Yow Kia

This project was done in AIA during Division Z Achiever’s Day. It is project no.9 – “Persuade with power” from Competent Communicator Manual.

The objectives of the project are:
1) Persuade listeners to adopt your viewpoint or ideas or to take some actions.
2) Appeal to the audience’s interests.
3) Use logic and emotion to support your position.
4) Avoid using notes.

I was evaluated by Christopher Yeow (ACB, CL).

These are his comments towards my speech:
1) Speaking on his experience as a donor. Could have focused more on why they should donate. Appeal to them to make a difference.
2) The NKF saga is well-known to everybody.
3) Can use more figures to show how far a donation can go.
4) More stories of the needy would be useful.
5) The message was clear.
6) Tendency to fold your hands in front of your body.
7) A sincere and credible appeal from one who continue to donate even when others were skeptical.

Speech Transcript

“One dollar a day, you may save a human’s life”. This was a slogan from a charity campaign. When we talk about charity organization in Singapore, I believe most of us in this room, the first organization that comes into our mind is N.K.F -> National Kidney Foundation. Since the CEO of NKF, Mr. Durai was suspected to misuse the money from public donation, the name NKF has become a label of Dishonest Charity Organization.

Since then, NKF has lost his trust from the public. Majority of his donors withdrew their monthly donation scheme instantly without thinking of the consequences, without thinking of there are still patients who need this money to go for operation. What in their mind was only the CEO has taken a big portion of the money and their money was not spent properly. Whose fault was that? It’s not the patients fault. It’s the top management fault. The top management should be punished! Not the patients.

Let’s see what problems have arisen since the NKF saga happened. Nowadays, the public has possessed lesser trust to the charity events. When someone approaches us for donation, we may think that it is another NKF. This is absolutely unfair to the organizations which are operated in a correct manner. I have been with NKF monthly donation scheme for about 5 years. I didn’t cancel the scheme during the NKF saga. What I thought was since the news has broken out, then, people will be more aware of how the money is used and therefore my money will be well spent. Whatever happened in the past it’s over, I know I was one of the shareholders for the golden watertap which was installed in the CEO office toilet. Ladies and gentlemen, were you the one who stopped the donation scheme immediately when the NKF scandal happened? It’s time to resume the scheme now.

In the past, I was quite irritated by the NKF TV advertisements because they were trying to draw our attention by broadcasting the patients’ tears. Until one day, my good friend told me that her dad was suffering with Kidney Failure. As the only child of the family, she had to fetch her dad for kidney dialysis twice a week. Each session lasts for 3-4 hours. She always felt the pain while needles were put into her dad’s fistula, the pain in her heart. She struggled a lot emotionally and financially. She tried to act happy in front of her dad, but somehow, there were still tears in her eyes. The monthly medical fees were almost 80% of her income. Luckily, she still managed to pay the medical fees with the support from her relatives. Try to imagine, for those people who don’t have money to go for the medical treatment, how long can they survive? Because of this incident, it drew my emotion that I should make contribution to the society, so that more people can be subsidized for the expensive treatment. Ladies and gentlemen, if you were asked make a small contribution of $1 dollar per day, will you still think twice?

Recently, I have encountered a common scene among my friends and colleagues. When we passed by a charity donation booth, they will start discussing whether this organization is real or not. To me, as long as the organization is licensed and the person who approached me showed me his license, I feel secured. I have heard once my colleague asked me, how do I ensure that the money will go to the person who needs the money? Then I answered, the only way is you, yourself go to donate the money to the person who needs the money face-to-face and monitor how he uses the money. Since the NKF saga, I have noticed one thing. One thing that is so shameful that I can’t take it. A lot of people will pretend that they want to make donation. On the other hand, they will the NKF saga as excuse. They will just say, actually I want to donate, but, I am not sure whether this organization can be trusted or not. Come on, if you really want to donate the money, just donate, no need to give excuse. Ladies and gentlemen, are you belong to that group, who always search for excuses for not contributing to the society? It’s time to change.

Last time, when I first came to Singapore, I always have this feeling that Singaporeans are very rich. They have nice cars, they have nice LV wallets. However, as time passed, I notice that there is still a group of poor people who are suffering for their food, for their medication fees. These are the people who really need help from us. You can spend money to buy a LV bag, why can’t you spend a small portion of your money to help the misfortune ones? I believe the satisfaction that you can get for saving a life is far more beyond than owning a branded bag. Try to imagine one day, if you are broke and need help from others, and there is nobody wants to help you. What will you do? Ladies and gentlemen, if you are living in a comfortable life, it’s time to start contributing to the society. Make your donation today!