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A group of Junior College graduates have found a way to make their holiday a meaningful one.

While waiting for university to start, Isabelle, Kay Ting, Reyna, and Swetha decided to give back to the community.

The friends took inspiration from the current crocheting trend, putting their idle hands to work by crocheting items to raise money for charity.

They successfully pitched this initiative, titled Project Juntos, to Youth For Causes (YFC), who helped link them up with Singapore Cancer Society (SCS) as a beneficiary.

"It was an intersection between our love for crocheting and the arts, as well as our desire to serve the community," Kay Ting said.

The girls never expected a simple passion project to become this big.

Project Juntos

Project Juntos got its name from the Spanish word for "together".

It celebrates the communal spirit of a campaign that set out to help others in the fight against cancer.

"We want to let [cancer survivors] know that they are not alone in their journey," said Isabelle.

The project currently has a network of around 50 volunteers who have signed up, including the girls' friends and family as well as members of the public who learned about it through word of mouth or social media.

Volunteers sacrifice their time and labour to create vibrant accessories and trinkets sold by Project Juntos.

For those who are less experienced in the art, the founders of Project Juntos hold workshops for more professional crocheters to share their skills, some of which will be happening at Matchbox, Mothership's creative space.

The four girls even managed to get Edwin Goh and Rachel Wan, Singaporean actors and avid crocheters, to run one workshop.

Managing responsibilities

With the project fast gaining traction, Kay Ting admitted that it was hard to juggle volunteering and their respective "nine to six" jobs.

"I'm not gonna lie, I feel that it's a bit stressful now that we've kickstarted and are knee-deep into the project. There's so much admin work like handling volunteers and social media accounts and making sure everything is on track. Not to mention crocheting which takes a lot of time."

The determined 19-year-olds get by with proper time management, division of labour, and the good will of other volunteers.

Reyna and Isabelle, who serve as social media executives, often enlist the help of artistic friends to take care of the graphic design for their Instagram posts.

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Volunteer-wise, Kay Ting and Swetha are in charge of allocating the work and make sure nobody gets "too overwhelmed".

Despite the inherent stresses of the project, the four friends are driven by a shared mission.

"We start thinking about the personal experiences we've had with people who have struggled with cancer, and the fact that we're actually helping them in our free time helps pull us through."

All too aware of their looming deadline in August, which marks the start of their busy lives as undergraduates, the girls hope to be able to find time to continue on their passion project, or else find successors to carry on their legacy.

Selling hats, bags, and more

When asked how much they aimed to raise, Kay Ting remarked that they didn't want to shoot for the moon, more so considering the project was only expected to run for about three months from its inception on May. 27 till the commencement of university in August 2023.

"I would say for now it ranges from S$3,000 to S$5,000 because we really don't want to be too unrealistic. I think that's a decent and average goal to have for most YFC projects now."

The girls had a seed funding of S$1,200 which they "haven't touched yet", but feel that they would have to for future volunteer events.

"In any case," the 19-year-old said, "We're trying to cut down on costs [such as getting volunteers to use their own yarn] so we can have a greater profit margin and price our products more affordably."

Project Juntos' crocheted items range from around S$3.50 to S$80, depending on what catches your eye.

There are cute tote bags priced around S$60 to S$80.

And cheerful bucket hats that cost about S$30 to S$35.

Also smaller novelties like cuddly marine life and coasters.

Pre-orders open soon.

Interested customers can order through Google Forms on Project Juntos' Instagram, where links to volunteer or donate can also be found.

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All images from Project Juntos and Ki.Li.O Art