Xu Yimi, 16

School: Yuying Secondary School

Topic: An email to the Head of CCA on an organ donation awareness project

Award: Merit, Senior Category, 2023

Dear Mr Wong,

I am Xu Yimi, the chairperson of the organising committee for the project that aims to raise students’ awareness on organ donation and transplantation. Over the past few weeks, the organising committee and I conducted thorough research and we have finally developed a plan that in our opinion best helps us to achieve the aim for this project. I am delighted to present this proposal to you and explain our execution plan in detail.

The project idea that we have come up with is a debate competition. Debating is a highly captivating activity that involves extensive discussions and exchanges of opinions. Through debating, students are able to share their unique thoughts and view issues from a variety of perspectives. This allows them to foster deep understanding in organ donation and transplantation and develop interests in this area. Moreover, an activity must be thrilling enough to attract a large number of participants so that the aim of raising awareness can be achieved. Debating is an interesting and exhilarating process as debaters “argue” with each other to prove their points. Students will be easily engaged in this activity and naturally compelled to explore further into organ donation and transplantation.

We plan to execute the project as the following. A debate lesson will first be conducted by the students’ respective English teachers during a Character and Citizenship Education (CCE) period, for the consideration that most students might not have prior experience in debating. The teachers shall prepare them for the competition by introducing the basic rules and skills of debating. This shall be followed by a presentation by an expert on organ donation and transplantation, to provide students with abundant contextual knowledge to form their own opinions for the debates. Thus, I suggest that we should collaborate with an organisation such as the National Organ Transplant Unit to seek support on the matters of funds and invitation of experts. These two lessons shall be compulsory for all students.

After familiarising themselves with the fundamentals of the debate competition, students can now sign up to be a participant voluntarily. There must be 16 participants in each class divided into four teams of four members each. The competition is divided into preliminary rounds, quarter-final round, semi-final round, and the final round. There is also a consolation match and a showcase round.

It would be greatly appreciated if two entire school days could be allocated for the competition to be held. However, we completely understand if this cannot be accommodated. If that is the case, at least five CCE periods will be required, since each debate round takes about 20 minutes. The debate topics are also still in the process of discussion. So far we have come up with some ideas, such as “Can social media make a positive impact on organ donation?” and “Should people, whose lifestyle choices (smoking, drinking, drug use, obesity, etc.) have damaged their organs, be given a chance at an organ transplant?” During our research, we noticed many ethical controversies regarding organ donations in the society and we are excited to bring them into our debate competition. It would be very interesting to hear different perspectives from students regarding these issues. This would train the students’ critical thinking skills and to encourage them to delve deeper. As the topics are the most important component of this debate competition, we would like to seek your and other teachers’ advice before finalising them.

I would like to thank the school for providing us this opportunity to understand more about organ donation and transplantation. When I mentioned organ donation to my schoolmates, many of them had the misconception that donating an organ was damaging to your body and can be life-threatening, some also think that it would interfere with funeral arrangements. Their limited understanding of this area was shocking and scary at the same time. The number of organs available for transplantation nowadays is extremely scarce and over 104,000 people in this world are desperately waiting for them every single day as their lives depend on them. However, this issue has not been taken seriously enough by this society as it is rarely discussed by the public. People’s indifference and misunderstanding makes the chance for these 104,000 people to survive lower and lower. I feel honoured to be able to plan this project to do something for this world. Hopefully our project can make a difference by effectively raising awareness among our students, and save lives.

I am also sincerely grateful for the school’s recognition in appointing me as a member of the organising committee. I have to admit that it is not an easy process to finalise our project idea and execution plan. Initially, we all had different ideas and opinions, so we had to evaluate each idea and eliminate those that were not feasible, which led to frustration among the committee members. Hence, we took time to communicate and eventually we were able to come up with a plan that everyone agreed on. This experience is immensely meaningful to me as I have had the chance to train my communication and leadership skills and learned how to work in a team effectively.

Please provide us honest feedback and point out any improvements we can make. If the information provided above is not sufficiently clear, I have attached a document that provides a description of the debate competition rules for your reference. Once again, thank you very much for this opportunity offered to us, we will continue to work hard to ensure the project is executed successfully. We eagerly anticipate the commencement of this project!

Best regards,
Xu Yimi

Disclaimer: Please note that the views and opinions expressed in the essays for the Live On Festival 2023 are those of the participants and are not endorsed by the National Organ Transplant Unit (Ministry of Health). To learn more about organ donation and organ transplantation in Singapore, please visit www.liveon.gov.sg