In River Valley Corps, we seek to empower our cadet with the adequate skills and knowledge for them to become effective First Aiders. They are taught to deal with a variety of injuries, such as fractures, bleedings, and cardiac arrest. Flexible thinking is a integral part of our training, as accidents can happen anywhere, anytime. Rather than repeating the same set of actions over and over in a classroom setting, our teachings are often done using case simulations, where members are put to the test by being First Aiders in simulated accidents.
In River Valley Corps, we make it a point to send our members for professional First Aid Courses, no matter the cost. We believe it is of utmost importance that our members are certified First Aiders, armed with the latest knowledge on emergency medical service. We are currently in the midst of getting all our members to be certified with Basic Cardiac Life Support, CPR & AED, as well as Heart Savers Course.
River Valley Corps constantly provides First Aid support at various events in the school and in our community. For instance, we provided First Aid support at the Bukit Timah GRC 55th Anniversary Celebrations last month, where the Prime Minister of Singapore was the Guest of Honour. To be entrusted with such responsibility is testimony of our quality and the publics’ faith in us.
In River Valley Corps, we believe that the process of learning first aid should extend beyond the classroom. Our trainings are centred around the mentality that First Aid, being a practical skill, is something that has to be practised constantly. After equipping our members with the relevant theoretical knowledge, we build up their experience and confidence though case simulation trainings and Public Duties. Currently, we are tying up with SCDF for our members to go for attachments with paramedics and attend courses that will expose them to realistic scenarios.
The quality of our trainings is also reflected in the success we enjoy during competitions. Our Corps has performed consistently well in competitions. Always a strong contender in the annual Inter-Corps First Aid Competition, River Valley Corps has achieved much success, proving ourselves to be a quality Corps. In addition, River Valley Corps has represented Zone 9 in the annual Inter-Zone First Aid Competition ever since the competition was introduced.
Foot Drill
Foot Drill is what we do in River Valley Corps to cultivate discipline in our cadets. Quoting from a book titled Our Army - Customs and Traditions, “Discipline means inner strength, control, mental stamina, physical toughness and perseverance.” These are the same values we wish to imbue in our members, as we inculcate respect for authority, the importance of maintaining strict turnout and bearing, as well as fastidiousness in members following instructions.
To date, River Valley Corps has performed well in Footdrill Competitions at the Zone level. The members often take time out of their busy academic schedules to come together for practice, and the seniors, too, commit themselves to guide their juniors along. It is the long hours of training that our members are willing to put in that ultimately made the Corps proud.
On top of the achievements in Foot Drill Competition, our members have had a handful of rare opportunities as well, such as making up the drill squad to showcase the new standardised drill procedure when it was introduced in 2004. This year, our Corps was given the honorable task of performing Fancy Drill at the Heart2Heart Carnival, a first in the history of St John Ambulance Brigade that Fancy Drill is displayed to the public. Our cadets did exceptionally well, earning nothing but praises from all who have seen the performance, either ‘live’ or from video.
Foot Drill requires the utmost concentration and coordination among members, and it takes the concerted effort as well as unfailing commitment of every member in order to present a good drill. While many do not realize it, it is actually a team-building activity that we carry out during every CCA session.
In River Valley Corps, we believe drill standards reflect our member’s discipline, skill and unity, but more importantly, we recognize that maintaining high drill standards amongst other uniformed groups and CCA’s in the school which are just as outstanding creates a sense of identity for our cadets. This is what we seek to achieve for the Corps.
Our excellence in drill has showed in competitions, where our cadets consistently do the Corps proud. For the members, nothing short of a Champion will do. This is not because they are forced to win by seniors and officers; no River Valley Corps members can stand seeing the Champions title being won by another Corps. Members fight for themselves, for their seniors, for the juniors, for the pride of the Corps.
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Home Nursing
River Valley St John Ambulance Brigade has been educating both our Nursing and Ambulance cadets on home nursing knowledge and skills since we’ve started in the 1960s. In home nursing, cadets learn to prepare beds, look after patients, bathe patients, take temperature the proper way, dress wounds, feed the patients and give medicines to patients.
Up till the 1980s, cadets had to attend Nursing courses for to ensure that their knowledge is constantly up-to-date. This has allowed both our cadets and officers to offer their help to the poorer elderly in nursing homes and other underprivileged. To this day, though the Ambulance cadets are less specialized in this area of home nursing, the knowledge and skills of home nursing are still religiously and conscientiously passed down from seniors to juniors. Cadets now also attend the Home Nursing courses usually during the NCO Courses organized by the Zone to ensure that they are constantly ready to put their knowledge to practice.
Our cadets also participate in annual nursing attachments where they will be attached to a certain hospital, usually Changi Hospital. During their stint at the hospital, members get to apply their knowledge, taking care of the patients in the hospital under the guidance of staff nurses. Hospital attachments are always a highlight of one’s SJAB life, and the experience is something that stays with the members. In the 1960s-70s, we’ve had nursing members regularly providing assistance at General Hospital (Singapore General Hospital) and the Chinese Hospital in Serangoon Road, on Saturdays and Sundays.
In making our cadets’ nursing experience more wholesome, members participate in Inter-Corps First Aid and Home Nursing Competitions and also Inter-Zone First Aid and Home Nursing Competitions. Through these competitions, nursing knowledge is exchanged through competitors and our cadets also get a chance to put their knowledge to test! In the 1980s-90s, River Valley Corps has been winning titles for the Home Nursing Category at both levels of competition
Transportation of Casualty
We train our ambulance cadets to transport injured and disabled personnel expediently from a danger zone to safer grounds, where first aid could be administered, through what we call Transportation of Casualty (TOC). This includes an additional set of essential skills comprising of various transportation methods, which can be categorised into those that require the use of stretcher, human transportation techniques, as well as improvised methods of transportation.
Through our TOC trainings, our cadets are taught how to manoeuvre themselves as a team of 4 with a stretcher to get from the accident scene to the ambulance, navigating through obstacles in the process. Members are able to safety, securely and quickly get through the obstacles in the most efficient manner.
In addition to TOC with stretcher, members are also taught human transportation methods, where they learn the transport casualties with only their hands, in times where no stretchers are available. The fore-and-aft, Human Crutch, Cradle and Arm Chair are just some of the methods that our members are familiar with. In many public duty events, they are tasked upon to be on red alert, evacuating any casualty from the scene if necessary. For example, our members are heavily involved in our annual cross-country event, where large numbers of casualties are usually expected. In the cross country event two years ago for example, our members transport and arranged for immediate disposal to hospital for a casualty suffering from heat stroke.
Welfare
The River Valley St John Welfare Department started off in the 1960s as the Social and Recreation Department. Apart from the usual excursions and basketball matches they had, the highlight in the 1960s-1970s would be their Annual Picnic which took place at venues like the Kampong Tengah Holiday Camp site, Ponggol Beach, Changi Beach and more! Basketball matches were a hit at that time, and cadets would even participate in matches again other divisions.
Over the years, our Welfare department has evolved to form an integral part of the Corps. Each year, the Welfare department organizes several key events in the Corps, such as the Amazing Race which is a Zone event, Leisure Camp and Sec 1 Orientation. These are events that have grown to become a Corps tradition, something that the members look forward to each year.
The annual Amazing Race has proven to be a huge success, with great responses from members and other Corps who took part in our past Amazing Races. One special feature about our Amazing Race is that it is never boring - innovation is key when it comes to organizing the Amazing Race. In its 1st year of introduction, the event was held in Orchard. Since then, we have held the event in different locations like Sentosa and the Central Business District, with different themes. For Amazing Race 2010, it was centred around the concept of Monopoly.
Since the Leisure Camp was introduced in 2008, cadets have been able to mingle across batches, and engage in many activities and games where they get to learn more about one another. The Leisure Camp was introduced with the purpose of bringing different batches closer to one another through team-building activities, and to leave our cadets with an unique experience that is irreplaceable. Ask any of the members who have went through the Leisure Camp, and I’m sure they will tell you about the times where they stayed up to watch the sunrise, the awesome campfire, the wonderful memories of sitting around, chatting with friends, and enjoying the sea breeze..
Through our Welfare activities, we strive to inculcate a spirit of Camaraderie in the Corps. At the end of their 4 years in the Corps, we hope for our cadets to look back and think, ‘that is my family’.
CIP
In 2008, the CIP Department was officially set up in the committee structure. The launch of this department was a milestone, signalling our intent to focus more on the Service of Mankind. While CIP was already an integral part of our core activities, we felt that this movement was essential to draw up a new committee so we can have a focused and sustained efforts in giving back to our community, rather than the ad-hoc projects organised in the past. It is our belief that in order to truly make a positive impact on the society, a dedicated effort was needed, with attention focused on such an area. Thus, this department was born.
Though this department is young, it has had an impressive list of activities organised so far. We have partnered with several external organisations and also organised projects on our own. For example, in 2009, 15 of our members volunteered their services at Loving Hearts Multi-service Centre for half a year, providing free tuition for the primary school kids around the area. It was an enriching experience for the members and most of the students have seen marked improvements in their results.
During the end of 2009, we also tied up with City Care to organise a christmas celebration event for the beneficiaries affiliated with them. As part of our sustained efforts to give back to the community, we are currently finalizing plans with them to volunteer on a long term basis. In addition to all these, plans have also been made to embark on an overseas CIP to Cambodia, heading a project under Operation Hope Foundation. The overseas expedition is projected to take place in the year 2011.
At the beginning of 2010, the corps also organised an old item collection in Hougang, partnering with Sembcorp in our efforts to promote environmental friendliness. Our members went around the blocks distributing flyers informing residents of our old item collection during the Chinese New Year period. On the actual day, we went around the blocks collecting the old items the residents generously gave us. Though it was a tiring day, the event proved to be a huge success as we managed to collect more than 1000kg worth of recyclable items, which would otherwise have been discarded.
The corps also actively took part in the Heart-to-Heart project organised by NHQ. The Heart-to-Heart event was a collaboration between SJAB and Singapore Heart Foundation with the aim of promoting awareness for heart related diseases, emphasizing the importance of learning CPR and AED, as well as to raise funds for the 2 organisations. Our members put their heart and soul into this event, committing much time and energy for this project. Their efforts were not wasted as River Valley Corps obtained the highest sales figure in Zone 9.
Our dedication to the Service of Mankind is encapsulated in our Corps Vision, where we seek to be Leaders for the Society.
