Feature Story:

Building Overseas Alliances with Volunteers

Deputy Chief of Mission Herbert W. Schulz, center left, views students at the Jamiyah Islamic Education Center while they practice on donated computers.

olunteers in the tiny island nation of Singapore are projecting an image of Americans as caring world citizens through a program that links community needs with available resources.

Seeing an opportunity in the reservoir of American volunteers, embassy staff and members of the American community in Singapore approached Ambassador Steven Green, a former chief executive officer for Fortune 500 companies, soon after his arrival at post in 1998. He responded by meeting with U.S. executives, individual Americans and local Singapore charities and endorsing a totally new public/private sector program. Called "FriendshipWorks," the program fuses the needs of charitable organizations with the resources of some 1,200 U.S. companies in Singapore and 17,000 Americans living on the island.

The program focused first on strengthening charitable support from the existing American expatriate community. Many Americans in Singapore, especially non-working spouses, seek more involvement in the local community. Additionally, American corporations were exploring ways to build camaraderie among their staffs and foster goodwill within the Singapore community, some through new charitable activities and others through programs already under way with their home offices. Unfortunately, no one program existed to channel their intentions and abilities in Singapore. Enter FriendshipWorks.

Operating under the auspices of the embassy staff, the program became a clearinghouse for linking the resources of the American community with the needs of Singaporean charities. In a short time, FriendshipWorks' volunteers compiled two interactive databases, one to track the scores of local charities and another to record the American community's pledges of assistance.

Formally launched last May, FriendshipWorks made its first match: six United Parcel Service computers and two printers donated to Boys' Town Singapore. By letter, President Clinton applauded the efforts of the embassy staff, volunteers and corporations involved in this charitable initiative.

Since its first success, FriendshipWorks has steadily gained momentum. Under the program's banner, the Singapore American community has provided computers and software to numerous charities, taken orphans to the Singapore Zoo, sent volunteers to visit the elderly, auctioned paintings to support Save the Children, collected clothes and provided books to schools. High-ranking Singapore government officials have praised the initiative, and the Singapore Council of Social Services is cooperating with the volunteers on joint initiatives. In October 1999, the Singapore American Association provided Friendship-Works with a formal office, stationery, discretionary funds and full-time paid staff to answer phone calls and coordinate the efforts of volunteers.

In partnership with the Singapore American School, FriendshipWorks hosted a Thanksgiving dinner last November for some 200 physically disabled, orphaned and elderly indigent Singaporeans from the Chinese, Malay and Indian communities. Singapore President S.R. Nathan, former ambassador to the United States, and his wife were guests of honor.

Meanwhile, Ambassador Green and his wife donned aprons with the heads of the five corporate sponsors and helped students serve hundreds of pounds of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie, President's Nathan's favorite dessert. The school band played jazz and the choir sang while other students videotaped the event and interviewed guests as part of a story for CNN's Students' Bureau.Guests ranged in age from 10 to 80.

FriendshipWorks has built closer ties and better understanding between the American and Muslim communities in Singapore, roughly 14 percent of the nation's population. Orphans and other children from the Jamiyah Islamic Education Center received computers from Edison Mission Energy and children's learning software and school books from private donors. The response to these and other contributions in the Muslim community has been rewarding. Where contact between the two communities was once rare, invitations to Americans to participate in Muslim community events throughout Singapore are now commonplace.

To respond to the needs of all religious and ethnic groups, the embassy and the FriendshipWorks management committee hosted a lunch at the ambassador's residence for 15 leaders of various religious faiths in Singapore. Volunteers learned more about the individual charitable activities and the needs of the various faiths. Religious leaders, meanwhile, discovered the resources available to them.

Chiefs of missions throughout the Southeast Asian region have endorsed the FriendshipWorks concept and are seeking to replicate its success in their host countries. Since many U.S. companies have regional headquarters in Singapore, FriendshipWorks may eventually extend its charitable matchmaking beyond the island nation. Already, volunteers from Singapore are helping to build homes in Cambodia.

The story of FriendshipWorks and Americans abroad reaching out to those in need may never be told in the New York Times, the London Times or even the Straits Times of Singapore, but the lives of scores of people in the island's communities will have been touched by Americans in very significant ways. And the lives of the volunteers themselves will have been enriched as well.

Ambassador Steven J. Green, center, with United Parcel Service International President Ron Wallace, left, and Dominic Kiong, director general of Boys' Town Singapore, look on as students practice on new computers.