ALIVE! Program
WHY ALIVE?
Generation ACTS Club International’s (GACI) ALIVE! is two- to four-year “build and educate” program that it implements together with its partners in overseas countries following its “building up, doing good, giving away” aspects of its mission Sharing Life, Living Life, Investing Life. Singaporeans have been blessed with a stable government, good education and ample personal development opportunity. GACI believes that the blessings it has received has to be shared with others who do not have the same privilege and access as we do to them. With so simple a desire, the club has embarked on ALIVE! in several countries so far, starting from Peru, to Cambodia, Indonesia, and lately, Myanmar.
WHAT IS ALIVE!?
GACI executes ALIVE! jointly with a local host entity of an overseas country that meets the conditions set by ALIVE!. Once a local entity is chosen by the GACI Executive Committee, ACTSpeditions teams will be formed to bring the program through its phases.
ALIVE! comprises three phases – the “building-up” phase, the “doing-good” phase and the “giving-away” phase.
Phase 1 – the “building-up” phase – is where groups of ACTSpeditions teams make trips into the country and together with our local host, build up the physical infrastructure of a location to house our education project. Like in our mission of Sharing Life, this phase about sharing our resources, and could include from building up classrooms to refurbishments and repairs, to resourcing the classrooms with school supplies. In other words, the objective of Phase 1 is to create an education-centre-ready environment. Depending on local conditions, this phase may last six to eight months and involve several volunteer teams.
Phase 2 – the “doing-good” phase – is where GACI implements two of its education projects – Youth ALIVE! (YA!) and Kids ALIVE! (KA!). Depending on the needs and make-up of its partnering host organization, specialized ACTSpeditions teams will work together to set up the appropriate project in collaboration with the host. GACI’s YA! And KA! Committees will guide these ACTSpeditions teams and will also make separate trips throughout this phase to ensure the local organization gains fully from our KA! and YA! concepts implemented within the local context. Like our Living Life aspect of our mission, we hope to our educational projects of KA! and YA! can help our partners live their life to the fullest. This phase is the most challenging phase as local and cultural conditions have to be taken into account, and our club’s project concepts appropriately fine-tuned to meet them. Depending on the local environment, this phase can last six months to a year.
Phase 3 – “the giving away” phase – is where GACI gives away the entire operations and concepts to the local host organization. GACI does not believe in copyrighting its ideas and program concepts, especially when it is about giving to those in need. As Investing Life in our mission, we hope that this phase of investing by giving away will encourage and inspire our partners to also take up the mantle of investing their lives into their country. Hence, to us, this phase brings great joy to our club as it means we have succeeded in localizing our projects, and training successors who can run them without us, and most of all, creating an opportunity for others to “pay-it-forward”. Naturally, our club will still maintain links and close ties with the “inheritors” of our projects, as close friends with a common vision of helping others should. So, in a sense, this phase is on-going and never-ending.
WHY ALIVE?
The ALIVE! Programme is a local community programme that was birthed to see our youth cultivate good values as they SHARE their lives with others in the community; LIVE their lives to the fullest of their potential; and eventually, to be able to INVEST their lives into the lives of others less fortunate than themselves.
The three values of sharing, living and investing lives are in alignment with what our club believes in. The distinct difference between ALIVE! and other community programmes is that ALIVE! is a continuous one year programme with a group of youth, divided into three different phases: Share It!, Live It! And Invest It! ALIVE! does not aim at building surface or ‘touch and go’ kind of impact with the youth we are working with. It is our hope and commitment that continuous interaction with the youth ensures close and consistent bonding with the volunteers. This would facilitate in the effectiveness of the youth in acquiring new skills and knowledge that would aid in developing their fullest.