Chng Rui Jie says she started organising online fund-raisers when she was nine to raise funds for pupils who might go hungry during recess. — The Straits Times/ANN
SINGAPORE (The Straits Times/ANN): At the age of 12, Chng Rui Jie has raised over S$1.2mil (RM4.14mil) for charity.
She started organising online fund-raisers through Giving.sg when she was nine to raise funds for primary school pupils who might go hungry during recess because of their family’s financial woes.
This desire to ensure that no child goes hungry was spurred by an experience of hunger when Rui Jie was in Primary One. She had forgotten to bring her wallet to school and went without food during recess.
“That was an unpleasant experience for me,” recalled the Gongshang Primary School pupil. “And to know that there are people who don’t get to eat three meals a day, I feel really sad about it. That’s why I decided to help.”
Her first fund-raiser in 2020 raised more than S$56,000 for The Straits Times School Pocket Money Fund (STSPMF) in six months.
To date, Rui Jie has raised S$332,000 for the STSPMF. She is also their youngest fund-raiser, a spokesman for the STSPMF said. She has also organised 60 online campaigns for charities such as the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) and Assisi Hospice, among others.
Despite preparing for her Primary School Leaving Examinations (PSLE) which ended in October, Rui Jie still managed to raise S$285,717 in donations this year.
“The PSLE is my first national exam, and my mother advised me to spend more of my time studying for it instead. So during that time, I asked my father to help me check on some campaigns and start new ones.”
Her father, Anthony Chng, 46, helped her start her first online fund-raising campaign for the STSPMF. He told her she would be able to help more people by raising funds for the causes she cared about, instead of just donating her pocket money to these causes.
Chng is the director of the enterprise division at Children-At-Risk Empowerment Association, a charity that focuses on helping at-risk youths succeed in life. She is the only child and her mother is a housewife.
Since her fundraising debut in 2020, Rui Jie has encouraged more people to contribute to society. For example, she was the youngest person to be invited as guest speaker at Fundraising Online 2022, an event organised by the Resource Alliance - a global community of changemakers and fundraisers - where she shared insights with professional fundraisers worldwide, about her experience doing online campaigns.
Last year, she was featured on Cartoon Network’s ‘Redraw Your World’ campaign, where she spoke about how young people can make a difference.
When asked where her desire to help others comes from, Rui Jie says she has always wanted to play the big sister role for children and animals in need.
“I am the youngest in my family and an only child, so I never had the chance of being a jie jie (Mandarin for elder sister). So I want to help those younger than me and to look out for them like a jie jie,” she said.
Having tried her hand at fund-raising, Rui Jie plans to volunteer in different ways. She helped to pack and distribute sponsored items to the needy residents at Punggol and Pasir Ris. She also volunteered as part-time photographer and media talent for the SG Care volunteer centre at Pasir Ris.
This year, Rui Jie has assisted with festive decorations and food distribution at the Tampines Changkat Community Fridge - an initiative where residents can share surplus food with their neighbours.
She said: “You don’t really have to do what I did (online fund-raising) in order to make a difference. Something as simple as using some of your time to volunteer on the weekends or during the holidays is good enough to make a difference.”
Her mother, Joan Sim, 45, said of Rui Jie’s plans to do more volunteering, instead of fund-raising: “We want her to try different stuff and do something that is more hands-on, instead of being behind a computer screen. By volunteering at the community fridge, she gets to meet and see the beneficiaries she is helping.”
Her father thinks Rui Jie has blossomed in the past few years and feels that her campaigns are successful because of her authentic, simple and straightforward way of asking donors to help for a cause.
“Her messaging is not sanitised and there is no corporate crafting. I think her innocence carries across to people, as it is very different from professional fundraisers who are overly concerned over the choice of words.”
He added: “She has learnt that if she believes in something, she has to do something. There is no point in complaining or waiting for someone to take the lead. As long as she has tried her best and followed her heart.”
