Uni-y NTU ISP

Visit to killing field & Genocide Museum

Our trip begin off in Phnom Penh with visitation first on the list. Participants were brought around to visit the killing field and Genocide Museum. This allowed participants  to have basic knowledge on the culture and history of the cambodians they are about to serve. It also acts as a buffer for participants to adapt to the climate and to experience the differences of the culture or environment that they will expect to come.

Service at Srok Primary School

Following the visitation in Phnom Penh, we journey to our main service site Srok Village, Kampong Cham, which is about 4-5 hours away from Phnom Penh. Service at Srok Village was a routine work of teaching and construction. The team will have to teach 2 hours in the morning, and 2 hours in the afternoon, while the rest of the service time was spent on construction. As six classes (Grade 1 to 6) had to be conducted at each point in time, the group were divided into 6 small groups 5 each to be allocated to one classroom. On a daily basis, service lasted from 0900-1800hrs. Participants were given time to prepare for their lessons each day. In addition, facilitation/debriefing such as sharing, “angel and mortal” and “pigeon hole” were conducted every night by the leaders. This allows participants to learn from each other experience, gain valuable feedback and encourage one another to walk this journey together.

Teaching in the school

In their groups of 2 to 3, participants were given the task to teach English using the lesson plans that we planned and the worksheet that we had printed for the children to do. At the beginning, different groups experienced different problems; such as unable to complete their lessons for the lower primary classes due to the different English standards across the classes, and most of them found it a challenge to express and put across their lesson to the children due to the language barrier.

However, with facilitation done every night, it allowed participants to share and gain knowledge on how to improve themselves. They managed to adjust the lesson plans to suit the need of their own classes. They also overcome the language barrier by engaging the teacher to help them, by using more drawings as well as learning the basic Khmer phrases such as asking them to write the lesson taught in their book. They also get students to participate by asking them to volunteer to come to the board to write down / recap what they had learnt. To ensure that the students understood what they have taught, worksheets were given out and participants took the effort and time to checked on every student’s work and correct them if necessary.

During one of the lessons, the team decided to bring across the important of hygiene, hence we incorporarted a hygiene lesson as one of our lesson. The team bought hand soap and pails, where we washed the hands of every single students, and taught them the proper steps of washing hands.

Construction

With regards to infrastructure, we was tasked to paint the new build secondary school and to paint murals on the wall of the new secondary school. The building of the new secondary school was an initiative spear headed by a Catholic church in Kampong Cham and YMCA. It was built to help the children in Srok Village to further educate themselves, as children in Srok usually stops their education level at primary school, as the nearest secondary school was about 2 hours away, and the road to the school was not well-established. Majority of the participants are doing painting for the first time, and it allows participants to step out of their comfort zone to serve in other different ways. Safety was ensured with participants assigned with different tasks such as safety officer. Wearing of pants, gloves and covered shoes were also mandatory to reduce physical injuries. Masks were provided as well when the dust got thick and unhealthy.

The team came out with two mural designs, being the life cycle of a plant and hygience education, which the principal was very pleased with the two designs, and requested us to paint both design on the wall as he could not decide on one. Hence, we splitted the group equally into two teams to draw and paint the two different murals, each team being led by a participant that volunteer to step up. The painting of the murals allows participant to find the strengths of each other, where some are better in drawing and some are good in mixing of colours. It also allows participants to build their confident, as most of them was reluctant to do it, as they are not confident in drawing and painting. The team encourages one another, and affirm each other work to help build the confident of one another, and also discovers a talent that they never think they could ever do it.

Rice – Soup Programme

Rice soup programme was held on the 5^th day of service, where we travel out to Kampong Cham from our main service site, Srok Village. Kampong Cham is the nearest city from Srok Village, which takes an hour to reach Kampong Cham. This programme is organised by the local church to feed those who have no means of supporting themselves around the outskirts of the city.

Our team first headed to a cooking school own by the church, which teach baking skills to the underpriviledge children. The team has to prepared 200 sets of sandwiches for the children. The team was divided into two teams, where one team was incharge to fry the eggs and sauages using the charcoal stoves, and the other team to pack the sandwiches.

When the sandwiches were ready, we went to the church which is two doors away, and we started preparing for the Christmas carnival prepare for the children, where we set up 9 stations and the children will rotated among the different stations in their groups.

The carnival started with performance from the different outskirts or village which they have prepared, and in return we perform the song “Home”. The booth started after all the performances.

Having 9 stations, with a team of 14, resulted in each station having only 1-2 people to manage. The shortage of manpower resulted in crowd control issues, even though we have assigned to crowd control in-charge. The station master could not take control of their own station as they have to look out for the games and the crowd. The station master could not get the children to queue in an orderly manner was partly due to langauge barrier as well, resulting in children trying to snatch the ball, so as to be able to play. We also realise that as the group size differs, and the time to play each games differ, rotating in group creates crowding in one station or more.

After the stations, the children will gather together again to close the carnival. We gave out the goodies bag that we prepared which contains items like oats biscuit, pens and pencils to them individually. After giving out the goodies bag, we gave out the sandwiches and fruit juice to the children by their village or group.

After the carnival ended, we proceed to the Boys Center, which is a hostel for students coming from the ourtskirts or mountains that comes to Kampong Cham to study. They also provided them simple education for them to be able to catch up with the other students in school.

The girls from the girl center also joins us together with the boys for dinner. The team will splitted into 7 different tables, with 2 participant sitting at each table. This allows us to stay out of our comfort zone where we are placed around people that we are familiar. The participants have to take the initiative to start the conversation with the boys and girls. Some of the participant faces challenges as they are shy to start a conversation, or they do not know which topic to bring out to keep the conversation going, and some of us have to deal with the language barrier, as not all the boys and girls are able to speak simple english. This small dinner interaction allows the participant to build on their inter-personal skills, and communications skills where they have to socialise and bring their points across simply, so that the other party could understand them.

Christmas carnival

We held another christmas carnival this time round at the main site for Srok Primary School on our last day of service which is double the scale for about 450 children. With the learning points from the first Christmas carnival held for the Rice – Soup Programme children, we decided to make some changes to the carnival.

Based on the different feedback that each team member gave, we have decided to cut down the number of stations from 9 to 8, so that we have more people to station at other stations that faces crowd control issues. We have also decided to simplify some games, so that we are able to convey the game to them easily, and to faster the process, so that more students will be able to play the games. We have also abolished the rotation basis by group, and let the studdents to o free an easy.

With the changes made, the christmas carnival went smoothly, and we have better control over the crowd, as we have the teachers to help us too. After the games, we gathered everyone together, and the team have perform 2 songs being “Home” and “Santa Claus is coming to town”.

We handled out the gifts that we wanted to give to the school, and also inddividual goodie bags to each students, where the goodie bags contain items like food, colour pencils, pens, sharperner and more. We bid our farewell with the students and this touching moment have let the team realise that their service this few days, have managed to leave a memory with the Cambodia students.

Angkor Archaeological Temples & Old Market

Our trip ends off in Siem Reap with visitation to Angkor Archeological Temples and the old market. This allowed participants to see both the up and down of Cambodia, as compared to the visitation of the first day at Phnom Penh. Ending the trip to Angkor Wat allows the participant to better appreciate the culture of Cambodia, after serving the community in Cambodia for two weeks.

Testimonials

Cherminn Teo

The ISP trip to Cambodia was indeed an eye opening experience for me because this is my first time participating in overseas voluntary project. The reason why I joined this trip was to actually learn something from it, to recognize what I can do and also what I should improve on as a volunteer in order to contribute help efficiently in all kinds of voluntary projects. I have fulfilled this objective of mine during the trip.

 What I have learnt from this trip?

 1)  I am able to communicate better with children despite the language barrier.

2)  I have recognized an additional strength of myself, and that is being adaptable to the environment.

3)  The tours regarding histories of Cambodia (E.g. killing fields and also the visits to several temples) allow me to have a better understanding of the culture in Cambodia.

4) I find that all events that took place in Cambodia very meaningful and the time was wisely spent.

I really enjoyed every bit of event that took place. I enjoyed working with people in the ISP team, to raise funds during the pre-trip and also the bonding session with everyone in the team.

Lastly, I am very thankful for this opportunity to participate in such a meaningful project trip. I believe that this trip has ‘trained’ me to be a better volunteer to contribute for the society in future.

Muhamad Fadhli

Srok village gave me an insight into what life is like living away from everything. It’s a refreshing experience where you are completely oblivious to events happening around the world such as the hostage situation in Sydney, developments of ISIS and many more. It’s not particularly bad per se. Back in Singapore, we are taught to always be in touch with the current events so that we are always aware of the global trends which can be useful for interviews and eventually for work. Every day is information overload be it studying in academic intuitions to the constant influence by the mass media which is literally all around.

However, all of these don’t apply here in Srok village. Globalisation has barely made an impact. You will only see an occasional motorbike of which most are very run down. Their electric source are from car batteries mostly used only for lighting at night because I assume it is more convenient and brighter than a traditional fire. Besides that, they barely have any other electrical appliances. Maybe some household do have the luxury of a DVD player and a small television. Even so, the DVDs have such a poor illustration on its cover to the point that I thought I was in the 1990s.

Being forcefully deprived of social media, I felt time pass by very slowly. I learnt to let go the urge to constantly be updated on what your friends are doing, what is the most trending news, what is happening around the world.  At first, it gave me a sense of helplessness but later followed by a sense of peace. It sounds cliché but I realised that everyone in the village go about their daily lives not giving any thought to this. They are mostly contented with their life as it is. Their smiles are as big as ours.

I am not sure where I am going with this but if there is something that I take away from this experience in Srok village, Cambodia is that living the simple life is not bad at all. All you literally need is your loved ones. No 21^st century gadgets, no form of electrical entertainment. And that is why spending time with the kids and my team was the most memorable. Stripped away from everything else, I enjoy human interaction much more.

The kids never fail to make me smile. Interacting with them is a whole new experience especially with the language barrier. Nevertheless, that didn’t totally hinder us from interacting. They have so much less from what I had as a child but at the same time so much more. How I wish I could ask them what are their aspirations, what they like, what they hate. Unfortunately, at the end of the trip, no matter how close we are to the kids, we are just transient characters in their life. We do what we can there then continue back to our own lives and they continue on back to their own.

I realise that the most important part and also what I treasure most are the other human interaction there, which was with the team. The sharing session under the mosquito net at night, lying down looking at stars, walking around the villages for hours. All these happened with no one constantly glancing at their phone except when taking photos.  That is something you rarely get back in Singapore. The bonds forge are a little different, to a certain extent it felt more sincere, more open. It is these bonds that we will carry back when we go home.

Sarah Lim

Through this trip, I have gained so much invaluable and heart-warming experiences that cannot be compared to the other overseas immersion trips I have been to. It was indeed the most impactful social service I have done so far as it was not just about helping the needs of the villagers financially, it is also about bringing out the genuine smiles of all the children as we taught them English lessons and adapt with their lifestyle.

Perhaps, the biggest take home was really what I have learnt from the villagers, is to truly gain insights and appreciate much more the convenience and economy success of what we have here in Singapore. It has been the most emotionally rewarding trip thus far.

 The team would like to thank all sponsors, village chief of Srok village, NTU and YMCA. The trip would not have been possible without all of them.

Service Programme at Dumpsite

The team’s first activity in Philippines was a visit to a Dumpsite in Pangasinan. The families whose home is the dumpsite, survived by selling scraps that they picked from the rubbish dumps. However, they often suffered from cuts by the glass shreds embedded in the rubbish. Therefore, the team brought Crocs shoes and bandages that were given by sponsors.The team also brought welfare packs to bless the families staying at the dumpsite. These welfare packs contained biscuits, food items and soft toys which were all obtained through donations in Singapore.

Water tank project

In the period of May-June, it is the hottest period in Anda, Philippines. During this time, the village wells will dry up. Without their main source of water, the village would have to buy water from other villages. Therefore, the construction of the water tank aims to solve this problem. Although the water tank will not be able to serve the entire village, we all agreed it was a good start.

Soccer Clinic with the local school

Basketball is a common sport that most Filipinos play. However, they have very little knowledge about the game, soccer. Therefore, the team decided to conduct soccer clinics to spark the interest of the children. The team taught the children simple drills and rules of the game. We also brought over soccer balls that were sponsored and left it with the school so that the children can continue playing.

Home stay with the locals

The team was divided into groups of 2 to stay with a local family for 2 days 1 night. The team was briefed on the objective of this activity. They were encouraged to immerse themselves into the culture and lifestyle of the locals. As Filipinos are predominantly Christians, the team was also encouraged to attend church with the families. This activity left a positive impression on the entire team.

Friendship games and feeding Programme

Together with the Filipino volunteers, the team prepared snacks and drinks to distribute to the children in the village. During the feeding program, we played childhood games like Hopscotch, Eagle & chicks, Piñata, Straw relay and sack race.

Singapore Food Festival

As a form of cultural exchange with the Filipinos, the team planned a dinner which consists of local delicacies. The team prepared Bak Kut Teh, Chicken rice and Tang yuan for the Filipino volunteers. The team also sang local songs like “Home” during the dinner.

Closing ceremony and campfire night

The team planned a multi-racial dance performance for the closing ceremony. During this performance, 8 members showcased the Chinese, Malay and Indian Costume while performing a 30 sec dance item. The remaining team members performed the cup song together with the children from the village in a mass performance.

Educational tour to salt farm and mangroves planting

Together with the Filipinos, the team visited the salt farm to learn more about the agricultural practices of the locals. We also visited the mangroves to learn more about the mangrove conservation project organised by the government. During the mangrove visit, the team helped remove weeds that were impeding the growth of the mangroves.

Testimonials

HUIMIN

I wanted to join this trip initially  to learn grow discover and most importantly make a difference so that I will spend this summer holiday meaningfully. I understand that there is very little we can do in a short span of just 2 weeks and that we could be more of a burden than help due to our lack of skills or expertise in certain area like construction. However, we had all strive to contribute as much as we can and do things within our means. For things that we do not know how to do we learn so that we can provide our service and contributions. The things we do may be as simple as teaching the kids soccer, playing with them, participating in feeding programmes, however I feel that we did made an impact no matter how small or big. As someone once said we all feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean will be less because of that missing drops. We all had played our part and most of us had even gone beyond our roles to do extra. I had really learned a lot throughout this trip.

The first impact the trip has on me is when we visit the dumpsite. I was stunned as I had never seen so many flies before in my whole life. The kids there have left a huge impression on me as well. They are very happy, full of love and open. The community there is also very tightly bonded. The older kids will take care of the younger kids and I remember one kid bringing me to another family and she saw the 2-3yr old kid crying she told me that is her baby and she  carry the kid up and hold her in her arms. It was really heart-warming that they were happy and had so much love for each other but at the same time it was heart-breaking that they are living in such poor conditions. I strongly believe that education is the solutions for these kids for them to break out of the poverty cycle and I am glad that some of the kids are going to school once the school term starts.

The second impact the trip has on me is the killing of the goat. I was shocked when they told us to witness the killing of the goat. I didn’t really see much as my view was quite blocked but I still see the blood gushing out of the goat and I could hear the crying of the goat. It is the first time I hear a goat cry. Then Sir Marvin explained to us why they do that. I remember him saying that the purpose of the goat for now is to sacrifice for us. It will become part of us when we eat it and it will extend our life. It really inspired me to do something meaningful with my life from now onwards as my life is extended by all these sacrifices, so I cannot waste it and need to make the sacrifices worthwhile.

Throughout the programmes and activities I had also learnt to be more appreciative and to be more open to people by taking the first step to reach out to them because on the first day at YMCA Pangasinan during dinner, all the Filipino Campers took the initiative to talk to us and sit at our table but none of the Singaporeans do that. I had also break free from the reserved culture of Singapore and join them in their singing and dancing. It had showed me a different way of life. It had made me realised how all the small simple things could bring so much enjoyment. It also taught me to really connect with the people who are around me there and then as the lack of wifi connection there has forced us to ditched our phones aside and really bond with those people around us.

MARCUS

A change that I made is definitely using less water than before! Hope that all is well for you too. Yeah, I got to admit Singapore is pretty awesome.

Before the trip, during the first meeting, we were asked to record down our aims for the trip. And I recall mine was something like.. to experience and visit the Philippines. I cannot remember if I wrote anything more! After that I felt kind of guilty because I saw the objectives as what I seek to gain, and not what I seek to give. Something like “Bringing smiles/cheers” was very inspirational.

For this trip, being the prologs co IC, I got to admit it was a giant mess before we went. We did not know much about what was going to happen, hence I saw little point in planning to the most minute detail. Also, being a graduating student, the mindset just was not right before the trip. It felt more like a relaxation trip rather than an extension of the rigour during academic term. Think that explained why I was very slack regarding many things. But I did meet 2 capable girls to attempt cooking chicken rice, and met the team to do a dry run of the activities. Though it is called a dry run, but I think it was much more of a bonding session, where we got to know each other better. Truth be told, I felt that we do not have enough time during regular meetings to become closer. It is normal though, as it is expected the trip is the biggest bonding session.

For this trip, I met many people special. However, my homestay brother, Jeremy, left a very deep impression on me. He is younger than me, but he felt like an older brother. From the energy he shows during construction, basketball, his faith, and his life & goals, he has inspired me to make changes to my life. Hearing about his life and the Filipinos, has allowed me to feel so fortunate and blessed. During the homestay, they commented I was so lucky to have never experienced a tropical storm before. It is a blessing indeed to be here in Singapore.

At the end of the trip, we always wish we can do more. It is natural human reaction. Being there for only 2 weeks, there is limited impact of our actions. I now fully understand what it means to take away from them more than what we can teach them. They have taught me a whole lot more than I can teach them. I gained so much in terms of intangibles. That said, I feel that the fun and joy we brought to them was beneficial. I hope we inspired them to dream, and to see us again in the future.

Improvements wise, I feel that I could have helped Daniel more. Being the co-IC but running a distinct group (C&A), I tended not to interfere in how he runs things for Y&A. I am appreciative too if he did the same. That is not to say that I do not value his comments, but I believe that I would have considered and integrated his ideas into our plans. During discussions, when it got excessively quiet, I could have stepped up to lead the discussion. There was just a dilemma between interfering and helping. That brings me to my next point, that the co-ICs idea is not that feasible. I do not know if it is true, but I guess it was just a stroke of luck that 2 ICs ran the activities separately over there. Please correct me if I am wrong! The responsibility was on us to work together, but I feel that there are excessive delays when it comes to making a decision. There is a need for one voice to make the decision, that of the leader. Just a personal opinion though, to have one IC, but depending on the trip and programme, it might really be necessary to have more than one!

My personal objectives were achieved, and I am thankful for everyone else who helped me along the way. I hope that we can remember the lessons that we learnt. May we be rich in life, not just material possessions.

CELINE

Before going on this trip, I had no expectations because I was unsure of what to expect. Some personal objectives I set for myself was to serve overseas and give the best I can for the community within the short span of 14 days. Also, stepping out of my comfort zone and adapt to entirely different environments. I hoped to grow as a person, learn to appreciate what I have in Singapore and live in a slower pace of life. 

 

This trip, I met many inspiring individuals and one of which that left an impression on me was a 4 year old girl i met at the dumpsite. I was curious on why her parents allow her to collect materials to sell in the hazard-filled dumpsite barefooted and she answered us, if she don’t go out to collect materials, she will not have food to eat. It hit me because at 4 years old, she was worried about her own meals and had to work for her meals. It made me reflect on what I was doing when I was 4 years old and also the kids in Singapore. We did not have to worry about our meals at such young age because our parents will feed us. 

 

Overall in this trip, I have learnt a significant bit of things that I can’t imagine learning if I were to stay in Singapore this holidays. Learning the boundaries of myself and also, learning much more about the people in the team. I saw true humanity and love from the Filipino campers and the community in Anda. Life was so simple with no distractions from our electronic gadgets, yet everyone was truly happy. This trip was a humbling experience and I am definitely inspired and motivated to go on more International Service Programs. 

The team would like to offer their heartfelt appreciation to all the Filipino volunteers, generous sponsors, NTU and YMCA. Without them, this trip would not have been so successful.  🙂