker buses - generated from takeaway and delivery meals during the two-month circuit breaker.

Causes:

This creates significant waste, and contributes negatively to Singapore’s sustainability. All disposables, whether made of paper, plastics or degradable materials, leave a carbon footprint in their production, transportation, and disposal processes. However, from the hawkers point of view, these disposable packagings are the most economically viable options, and switching to other alternatives would incur greater operation costs that they simply cannot afford. In addition, there are insufficient affordable alternatives to such packaging that are readily available.

Current solutions:

1. Local charity group Zero Waste Singapore initiated Bring Your Own Container (BYOC) campaign. Under this initiative, diners at five hawker centres will be reminded by zero-waste ambassadors during the weekends to bring their own containers or to refuse unnecessary disposables. Diners who show an ambassador that they had brought their own takeaway containers can take part in a lucky draw and stand to win prizes such as a UnionPay pre-paid cashcard. http://www.byosingapore.com/byo-container/

1. Hawkers here are discouraged from using disposable plates, bowls and utensils made of polystyrene foam, better known as styrofoam, which are non-biodegradable and environmentally unfriendly. But the Government will not impose a ban on them in consideration of other factors, such as the cost of alternatives and inconvenience to hawkers and consumers, Senior Minister of State for the Environment and Water Resources Amy Khor said on Monday.

1. https://youthactionplan.sg/YACSeason2/teams-project/hawkeraway

2. https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/five-more-hawker-centres-to-do-away-with-disposables-for-dine-in-meals

Unaddressed Gaps：

People: Current measures do not meet the needs of the hawkers as no alternative is given to help them transit away from using disposable packaging. Current measures are in effective as diners are not permanently incentivised to bring their own containers.

Persuasion: Current publicity channels by BYO are quite on point, with regularly updated Instagram page and website. However, BYO has branched out to do other campaigns, with no new efforts or initiatives put into this campaign.

Procedures: Reward system implemented for consumers are not consistent and sustained. Hawkers can be better rewarded to take part in such campaigns.

What I want to do:

1. Make the BYOC Campaign into a long term programme with fixed incentives for diners over a sustained period of time such that diners can eventually turn BYOC into a habitual practise. Expand this campaign to more hawker centres. Step-up social media campaign for BYO.

2. Engage with schools to promote the habit of bringing lunchboxes or provide rewards to students who are able to consistently do so in hawkers centres too.

3. Propose to expand to hawker centres the initiative of doing away with disposables for DINE-IN meals, including for Government agencies or Hawker Centre Associations to provide initial financial and logistical support to hawkers for them to explore alternatives to disposables.

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Problem: Lack of awareness on ways to consume single use plastic to reduce environmental damage

Significance of Problem:

The plastic problem is a global problem, affecting the environment due to its toxic and non-biodegradable nature.

The major impact of plastic bags on the environment is that it takes many years to for them to decompose. In addition, toxic substances are released into the soil when plastic bags perish under sunlight and, if plastic bags are burned, they release a toxic substance into the air causing ambient air pollution. Improper treatment of plastic waste can also lead to the accumulation of harmful substances which cause health problems.

Specific to plastic bottles, according to research on plastic waste, a million plastic bottles are purchased every minute of the day. Evidently, this is a widespread and significant problem.

Existing Measures:

To address the problem of excessive plastic consumption, the government has most prominently focused on reducing the use of plastic bags through monetary incentives and disincentives. The government has also focused on plastic recycling by educating and encouraging people to recycle. In addition, non governmental organisations have also partnered with a range of f&b companies in the BYO campaign where the participating companies offer discounts for people who bring their own containers and bottles for food and drinks.

To address the problem of plastic bottles, the government has mainly relied on recycling to reduce the impact of plastic on the environment. This is done through projects like the Reverse Vending Machine where people deposit plastic bottles to receive rewards. However, these measures have been overall unsuccessful.

Unaddressed Gaps:

The government implementation of measures to reduce plastic use is extremely slow - many other countries have taken more decisive steps to cut plastic use (e.g. by banning plastic bags). In addition, the current measures are not sufficient since they mostly focus on plastic bags and containers and not on a wider range of plastic products.

As for recycling, the plastic recycling rate in Singapore is at a low 4%. One reason the rate of recycling for plastics is low is that many consumers are not aware that there are many different types of plastics, and not all of them can be recycled. For example, PET bottles and plastic bags can be recycled while straws, disposable cutlery and styrofoam packaging cannot be recycled.

Desired outcome:

Reduce the use of plastic especially in areas less focused on at the moment.

Intended Overall Approach:

Campaign to raise awareness about how to recycle plastic and alternatives to plastic packaged products (majority paper/aluminium packaging etc). This campaign would seek to achieve two things: 1. In the short term, to increase the recycling rate of plastic. 2. In the long-term, to encourage a change in consumer behaviour to favour the use of products which use less plastic and are more environmentally friendly.

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https://docs.google.com/document/d/13s1-Ir10vor23zixuvsqt9cg4Smf_qtKHHa8byvNUvQ/edit

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https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UvkADWt4rO0n47DFHuMmP1jpQ4N7wpzM6sk_YgFp_Sw/edit?usp=sharing

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The Gacha Problem

In recent years the rise of probability based games have caused quite a big problem amongst today's youth- the problem of spending without regulation to the point of overspending. Games like Genshin Impact and Counter-Strike Global Offensive include probability based "lootboxes" paid for by in-game currency, but can be bought using real-world money. Just recently, a teenage girl was found having spent close to 20k SGD using her father's credit card. As of now, only minor counselling is available to addicts of this lootbox system, and not much has been done to aid the prevention of such usage of the gacha system. In my CTC, I would propose to head to educational facilities and educate the main demographic playing these games, and give them talks pertaining to overspending.

A desirable outcome would be that
1. Students and gamers alike would gain more awareness on the money spent while gaming
2. Gain more financial management skills to further control their money spending while gacha gaming

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Background

According to a recent study by the World Health Organisation, about 76% of Singapore adolescents aged between 11 and 17 years old do not get at least one hour of moderate-to-vigorous activity every day. Additionally, according to figures from the Ministry of Health (MOH), the proportion of overweight children in mainstream schools, aged 6 to 18 years, increased from 11 percent in 2013 to 13 percent in 2017.

Problem Identified/Underlying Problem

Given the above the background information, it is evident that the majority adolescents in Singapore do not place enough emphasis on their physical well-being. This underlying issue may lead to detrimental effects on the health of adolescents in Singapore, such as obesity, diabetes, lack of fitness among others.

Unaddressed Gaps (UGs) of Current Measures

Current Measure #1: The Ministry of Education (MOE) in Singapore has pushed out the Healthy Meals in Schools Programme, which encourages healthier food and beverage choices in schools, achieving this through an integrated programme involving teachers, canteen vendors and students.

Some criteria include mandating half a serving of fruit for every main meal, and meat/alternative protein food

Unaddressed Gap: Canteen queues are excessively long during recess/lunch times; many students find it difficult to purchase a proper meal with the given amount of time for them to do so. Therefore, some students choose to either purchase small portions of snacks from stalls with lesser queue time, or not buy anything at all. In the long run, this will certainly take a toll on students’ health if the above practice continues.

Current Measure #2: The National Physical Fitness Award (NAPFA) is a standard physical fitness test for Singaporeans as part of Singapore's Sports For Life programme. NAPFA was conducted across certain phases of students’ school life. NAPFA was launched in January 1982 as a standardised assessment of overall fitness for the general population, and to some degree incentivise the maintenance of physical fitness.

Unaddressed Gap: While this fitness test marks down goals that are beneficial in nature, it results in an unintended consequence such that students generally train or maintain their physical fitness for a certain period of time purely for the sake of doing well in their NAPFA test. After the test, there is no longer any motivation for them to continue uphold a similar level of rigour to maintain their fitness.

Unaddressed Gap: Because of the emphasis that is being stressed on the NAPFA tests, the Physical Education (PE) curriculum - to some extent - is becoming overly NAPFA-focused to develop students’ physical competencies in preparation for the test. This results in PE sessions becoming overly dry and mechanical, and students by extension will not be able to derive joy and motivation from attending PE lessons, which are ultimately the 2 key factors to maintaining healthy living in the long run.

Solution

Solution #1: Students/Their parents can make a conscious effort to re-arrange the contents of the fridge or their kitchen cabinets in their household. By making unhealthy/junk food less accessible and loading up ready-to-eat healthier food options in the fridge will enable everyone to gradually develop a habit of consuming healthier food options because of the increased convenience of accessing them.

Solution #2: The school can mark up the prices of less healthy food options, and mark down the prices of nutritious food items to encourage greater consumption of healthier food options. Alternatively, the Students’ Council can introduce food coupons that can be redeemed when students buy up to a certain amount of healthy food options.

Solution #3: The Physical Education (PE) department/Students’ Council can organise schoolwide running competitions, where the class which collectively runs the greatest distance stand to win attractive prizes. This encourages healthy competition amongst the student population to lead a healthier life, and at the same time bond with their classmates.

Desired Outcomes

Desired Outcome #1: Enable the younger generation to consciously choose and consume healthier food options to maintain a nutritious consumption lifestyle, which would be beneficial to them in the long run.

Desired Outcome #2: Motivate the younger generation to maintain a higher frequency of exercise so as to cater to their physical fitness.

References

1. https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/who-study-health-boys-girls-singapore-exercise-851761#:~:text=As%20a%20whole%2C%2076.3%20per,81.2%20per%20cent%20in%202001.&text=Globally%2C%20more%20than%20four%20in,get%20sufficient%20exercise%20in%202016.

2. https://www.activehealth.sg/read/nutrition/why-parents-need-to-pay-attention-to-what-their-teenagers-are-consuming

3. https://www.a-star.edu.sg/sics/news-views/blog/blog/human-development/are-children-in-singapore-eating-healthily

4. https://hpb.gov.sg/schools/school-programmes/healthy-meals-in-schools-programme

5. https://www.hpb.gov.sg/docs/default-source/default-document-library/hmsp-criteria-2021.pdf?sfvrsn=97358514_0

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Background: According to “Social Collaborative Singapore”, low income families in Singapore generally have a monthly household income of $1,900 and below or a per capita income of $650 and below

Problem identified/Underlying Problem: Children (esp less privileged children) who are interested in learning coding and programming may lack exposure in the area (according to research coding is dubbed as one of the most important job skills of the future) due to the highly costly lessons (weekly coding classes can cost from $300-$500/month & workshops start from $280 and can go up to $1400) and resources such as laptops needed for coding and programming which they may not be able to afford or parents are not willing to sponsor, resulting in them not being equipped with basic coding and computing skills essential in the 21st century

Unaddressed Gaps of current measures:

MOE has a “code for fun” programme but its only 10 hours worth of lessons per year which is grossly insufficient

Though some schools teach ICT they mainly focus on the cyberwellness aspect of technology use instead of coding and programming

Less privileged children that are interested in further pursuing their interest in coding after attending the 10 hours of coding may not be able to do so due to the highly costly lessons.

Solution:

1. Partnering with local organizations that help less privileged children such as the CDAC and go down physically to their centers at a specific time and conduct physical lessons to teach the children there (some may argue that the reach and audience impacted is too small)

2. Making a online website with tutorials and practices included that can guide them step by step easily and made available to the general public for free so everyone can access the resources and learn coding and programming free of charge

This website can be published using popular social media platforms such as instagram to raise awareness and reach greater masses of people/target audience

There are many websites out there that also teach coding, what makes this website so special and better?

Tutorials guide students step by step and there are plentiful real life examples that make it more relatable and fun, with cartoons and games involved. Pace of tutorials are also at such a rate that it is not too fast to follow with a voiceover that stimulates that human classroom interaction.

Desired outcomes

1. Hopefully provide less privileged children who are already interested in coding and programming resources and an avenue to continue learning and pursuing their interest which is entirely free of charge (affordable)

2. For less privileged children who have never tried coding and programming before, hopefully spark their interest in the area by providing them with a platform and opportunity to learn basic coding and computing concepts

3. Research has also shown that exposure to coding and programming helps to develop problem-solving skills, divergent thinking and computational thinking, so hopefully via online lessons and tutorials that are pre recorded, can help students in other aspects as well and develop their minds besides equipping them with relevant coding and programming skills

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https://docs.google.com/document/d/14IZfHSa3aY2n-_fZyeUhEJN8NBa3dUwbUGdoxquQu6I/edit?usp=sharing

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1. Cause to champion: Integrating the disabled into the workforce by equipping them with specific skills

1. Background context: In Singapore, those with disabilities are estimated to make up 3 percent of the population or well over 100,000 people. A large number of people are actually affected by these disabilities, which have hindered them as they prepare to step into the workforce. 28.2% were employed, and the remaining 68.2% of resident PwDs were outside the labor force. This poses an issue as they are not able to support themselves independently and make a living.

2. Current measures: Over the past few years, efforts have been put into aiding people with disabilities. There have been projects set up such as the Disabled Persons Scheme that supports the disabled who are unable to use public transport. In 2017, the Singapore Budget 2017 also included focusing on integrating persons with disabilities into the workplace.

3. Unaddressed gaps: However, although this has been classified as an area of concern, no concrete action has been taken over the years. Most campaigns and programmes for the disabled also focus a lot on changing the way society views people with disabilities, as well as aiding them in their daily lives, but not much has been done to integrate them into the workforce.

4. Importance: I believe that Singapore should strive to become a more inclusive society, and more has to be done to integrate the disabled in the workforce. Many disabled are unable to support themselves and make a living due to a lack of proper skills. Even if they are able to find jobs, they are mostly limited to the f&b industry and low-level jobs.

5. Solutions: (instructional curriculum) Hence, there can be programmes set up to help them learn more specific skills such as excel skills etc. which would allow them to find jobs not limited to only the typical cashiering or in fnb industries . I think this is particularly meaningful during tough times like the pandemic as it is important for the disabled to be able to support themselves independently, and allow us to come together as one whole Singapore.

6. Desired outcome: Although it can be difficult for the disabled to source for jobs as easily as those who do not suffer from disabilities, I hope that these solutions will allow the disabled to integrate into the workforce easier and feel less stress when stepping into the workplace.

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Managing gender differences in depression rate (gender depression gap) by encouraging flexi-work/mumpreneurship

Causes:

Research suggests that women have a prevalence rate for depression up to twice that of men. In Singapore, this is very ture – women in Singapore, particularly those aged between 18 to 34, are more prone to depression than men. I would like to focus on one major social factor contributing to this gender depression gap, which is the unfair societal expectation for women to play dual roles at work and at home. In today’s Singapore, women have already started shouldering the responsibility to contribute to the household budget. Yet when it comes to children and elderly family members, women are still the primary carers. This has led to the conundrum that women are subjected to higher levels of stress than men.

If you consider “work” and “family” separately, either of them can help to achieve accomplishment and personal aspirations. But only when they come together and achieve a balance(? can people appreciate the fulfillingness they brought, otherwise people will just be stressed-out. (“Family without work” can also be terrible sometimes, for example, some SAHMs). Flexi-work/mom preneurship are great methods to achieve work-life balance as the working hours and locations are more flexible. In addition, the resources and skills required to run some small businesses could be quite accessible for moms.

Current measures:
Non-governmental

Some community-based programmes, such as Project Cookoh in Jalan Kukoh, who help housewives start home-based businesses. They market the homemade products the mothers’ sell and source money for the moms to attend cooking classes and attain certification. By doing so, the organisations aim to help SAHMs to earn extra income for their families, and more importantly, to gain financial independence.

NGOs such as Mums@Work Singapore, which contains all sorts of information, suggestions, tips and courses to encourage people to become flexiwork moms or even mompreneur.

Government

Government has some initiatives such as Career Trial, which provides opportunities for jobseekers to try out jobs and assess new careers. To benefit women with caregiving responsibilities, they are currently enhancing the trial to include part-time jobs, so that the moms can have better work-life balance.

UGs:

The major UG is the assumption made that all moms under high pressure, especially those who are out of workforce and stay at home taking care of their family, are able to recognise the sign of depression and are aware that starting something new and finding something to look forward to, for example, running a home-based business (to create some good in the world, to earn extra family income and to forge fulfilling connections) can enhance their mental health. Therefore, they are not motivated to seek part-time jobs or start their own businesses, which makes all the suggestions and opportunities provided by the organisations and government useless.

Possible approach:

Campaign or movement:

Contact with the organisation and initiate a movement on facebook, sharing success stories, hearing other mom’s voices

Desired outcomes:

Ensure that moms know how to prevent/deal with their depression caused by work-life inbalance. (increase both awareness and willingness)

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Background:

In recent years, reports of large scale cyber crimes are becoming more and more prevalent. Ranging from OCBC phishing scams to the prime minister's medical data being leaked. Victims in Singapore lost at least $633.3 million to scams in 2021. The sum lost is almost 2.5 times the $268.4 million stolen by scammers in the previous year. This shows that although the implementation of online services in important infrastructure has made many tasks more convenient, it comes at a risk. Online Security for older generations who are out of touch with the digital world are certainly an easy group for scammers to exploit.

Cause:

One cause of compromised online security is the lack of knowledge of the internet. Elderly in Singapore use their phones less often compared to the younger generation. With the lack of knowledge of proper usage of the internet, it is easy for them to compromise their online safety. Additionally, the elderly are not as familiar with the common tactics used by scammers and lack the proper vigilance to protect themselves. Cyber security talks and warnings are commonplace in schools to inform the youth of such threats but such measures are not as common for the elderly. Hence,the elderly are more vulnerable

Impact:

One impact is financial loss. An article by CNA on 8 October 2019 revealed that an elderly man was tricked by scammers impersonating to be a police who told the elderly man that he was in trouble for money laundering and starting a pornography business. He was transacting the money to the scammers but was stopped by the son who suspected it was a scam. However, they still lost a few thousand dollars. Another example is the recent OCBC scam, scammers approached OCBC customers, sending replicated messages that has been sent out by OCBC bank, the messages seemed credible enough for OCBC users who were unfamiliar with online scams (mostly elderly) to believe, which incurred a 13.7 billion Singapore dollars loss in total.

Existing measures:

OCBC has unveiled tighter security measures such as OCBC bank said it has stepped up its security measures, including initiating transaction notifications for fund transfers through PayNow and inter-bank payments for amounts as low as one cent. In a media statement on Friday (Jan 21), the bank also said that it will implement a 24-hour cooling-off period for key account changes from Jan 31. The bank has set up a dedicated customer service team, which has been made permanent, to handle customer queries and reports on fraud.

The OCBC hotline also contains a dedicated option for customers to escalate reports of suspected scams, said the bank. These changes come after at least 469 OCBC customers were affected by an SMS phishing scam, with losses totalling at least S$8.5 million.

Police visit residents to help educate them about the dangers of scams.

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Problem Identified: Mistreatment of foreign domestic workers in Singapore

Background: The Humanitarian Organization for Migration Economics (HOME) aid that it receives about 15 cases of alleged maid abuse a week. These cases comprise verbal, physical and sexual abuse.

Current Measures:

All newly arrived foreign domestic workers are educated on their rights and channels to seek help if they encounter any wellbeing issues, said Minister of State for Manpower Gan Siow Huang. Foreign domestic workers can call the police if they are abused, or the hotlines set up by MOM or CDE if they have employment difficulties or other well-being issues.

MOM also works with CDE to conduct interviews with first-time foreign domestic workers in their native language within the first few months of their employment.

Unaddressed Gaps:

These measures focus on helping the abused domestic workers but don’t focus on the employers.

Oftentimes, it is due to the employers being horrible human beings.

Possible model

Raise awareness about the mistreatment of domestic workers

Work closely with agencies to find a suitable employer for the domestic workers

Desired Outcome:

Less cases of domestic abuse

More people would know about such cases and will be against domestic abuse, preventing cases from happening

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Problem: lack of positive family relationship between parents and children due to increasing parental stress

Why is this issue significant?

This issue is increasingly significant and prevalent due to the rise of covid 19 pandemic when circuit breaker safety distancing was implemented in Singapore from April 2020. Schools and workplaces were closed and parents had to balance telecommuting with parenting responsibilities. With this in mind, there is an increasing parental stress and increased harsh parenting which lead to negative parent-child relationship. In extreme cases, child abuses cases are reflected during the pandemic/economic recession times. Parents are often very stressed as they have to maintain their financial stability during this difficult period of time while taking care of their children at the same time.

Research has shown that negative parent-child relationship will lead to the deterioration of children’s mental health such as the rise in depression and post traumatic stress disorder. In 2019, there were more cases of students from the top schools in Singapore being referred for treatment at the Institute of Mental Health than ever before. Even before the pandemic struck, the suicide rate in Singapore jumped 10% in 2018. In terms of children suicides, it may be caused partly by an increase in social media exposure that leads to more stress, as well as increased expectations placed upon children by parents. Hence, it is evident that increasing parental stress will  lead to a emotional meltdown experienced by children, eventually affecting the parent-child relationship.

Causes for parental stress:

Parents are worried that their children cannot cope with their studies due to home based learning

Financial stress laid on the parents

Kiasu culture instilled within Singaporean parents

managing kids all by themselves while fulfilling work commitments

Current measures:

1. Positive parenting programme (triple P) organised by Ministry of Social and Development (MSF) to deliver parenting support services on a regional basis

The Positive Parenting Programme (Triple P) is an evidence-based programme that equips parents with techniques to promote their children’s (aged up to 16 years) psychological, social and emotional competence. Triple P is built on a tiered system that provides different degrees of parental support. Parents will get to participate and engage in seminars on topics such as positive parenting, raising confident and competent children.

Outcomes:

About 85% of parents endorsed the programme as being relevant to their parenting needs. Parents with secondary school-going children showed a sustained 31% reduction in their emotional distress scores, and a 22% reduction in their child’s problematic behavioural scores.

Unaddressed gaps: Even though there are quite a lot of positive parenting programmes going on where parents will gain insights on how to support their children in a positive manner, however these programmes are pretty one sided (only to teach parents on the theory but there might be a lack of platform for parents to exercise what they learnt and to interact with their children meaningfully due to reasons such as busy work schedule (meaningful interaction is very essential in aiding negative family relationship)

What to do:

Organise workshop that allows parents and children to swap their roles (meaning that children will get to be the parent for a day and parent will get to be the children for a day) and they will need to fulfil their duties as parents and children

Organise dialogues sessions for both parents and children to communicate with each other meaningfully (families often do not have the time to sit down and really talk to one another) provide a platform for both parents and children to convey their true feelings

Intended outcomes:

allows both parents and children to see things from each other’s perspective

Hopefully to aid the problem of excessive parental stress -> cultivate positive relationship between parents and children

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The plastic problem

I woukd like to advocate for the betterment for the environment, especially by reducing the use of single use plastics in Singapore. In an age where convenience is highly valued, the rampant use of single use plastics like plastic bags have become a major environmental and societal issue. It is necessary to solve this issue for a sustainable, greener future in Singapore.

Current measures:
As of 2022, the government has shown some efforts to implement new initiatives and policies to reduce use of single-use plastics. One such policy is the charge for the usage of plastic bags in supermarkets. By 2023, 2/3 of supermarkets willl charge 5 cents for a plastic bag.

Another measure is discounts for those who bring a reusable bag to the supermarkets.

Unaddressed gaps: Although this would reduce (to some extent), the usage of plastic bags, this does not solve the crux of the issue. These measures are inadequate as it is not a nationwide policy and only for supermarkets. It would only perhaps reduce the amount of plastic waste, but the amount produced would still be significant enough to be an environmental threat, and will still be an inseparable part of our lives.

Solutions: One solution is for supermarkets  to use the cardboard boxes that they used to transport the goods to the supermarket, and provide these boxes instead of plastic bags. Plastic bags, if absolutely necessary, should be replaced into paper bags that are definitely more environmentally friendly. Consumers can use these boxes to pack their products and bring these products home. These cardboard boxes would otherwise become waste.

Solution 2:  One argument made against banning plastic bags is due to people requiring them to throw away their household trash. Singapore should follow in the steps of other countries, and charge for garbage bags. This would minimise even more plastic bags and also reduce general waste.

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How can we ensure that elderly members are not alienated in a digital world, and are able to build digital capabilities?

Problem

In this digital world, some elderly people feel lost and as such shun technology. We need to be mindful of the needs of elderly people. I think certain businesses can work towards being mindful not to alienate elderly members by ensuring their practices can help give the elderly a smooth experience. Additionally, although building digital capabilities may not be among the top in their list of priorities, I feel it is essential that they should be given a chance to pick up new skills to stay socially connected in the digital age.

Existing measures
Some businesses have been mindful not to alienate elderly members, and have devoted resources to help the elderly utilise digital resources. One such business is Golden VIllage Cinemas. When they initially introduced the automated ticketing machines, they also deployed ambassadors to help those having difficulty using the machines, and screened instructional videos. The company also tweaked the design of the machines after receiving feedback that the touch screen was positioned too high, especially for the elderly. They have made these changes to allow for ease of purchasing tickets for all, including elderly people. In this age of mechanisation and digitalisation there is also a need to ensure that elderly people are able to build digital capabilities and are given ample time to upskill themselves when necessary. The IMDA (Infocomm Media Development Authority) launched a project titled ‘Senior go digital in May 2020, with the aim of helping all seniors to build digital capabilities which may help their job prospects and work efficiency, thus allowing them to lead engaged, informed and fulfilled lives. Platforms like MySkillsFuture, which granted people aged 25 and above a $500 credit top-up as at 31 December 2020, allows seniors to pick up a range of skills by applying for courses online, building digital capabilities in the process.

Unaddressed gaps

I feel businesses need to be more age-friendly. I feel that there also could be a lack of initiatives that involve people visiting elderly homes to see if they would want to develop new skills. Face to face interactions may be more effective in convincing elderly members the use of picking up these skills.

Proposed solutions

Not to alienate elderly - see that businesses on certain industries adopt good practices to always have staff available to help anybody in need, allowing people who need additional assistance  to familiarize themselves with some practices. Could also ensure that products are designed in view of making life easier for elderly members

Building digital capabilities - have volunteers visit homes of the elderly to hone their digital skills. The first step is to get them interested into learning and we might be able to do that by making them aware of the uses of digital capabilities