[This is a sponsored article with Visa.]
COVID-19 has become a distant memory for most, but some Singaporeans are still fighting to solve social issues that were amplified by the pandemic, five years on.
KampungKakis, a homegrown non-profit organisation (NGO), is one such entity that started from one of the founders’ experiences of being warded in the National University Hospital after testing positive for the virus.
Mae Tan had just returned to Singapore from New York to escape the coronavirus crisis in the U.S. when she tested positive in March 2020. As she was recuperating in her ward, she noticed the elderly patients in the hospital were having a hard time coping—not just with their recovery, but also with the pandemic’s broader social impacts.
I started to think about how older generations of Singaporeans, especially those staying alone, would react to this new situation—would they be confused, or lonely because they can no longer spend their days at the coffeeshops and senior activity centres? How would they adapt to the online communication the government was using to disseminate critical information, since a lot of seniors aren’t that tech-savvy?
Mae Tan, co-founder of KampungKakis
She pondered these questions long after her discharge, and dwelled on how the mutual support from fellow patients helped her get through the uncertain and trying times.
Mae also saw that same spirit of support in her parents, who often offered to share groceries and meals with their elderly neighbour living alone.
In these interactions, Mae saw a potential solution to the support gap for seniors. Thus, she founded KampungKakis together with long-time friend Denise Tay and Michelle Lau, who was the chairperson of the residents’ committee for Mae’s neighbourhood.
How does it work?
The name ‘KampungKakis’ combines two Malay words: ‘Kampung,’ meaning ‘village,’ and ‘kaki,’ meaning ‘friend.’ It is an online platform that matches seniors with compassionate volunteers, or kakis, from the same neighbourhood, or kampung.
KampungKakis is a proximity-based buddy system for the elderly. According to Mae, seniors are referred to the KampungKakis through various organisations, such as the Silver Generation Office and medical social workers, and volunteers can sign up on their website.
The system would then match volunteer “kakis” with the elderly based on proximity, spoken languages, and the type of assistance or support required.
The organisation will email suitable volunteers with information about the senior, and make a mutual introduction once they accept the match. If the elder was referred by a social or case worker, they will also participate in the introduction.
It might sound simple in theory, but the goal of alleviating social isolation amongst seniors requires sustaining human connection with a large network of seniors and volunteers, which is more complex and resource-intensive when put into practice.
With its current capacity, KampungKakis is focusing on seniors living in Ang Mo Kio, Toa Payoh, Jurong, Boon Lay, and Beach Road.
The reality of running an NGO
The volunteers at KampungKakis assist seniors with essential tasks, including buying groceries, helping them resolve mobile phone technical difficulties and inviting seniors to meals and outings.
“It’s not very prescriptive, the requirements are flexible,” explained Mae, who added that volunteers are encouraged to visit their seniors at least once every two weeks.
“Ultimately, it’s not about checking off a box that you’ve visited them, it’s about making each visit a meaningful one for both parties. So volunteers can visit their seniors at their own time that works for their busy schedule,” she said.
To ensure volunteers are prepared to care for their seniors, KampungKakis provides training to ensure the safety of both the volunteers and the seniors. This includes courses like psychological first aid or volunteer self-care to combat compassion fatigue.
Post-pandemic, a key challenge that has emerged for KampungKakis is retaining volunteers, with the lack of time to volunteer after the pandemic being the biggest obstacle, Mae said.
Managing finances as a young charity
Another hurdle the NGO faced was efficiently managing finances, like fundraising, donations and expenditures. When they first started as a ground-up initiative, Mae and her co-founders manually tracked inflow and outflow in a spreadsheet.
They were also using their personal cards to purchase relevant software and perform other financial transactions. “It was very hard to have an easy view across all cards, and one person had to manually keep track and input that into the spreadsheet,” lamented Mae.
“Running KampungKakis is very much like running a small business. Like any enterprise, we needed to establish robust processes for budgeting, expense management, and accountability, as well as leveraging technology for efficiency.”
To streamline their operations, while maintaining budget oversight and expense controls, KampungKakis implemented Visa’s virtual card solutions across the organisation. This allowed them to create and assign virtual cards to staff members, tagged to a specific purpose along with a preset spending limit.
“[For example], we assigned a Visa virtual card specifically used only for payments on tech and software. So not only are we able to look at everything within a single platform, we have a better expense management process, versus making payments with our personal credit cards and managing claims and reimbursement thereafter,” Mae said.
Using Visa’s business payment solutions provided the team with peace of mind. Not only were they able to keep personal and business expenses separate, but they could also schedule, track and reconcile payments without any lapses.
These seemingly simple improvements have supported KampungKakis’s growth. The charity has since increased its full-time staff strength and leveraged different software providers, which require recurring payments, as it expands its operations.
This upward trajectory also helped diversify the avenues through which they can receive donations, which is imperative for NGOs to continue supporting the causes they champion.
Mae shared that in the past, donors could only donate via PayNow. However, since becoming an official charity, Kampungkakis can now campaign on platforms like Ray of Hope and Giving.SG, where donors can easily make online donations using their Visa cards.
Becoming a more accountable NGO
Looking forward, KampungKakis is working towards building a better system to strengthen its accountability as an NGO. Being a charity requires a strong record of audit and governance, Mae added.
With Visa’s solutions, managing finances has become easier for charities like KampungKakis, allowing them to dedicate time and resources towards their cause of creating a Singapore where no seniors are left behind.
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Featured Image Credit: KampungKakis