Dare or Not! aims to raise awareness of emergency first aid among the members of public and equip them with basic skills needed to manage an emergency. The objectives of Dare or Not! are:

  1. To highlight the importance of stepping forward to render first aid without hesitation.
  2. To simplify the learning of emergency first aid and provide an avenue for registration of courses for the general public.
  3. To provide attachments to first aid duties to sharpen skills and develop confidence for certified first aiders.

Dare or Not! is a flagship first aid campaign organised by a team from Be The Difference held on 10 September 2016. The event consists of two segments, namely First Aid Bay and Rescue Quest. First Aid Bay showcased an array of booths to raise awareness of first aid through the sharing of life-saving stories by people from all walks of life and providing the public with hands-on experiences. Courses and attachment opportunities are also available for sign up. Rescue Quest is a first aid-centered game that demonstrates the dire consequences of hesitation in an emergency situation when life matters most.

Living in a first world country, Singapore still faces an undesirably low bystander CPR rate. Life and death situations are unpredictable; we hope that fellow Singaporeans may be equipped with the skills and confidence to make the difference for someone caught in such situations. We have found out that many certified first aiders would still hesitate to step forward and put their skills into use in the face of emergency situations. We want to highlight the importance of stepping forward to render aid without hesitation when the need arises.

The Highlights

Camaraderie

To be able to work with a team of like-minded and driven individuals who believe in the cause is something to be thankful for. As a team, we have to come up with creative ideas and constantly reminding each other the purpose of starting this project. It was not easy to keep the morale up with the high level of commitment needed and with the frequent obstacles we faced. However, together with this group of valuable team players, we have shown the tenacity needed to deliver results and make the event a success.

Taking a Different Approach

During the brainstorming phase, we realised that the problem of low bystander rate in provision of first aid should be tackled in multiple ways. Our team has chosen to tackle it in a different manner as compared to most first aid exhibition by highlighting the lack of moral courage to provide aid to someone in need. This lack in moral courage sprouted from various reasons and we decided to make it our focus for the event. With that direction, we developed our very own outdoor escape room. We also added a segment where we interviewed Samaritans who have actually managed to save a life.

The Memories


Reflection #1 – The Challenges

Tight Schedule

The first challenge we faced was the rejection from many corporate companies and foundations as we sent our request for sponsorship too late, leading to very short lead time for them to respond. Despite so, we needed the financial support to organise the event and hence we decided to approach individuals for donation. We arranged for meetings with high profile individuals through our contacts and managed to secure some funding.

Unexpected Situation

The second challenge came when we were told that adding another two days of venue rental to set up our tents will incur additional cost. This was not accounted for in our budget and we will incur a larger deficit if we went ahead with the rental. To resolve the problem, We identified and contacted the event organiser who was holding an event before us and we negotiated with them to take over their tents after they had ended their event, instead of setting up on our own. We did manage to strike an agreement with them and that saved us from the additional cost as we avoided extending the rental for set up.

Reflection #2 – The Takeaways

Planning Ahead

Given the chance to implement this project again, we will start the planning phase earlier so that we can have more lead time and get everything settled with, hopefully, minimal problems before the start of the event. This would allow us to request for corporate sponsorships before the end of the financial year which will ease the fund raising process. By starting early, we also can have ample time to react to unforeseen situation.