CIS Students Run To Stop The Traffik

Community service and outreach is an integral aspect of school life at the Canadian International School (CIS). Each student is taught to recognise they have an important part to play in the world and that not only are they in a unique position to give something back to the community in which they live, but also to communities that lie beyond the boundaries of Singapore.  

Recently, this strong community ethos played a major role in inspiring CIS student Vallesca da Silva to become one of the main leaders in organising last November’s Stop the Traffik run in Singapore. The event - a 24 hour relay race held at Gardens by the Bay - was organised by a team of Singapore international school students to raise funds for charities fighting against human trafficking, one of the world’s fastest growing global crimes.

Vallesca and her team worked tirelessly day and night for six months to organise the event. To secure sponsors and recruit runners and volunteers, they organised talks at various international schools, participated in assemblies, coordinated a mass email campaign to friends and family, and created a dedicated facebook page which a remarkable 1.8K people liked!  All this hard work achieved an incredible outcome: over 230 Singapore international school students participated in the race raising $40,000 for anti-slavery grassroots charities including Freedom Matters, APLE Cambodia and Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation.

“Organising the event was extremely demanding but also a very rewarding experience”, said Vallesca. “It reaffirmed the strong community service spirit ingrained in me since joining CIS in 2001. There is no need to believe that you are just a tiny human being with great intentions but no means to change the world. Instead, with drive and persistence, one can make a difference both on an individual and collective level!”  

To find out more about CIS and the latest activities their students are doing to help make a difference visit www.cis.edu.sg.