Healthcare, we can all afford

Being hospitalised is no fun and having to worry about that hospital bill, no matter big or small, can make it worse. Fortunately Singaporeans enjoy heavy subsidies in public hospitals, especially in class B2 and C wards.

This means that a huge part of your hospital bill is taken care of when you are admitted into hospital. You just need to bear part of the medical expenses and pay more if you opt for a higher class ward.

Overall, direct subsidies to patients have increased, from about $850 million in 2001 to more than $1.6billion in 2007. And this is projected to exceed $2.2 billion by 2012.

Singaporeans can be proud of our healthcare system which is rated among the best in the world. We have a comprehensive system – with government subsidies, supplemented with the 3Ms – that makes sure everyone can manage the financial burdens of hospitalisation.

a. Medisave
This compulsory medical savings plan lets you pay for either your own personal or immediate family members’ hospitalisation expenses. On average, each Singaporean has enough in his or her Medisave account to cover about 11 class B2 or 12 class C hospitalisation episodes. These savings help to significantly lighten our hospital bills.

More than 80 per cent of Singaporeans use Medisave to pay for their hospitalisation expenses. Medisave usage has also been progressively extended to meet outpatient needs.

b. MediShield
MediShield is a low-cost medical insurance plan that helps patients cope with large bills and covers up to 80 per cent for class B2 and C bills. If you are in the middle income group and prefer class A or B1 or private wards, you should consider buying supplementary Medisave-approved insurance plans for additional benefits, in addition to basic MediShield.

Currently, about 75 per cent of Singaporeans are covered under MediShield and other types of Medisave-approved insurance plans.

C. Medifund
Medifund works like a financial safety net to help Singaporeans in genuine need. Those who still face difficulties with hospital expenses, even after government subsidies, Medisave and MediShield, can approach a medical social worker at public hospitals to help them apply for Medifund.

We must all play our part

We must never take good health for granted, and should all play an active part to keep healthcare affordable. Therefore we should live a healthy lifestyle, contribute to Medisave and buy adequate and appropriate healthcare insurance.

Lower income Singaporeans should have basic MediShield which covers class B2 and C wards. The better-off who can afford the higher ward classes should buy Medisave-approved Private Integrated Plans on top of their basic MediShield to cover their stays in class A or B1 wards or at private hospitals.

For more information, do whatsapp me at +65 9151 9924 for a free consultation today.

GOOD OFFER: Kata M2L (4G Smartphone) and Kata PowerBank

Friends, there are TWO HOT DEALS going on at Kata now. Kata is a leading smartphone manufacturer in United State and the pricing is quite attractive and affordable. Do check out the two special promotion now. For more information, click HERE to Kata Singapore official Facebook!

HOT DEAL: Get our Kata 4,400mAh Powerbank at only $12 (Original Price: $17) and stand a chance to win admission tickets to Universal Studio Singapore and Trick Eye Museum (worth $204).

Total 3 lucky winners will be selected during our lucky draw on 1 December 2015. Winners will be announced at Kata Singapore Facebook. In addition upon purchase, you will also get $10 Kata's Device Discount Voucher and $5 Kata's Accessories Voucher.

Take note that each store only have 50 limited Powerbank for this promotion. Do grab it while stocks last. Share the message around to your friends now!

Promotion in-store: 15 November to 30 November 2015.

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GOOD NEWS: Pre-order Kata M2L (4G Network) with Dual SIM smartphone at $268 only. Available in white and dark grey colour at ALL Kata stores and kiosk, starting from 16 November to 25 November 2015.

SPEC: 1.3GHz Quad Core, 5.5" Super HD, 1GB RAM + 16GB Storage, 13MP + 8MP camera, Battery 3000mAh and Android 5.1

In conjunction with SG50 celebration, first 50 customers pre-order Kata M2L, will receive the following FREE bonus items:

* Screen Protector
* Phone Casing
* $5 Kata's Accessories Voucher
* $10 Kata's Device Voucher
* $50 Lifestyle Shopping Discount Vouchers
* Lucky Draw to win Kata T4 tablet (worth $188)

Pre-order with $100 deposit at any of our Kata stores and kiosk:

Kata Store at Lucky Plaza
304, Orchard Road, #01-51
Singapore 238863

Kata Store at Sim Lim Square
1, Rochor Canal Road, #01-34
Singapore 188504

Kata Kiosk at Chinatown Point
133, North Bridge Road, #02-50
Singapore 059413

Kata Concept Store at The Commerze @ Irving
1, Irving Place, #02-26
Singapore 369546

A story about tissue paper sellers in Singapore

A reporter from The New Paper is working on a story about tissue paper sellers in Singapore and he posted me the question below:

"Most of the tissue paper sellers in train stations or in hawker centres are unlicensed, and generally they are still allowed to carry on selling without a license by the authorities. While this means that the disabled/elderly can sell their tissue packets easily, it also complicates the issue because that means just about anyone can get to sell. Some are saying that it becomes a sort of glorified way of begging, that there is no way to tell the difference between those who need help and those who are just cashing in on this. There are quite a number of foreigners who are doing this too, and some are concerned that the money isn't going to people who need the help.

As a voluntary welfare organization that helps to provide support for the elderly and the poor, I am keen to find out what Happy People thinks about this. Do you think more can be done so that these people do not have to turn to tissue paper selling to earn money?"

My replies are as follow:

I feel that it's good that the authorities did not impose a need for license for tissue paper sellers as the disabled/elderly can sell their tissue packets easily without any issue. It is definitely a better sight than to see such disabled/elderly begging on the streets, as they are considered making a living for themselves through their own efforts.

Probably one way that the authorities can support the actual people who needs help, is to provide these group of people a special banner/lanyard to indicate that these are the people who really need help and the public should lend a helping hand by buying something from them. Its a better way to indicate the needy rather than imposing a need for license for all, and as for those people who are just cashing in on this, it's up to the individual of the public to exercise the right judgement.

As the founder of Happy People, I think that there is definitely more can be done for these people. Most likely, most tissue sellers have the mindset that they can work as and when they want when they sell tissue, and would prefer a flexible job similar to this if they were to make a switch. Perhaps, government can provide a benefit for employers who specifically hire these people to work. Charity and voluntary welfare organisation can also hire these people to help out in their daily administrative task.

Everything happens for a reason

I believe that everything happens for a reason.

On Wednesday 30 Sept, I was going through my usual day with Elson Soh to meetings and to give blessings around and we prepared goody bags for Children homes in conjunction with upcoming Children Day. I thought I was about to end my day at our final meeting at Jurong Point, when suddenly my phone which I was holding onto drop face down to the floor while I exit from my car. To my horror, my glass panel of my phone shattered to bits and pieces. After ending our meeting, we search online and found a phone repair shop near Boon Lay Drive.

Upon reaching there, it was pure luck that they left the final glass panel for the model of my phone and would take about an hour to fix everything. And so, we walk around the estate looking for a place to settle down. This is when Elson noticed that the surrounding estate look pretty like the olden days where people will gather down stairs and chatted with their friends and families, which is very kampung style. Elson saw there are several estates for the low income families and we decided to take a walk there.

After talking to the families and walking around the block, we chanced upon a very empty house, with only one fan, pillows, no tv, no furniture. We can even hear our echo as we chatted with them. We found out that they had just shifted into this rental flat not more than two weeks. They are trying very hard to save money to buy furniture, cooking equipment, and rations too. But with the father earning $50 a day, it will take them a very long time to be able to lead a normal life.  

Our hearts broke when we hear that they are waiting for the father to come home to buy dinner for them. We immediately bring them out to stock up on food rations at the nearby NTUC. We also brought them dinner, as they didn't eat much since morning, as they can't cook without any cooking equipment, they can't keep any fresh ration without a fridge. While ordering dinner for them at coffeeshop, Elson saw the baby girl staring at one of the customers' food and can tell that she is very very famished. We decided to help them through Project Awareness to render them immediate assistance and to give them basic furniture and cooking equipment so they can lead a more stable life soon.

I'm glad that through my own unfortunate event that I accidentally broke my phone, eventually giving me a chance to helping this family tide through this tough period of their life.

Engaging with Happy People in social change and identifies empathy that can enhance life satisfaction with happiness.

吳錦南 Jacky Goh
Happy People - Make Smiles where we go

'HIGH' 鲜堡塔 - HIGH SEAFOOD TOWER

Glad to be the first to try 螃蟹之家 House of Seafood 'HIGH' 鲜堡塔! HIGH SEAFOOD TOWER together with local singer-songwriter Elson Soh last week.

Being invited to try their 'HIGH' 鲜堡塔! HIGH SEAFOOD TOWER, this is definitely the first kind of unique and innovative delicacy that I experience in Singapore. 

Every levels unveils a fresh seafood dish and the CEO, Francis Ng, explains that the essence from each seafood will drip all the way down from the steam to the soup base, which explains why the soup is so delicious and felt that the dishes are fresh straight from the sea! 

The soup is so heavenly that it will makes you wanna drink it over and over again! Each levels consist of fresh seafood selections such as Live Bamboo Clams, Live Clams, Live Mussels, Squid, Live Prawns, Scallops, Live Crabs, Seafood Soup Based. They even have ala-carte premiums add-on available such as Geo-Duck Clam Sashimi, Live Oyster, Red Snapper Sashimi, and Live Lobster Sashimi! 

Doesn't these add-on makes your mouth watery? In short, this is definitely the dish for all seafood lovers. Looking forward to this dish again! If you want to try High Seafood Tower, call your nearest outlet to make the reservation now.

- Punggol Point +65 6466 9000
- Upper Serangoon Shopping Centre +65 6285 9711

Facts VS Lies

Through my experience in volunteering, working, engaging with people, and in life, I realised there are two types of people, mainly one who based on true facts, and one who based on things being made up by others.

People who based on facts only believe what they see or experience themselves personally before taking any actions. These are the people that we should be friends with, because no matter what rumours they heard about you from others, they will always clarify with you personally and find out what actually happen, and see if you need any help or assistance from them. They are the ones who will stand by you and support you no matter what happens.

Next, there are another group of people who just love to lie and create problems. People who just love to kaypoh, make noise and complain this complain that and don’t help anything at all. They are judgmental and believe lies that create by others. When shit happens, they will lie, create problems for you, condemn you and make others believe that you are the one who cause problems. They are the ones who cannot handle the truth.

But why do people lie? People always lie for the same reason: fear. The purpose of fear is to suppress awareness of the truth. For example, when a narcissist says that everyone loves and respects her when it's obvious to others it's not true, that's an unconscious lie. Les Carter explains this well in his book, Why Is It Always About You?: The Seven Deadly Sins of Narcissism. He writes (p 17):

In a sense, narcissists are out of touch with reality. They are not mentally ill, like a psychotic; they are just unwilling to acknowledge truth that doesn't match their preferences. While normal people can weigh events rationally and draw fair conclusions about themselves, narcissists do not. They lack the objectivity to live with reasonable insight because their need for self-exaltation does not allow them to accept that their perceptions might not be the ultimate truth. Their idealized view of themselves blinds them as they try to make sense of life, particularly the elements in themselves that might be imperfect or that migh require adjustments (and they never want to make adjustments).

In conclusion, do exercise the right judgment when handling with such people.

P.S.: Whatever happen in the past have passed. I will not hesitate to take any action against you if things go overboard.

Meet Mr and Mrs Lim

They are a family based in shanghai, coming back to Singapore every year to visit friends and families and to celebrate National Day as well. We are glad to find out that they have been following Project Awareness page since we started in 2013, and sharing our post to their friends and families in Singapore to volunteer with us. This action shows that kindness have no boundaries.

This week, they are back in Singapore again. Mr and Mrs Lim have been teaching the kids to sell things and make some money, which is also to coach them that making money isn’t easy and it requires certain effort and skills. To make it more meaningful to the children (Lim Jing Rui and Lim Ching Suan), for every dollar they made, the parents contribute a dollar as well, and they decided to donate all proceeds to Project awareness to support families in need to basic necessities. A total of $400 was contributed to Project Awareness.

This is the kind of actions that we want to promote kindness and volunteerism to the young generations of Singapore, to give back to society and let them know that they are fortunate enough compared to the less fortunate. Thank you to Lim Family. Even though they are based in Shanghai, they always try to help our fellow Singaporeans, we really appreciate your spirit of giving and kindness, and we will use the money your family had raised to bless the families.

Relighting your childhood memories? Only at Uncle Ringo!

Remember the days when we were so crazy about fun fairs, carnivals and pasar malam? You can immediately think of UK Funfair and Uncle Ringo  《玲可叔叔》 !

Fun Fact: Do you know that for outdoor fun fairs and carnivals, there is only Uncle Ringo doing this?

Being in a fun fair is every child wildest dream, it’s the time where their imaginations run wild. From Viking ships, carousel, bumper cars, and spinning round and round in their rides, the kids just can’t get enough of it!

Personally I went down yesterday to visit Uncle Ringo at Marina Bay Waterfront Promenade as we will be organising stage events over there. I went ahead together with Elson Soh, William Soh, Flipside Production - Hangi Tavakoli and Charlene Eng, and took some rides like Bumper Cars, Chinatown Maze, Meteorite, and some carnival games. It really brings me back my childhood memories where I was screaming excitedly when sitting in a Viking Ship when I’m young! 

All these wouldn’t happen if I have not met Uncle Ringo personally. He is someone full of laughter and energy even at his age. He makes the dream come true as he loves to bring joy to each and every children and especially gets satisfaction when he sees children having fun at his carnivals, playing rides, eating candy floss and popcorns. 

Do remember to visit Uncle Ringo at Marina Bay Waterfront Promenade from now till 10th August 2015, 6pm to 11pm on Weekdays and 1pm to 11pm on Weekends! FREE Admission to everyone! And catch us on stage until then!

An update on Mr Buang Family

It’s about 3 months since we get to know about Mr Buang family and their situation. Being the sole breadwinner of the family with 10 children, he has to undergo immense stress and pressure when he discovered that he is already a stage 3 lung cancer patient last year. He had no choice but to quit his job as a security officer, in order to continue with his medical treatment. 

Next week, he has to undergo another surgery as doctors discovered another lump near his kidneys. With weekly appointments of check-ups and radio therapy treatment, he continue to fight strong with a positive mind, but his only worry now is how his family going to continue living if things does not goes well for him.

We are glad that he have received some help with the assistance of MP Baey Yam Keng and helped him to apply for CDC grant to support his family. Last Saturday, Mr Buang invited us to his house for Hari Raya gathering. We are surprised to see the addition of 2 sofa in his living him, he told us that someone from the shop house opposite his house actually don’t want these sofa so Mr Buang and his son went to carry it back home. From this gesture, we can see that even in their circumstances, they will still make it a point to celebrate their Hari Raya Adilfitri.

After spending a day with them, we realised that what they need is a long term kind of support, at least, until their kids can start working and support the family. They have 2 sons currently studying in ITE and working part time to offset their family expenses. Also, his son that is 3 years old currently, that was born in Indonesia due to his wife having a labour over there, is not a citizen of Singapore yet. Reason because Mr Buang’s name was not included in the birth cert of the child. Right now they are in the process of adding his name into the birth cert, however they would need to fork out 460 Singapore Dollars for them to process the paper work.

Many a times we do not know that we are actually quite fortunate compared to the rest, hence, I’ll always make it a point to help those in need as much as possible.

Not Politic but Peolitics

It is indeed a busy yet happening week for me. On Tuesday’s evening, I accompany Mr Tan Lam Siong, (someone whom I often look up to, not because he is a lawyer by profession but for his personal values in life, and he often share his experience with me which are often thought provoking) for an Opposition Ramadan Party in celebration of his departure of NSP. 

This is the first time in my life that I have seen so many opposition members from different parties gathering together for a meal. I have never like the thought of being seen with the opposition because many of them just want to overthrow the government, all talk no actions, and I believe that if they were to become the government one day, it would definitely be worse. Nevertheless I still accompany Mr Tan, as he is my personal friend and mentor, and his ideology of politics is different from the rest of the people, one that he named it as “Peolitics” he is definitely not one to oppose but one to propose.

After the dinner, we went to NTUC at Bedok to buy the items for the distribution at Tampines. Upon reaching there, we 扫空 the whole NTUC of their Bread, Maggie Noodles, and Biscuits. The shoppers at that time keep looking at us as they are shocked at the amount of the items that we are buying. Then we explain that we are there to buy for tomorrow’s distribution and they praised us for our actions.

I had little sleep, and as I have to wake up very early in the day to prepare for the distribution. We reach 499C Tampines Ave 9 at 9am in the morning, Together with MP Baey Yam Keng, staff of Gremio Capital Pte Ltd, volunteers from Project Awareness and Happy people, plus my buddy Elson Soh, we went door to door distribution to more than 100 over units in the block.

Many of the residents know MP Baey as he is very active in helping his residents in Tampines area. We can see residents waving at him from far, coming up close to speak to them and praise his hardwork all these while serving them, and taking pictures with him personally. Through these acts, we can see that MP Baey really served his residents well and is very very well-liked by his residents there. 

All of us sweat ourselves out throughout the whole journey but it was fulfilling seeing the residents and helping the families in Tampines. Once again, I would like to thank everyone for coming down and volunteer on a Wednesday morning!  

After the distribution, we went to House of Seafood at Punggol Point Branch for lunch. Thank you boss Francis Ng, for the very well prepared lunch, and it was a good spread for all of us. MP Baey enjoyed both the Chilli Crab and Black Pepper Crab prepared by the chef. Thank you Cindy, the pretty marketing manager from House of Seafood, for coming down to the branch to welcome all of us.

We are glad that yesterday’s collaboration between Project Awareness, Happy People and MP Baey Yam Keng was a great success, as we are there to help Tampines Resident and low income family to create a racial harmony day was a great success! Hope everyone who came down to support enjoyed themselves too!

On a side note, did you saw me in yesterday’s Lianhe Wanbao? :)

Why you need to have a good digital marketing right now?

JustClick

Many are asking, what is digital marketing? What kind of digital marketing do I need, and is my digital marketing complete enough?

Recently I have acquired several news and entertainment portal, mainly they are JustClick, Hello FM, Campus Rock and Poppy TV. Being the Co-Founder of these news and entertainment portal, I realise the need for a complete Digital Marketing for any companies who want to brand and market themselves. Having a company Facebook page alone is not enough.

So what makes Digital Marketing Complete? 

We need all of these ways to maximise your online brand presence. 

Hello FM

Firstly, be consistent with your branding. Any concept, any slogan must not be changed within a short period of time. For any branding to be ingrain into any person, it must be consistently appearing the same thing to a customer, so once they think of the slogan, it reminds them of you.

Campus Rock

Secondly, while a Facebook page features recent updates to your customers, many prefer to visit a responsive corporate website to understand more about the company background, product and services, and upcoming promotions. To allow your website to be captured in search engines like Google, you need to have very good search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM), link building, and advertisement banners across all networks.

Poppy TV

Thirdly, as everyone is using a smart phone now, our customers are online every single minute. According to statistics, 74% of Singaporeans uses social media regularly and the average time spend on is 2.1 hours. All you need to just capture 1% of the users and you could be on your way to riches. However, what really attracts them is to have great quality content. It must have a very strong tagline to capture the attention of the customer and the information must be bite size as internet users are very impatient these days and they do not like contents that are very wordy.

Royal Entertainment

Next, to better increase your brand exposure, you will need to create press releases. Every concept, every idea or movement must have a strong point that would attract media companies or internet news portal to talk about your product and services. With press releases, it will extend your brand not just to Singapore alone, but it will promote your brand worldwide.

Jacky Goh - Blog

Furthermore, with YouTube on the rise, everyone is creating their own videos and advertisements. Creating a video is easy but creating a viral video campaign is far from easy. Having your piece of content to go viral is like winning the Internet’s version of lottery. You need to have great content, great quality, short yet interesting enough to keep the attention of your viewers and creating the urge for them to share and you will have a winning video.

Elson Soh - Blog

Last but not least, customers nowadays are “smart”. Before they try something new, they will look for product reviews, shop reviews, ask their friends for opinion before trying something out. 90% of them would use Google to search for what they want and this brings me to the next point, blogging. With blog reviews from influencers such as celebrities, personalities, and even people around us will greatly draw your potential customers to read them and to enjoy it virtually before they visit you physically.
 
To summarise, with the ways of the above and the combination with our marketing strategies, it will increase your brand exposure to the next level and attracts more potential customers into your business.

Happy People make their day

During one of our house visiting to French Road recently, we noticed a large numbers of elderly gathering together at various spots. We can see them engaging in very interesting conversations, playing chess, and la kopi together.

When our volunteers engage in little conversations with them, we realise they are grinning from ear to ear, subsequently when we bless them with a little bag of rations, we can see that we have make their day and they are happier than ever. We come to realise one thing. Not that they are super poor, but they are super lonely. Every elderly have their own character, some may not get along with one another, but they definitely need someone to talk to and accompany them and have a good chat.

With that, we are happy to be able to make their day and let them be happier! This is something that I always wanted to do since young and I m glad that I m able to do it now. Apart from Project Awareness, I also set up another initiative volunteer group, known as Happy People (Click HERE to LIKE the Facebook page), hope to spread more awareness around. 

“If you have nothing better to say, better don’t say anything.”

After volunteering and being the Project Coordinator at Project Awareness (A计划) all these while, I come to realise there are many things about life we should reconsider. Is money really about everything? Some people spend their whole life chasing papers, but ultimately are they really truly happy? Once a senior tell me, when his mom was weak and frail, he hired 2 maids just to take care of her, yet he feel very accomplished doing so. Why is this even happening in the first place? What if this were to happen to him, would he want to be taken care by 2 maids that his son hired just to take care of him?

I have met a lot of low income families through my volunteer works. I believe that we should not look down on anyone no matter what’s their past or situation. Every day, I receive a lot of messages from the public that they wish to help some of our beneficiaries, and I appreciate each and every one who came forward to reach out to those in need. However, I do receive some messages from a small group of people, questioning what we do, giving unnecessary comments, and demoralizing us and our group of volunteers. 

It is totally okay if these people do not have the heart to help others, but it is not okay when they start putting others down. There’s a quote I always stick by, “If you have nothing better to say, better don’t say anything.” Ultimately what we just want is the residents and families to benefit from everyone efforts, to help them tide through their difficult period in their life, so that they can lead a better life and that is enough.

So if you love to create trouble or being a nuisance and hinder our kindness works, I believe that serving the community is definitely not for you, and you should be somewhere else instead. Most importantly, stop the DIRTY game that you might have in mind.

But if you like to help any of our beneficiaries, do let us know as we always love to work with any organisations, any companies, or any one, regardless of who you are, where you are from, as long as we are able to help the community, and the people benefited from our efforts.

Only people with a guilty conscience will find this post offensive.