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In the light of the recent trail of devastation and suffering brought about by Cyclone Nargis to Myanmar, several SMU Burmese students have decided to band together and do their bit for their country. With the assistance of OSL, these eight students will embark on a 15-day relief effort from 28 June to 12 July. Project Nargis will take the students to the outskirts of Yangon, where many disaster victims are left stranded without shelter, food and medicine. The SMU team will partner a local monastery and a volunteer community self-help group to build a temporary shelter for an orphanage destroyed by Cyclone Nargis. They also hope to set up a water-purification tank system while there. These initiatives are estimated to cost at least $10,000. |
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| Project Nargis team leader Han (right most) with the team at their donation booth |
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SMU Staff doing their bit to support the victims of Cyclone Nargis, through the Project Nargis donation drive |
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Cyclone Nargis has been one of the world's worst natural disasters in modern day history, leaving almost 133,000 people dead, while disrupting the lives of more than two million. The cyclone struck south-western Myanmar in early May, affecting a densely populated area crucial for producing most of the country's rice output. Since then, many have been left homeless, without potable water, food and much needed medical supplies. With the onset of the monsoon season, fast relief efforts to the affected people are crucial.
Though none of the project members, who are all Burmese, are from the affected regions, they felt an instant call of duty to help their fellow countrymen.
Says project leader Han Tun Lwin, who recently came back from a recee trip to Myanmar, "When I slept at the monastery, I could hear the constant cries of the orphans. Just imagining the trauma that these children faced when the orphanage collapsed around them on the night when Cyclone Nargis struck, makes me want to immediately come back here with money and resources to fulfill the needs of these children."
Project Nargis is the first disaster relief effort initiated by SMU and her students. It is hoped that this small effort, as well as donations received as part of this project from well-wishers, will go a long way towards impacting and improving the lives of those affected. |
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Project Scope and Objectives
• distribute medicine, food and water supplies to homeless families situated in Twantay township, 3 hours away from Yangon , to safeguard their physical health and well-being;
• set up a strong temporary tentage that is able to withstand the monsoon season, for an orphanage in Twantay to shelter the now 250 homeless orphans and to act as their classroom;
• procure tables and chairs, school textbooks and stationery for the orphanage to resume their educational programme;
• set up a water-purification tank system to ensure safe water supplies for the orphans, their caregivers and staff of the orphanage. |
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Location:
Twantay Township, Yangon
Date:
28 June - 12 July 2008
(15 Days)
Overseas Partner:
Phayagyi Mingalar Taik Monastery
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In the mountain barangays (villages) of northern Cebu, there are more children in the work force than in school, and almost every child is involved in some form of income-generating activity to supplement their meagre family income.
In Adlaon barangay, a self-help group called Family Watch Group (FWG) has been working to stop child labour in the dangerous farming and plantation conditions, and fights for children education rights in their barangay.
SMU's Project Dawn partners Adlaon FWG and Share a Child Movement (a NGO in Cebu advocating children and women welfare) to empower families so that their children can stop work and go to school.
Project Dawn, comprising 18 students, addresses the child labour issue in Cebu by first tackling their poverty situation. It introduced the “1 family, 1 goat at a time” concept, which is a micro-credit goat livelihood and outreach initiative. Basically, families can obtain interest-free loans of up to two years to purchase goats, on condition that they share that benefit by giving up one kid goat to another needy family whenever their goat bears young.
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A child labourer perches dangerously high among the branches of a mango tree, wrapping its mangoes. |
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Project Scope and Objectives • provide rural families with an additional source of livelihood through goat rearing and the sale of goat meat; • facilitate families' children education needs;
• mentor children in their learning and inculcating them with the importance of education;
• create awareness of the dangers of children working in plantations and encourage parents to take them out of such work;
• achieve a sustainable way of helping the community fight against child labour and to advocate children rights and welfare
Project Dawn allows SMU management students to apply business ideas and concepts learnt in the classroom to deal with real world situations, imbued with the right values and beliefs, addressing pressing societal issues.
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Created with the intent of fighting child poverty: SMU Project Dawn's original goat-rearing "manual" |
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Location: Adlaon Barargay, Cebu
Date: July 2008
Overseas NGO: Family Watch Group (FWG) and Share a Child Movement
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A team of six SMU students will introduce the modern beehive system to a Lisu bee-keeping family living on the mountain slope. It is hoped that in moving away from the current make-shift bee hives made from hollow tree trunks to a more efficient system, honey harvesting will be improved and can, in future, be explored with other families with the aim of providing Lisu orphans with another skill and livelihood other than subsistence farming. The Lisu minority group forms more than 90% of the population in this region. They subsist on steep mountain slopes where they face agricultural, health and educational challenges.
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The bee-harvesting project is just one component of a larger initiative by the SMU team to empower the Lisu people especially women and adult orphans. For a start, the students will deliver basic financial management workshops to the women to help them optimise family finances and a foundational course in business studies for orphans who are learning to become carpenters. Small-scale food store business set-up will also be explored with Lisu women at a suitable stage of the project. The students' approach here is very much through education, vocational and financial training for independent, value-based and goal-oriented living. |
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In the harsh and impoverished rural areas of Guizhou, there is a local saying that goes: ‘Not three kilometres without a mountain, no three days without rain and no three pennies in one's pocket”. The M.A.D team of 20 students aims to make a difference in Jing Ding village, by re-building a small but crucial bridge to reduce the highly common accidents on the existing bridge that is poorly designed and extensively damaged by large vehicles. With the new one, it will mean a safe journey to school for at least 300 children in the village.
As part of the project, the team will work with the village schools to supplement their teaching aids and resources, and to inject fun and creativity in their teaching pedagogy.
Interactions with the local children, teachers and village folks provide the M.A.D team with the opportunities also to learn first hand about the rich culture of rural life captured in its cuisine and people as well as the social and environmental challenges these locals face daily. |
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In Thailand, there were more than 100,000 elephants in the early 1900s. Today, there are about 4,600 (2,600 captive and 200 wild) representing a 95% decline in the elephant population in just 100 years. To compound the issues of de-forestation, poaching and bad urban planning, elephants are still exported to zoos and circuses overseas.
The SMU Ambassadorial Corps team has adopted the elephant conservation cause and will embark on a concerted programme of re-forestation, public education and fund-raising.
The pioneer project in August will focus on re-forestation as a food-resource for the elephants and to prevent further erosion of precious land. The team will immerse themselves in the week-long, hands-on volunteer educational programme provided by ENP. |
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In the tradition of previous SMU's Dare to Dream expeditions, which included beneficiaries from a disabled community, 12 SMU students will partner five hearing-impaired (HI) youth on a community service project. To better understand the silent world, the team is learning sign language to communicate and work with the HI youths involved in the expedition. They hope to learn about the challenges faced by the HI in their daily lives. In turn, the HI youths will be challenged beyond their handicap to serve the Sikkimese community.
Together, the team will work closely with KCC, a community-based organisation to help conserve the environmental and cultural heritage of Yuksam. Through this, they hope to promote eco-tourism, thereby generating an alternative income source for the villagers.
Two key projects have been lined up to achieve this goal:
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Marketing Yuksam — the team will work with the village's Visitor Information Centre to help develop merchandising ideas and marketing strategies to woo eco-tourists to Yuksam.
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Archiving their visit — while there, they will also document their homestay programme, and use it as a testimonial for potential eco-tourists
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Project Argali, consisting of 14 SMU students, will partner SDF, a local NGO, whose principal objective is to improve the living standard and quality of life for the people of Sikkim.
Project Argali will be the first Singapore team to work with SDF's project — Borong Polok Handmade Paper Unit — a community-based project, which processes and manufactures chlorine-free paper from the Argali plant growing profusely in Borong Polok, South
Sikkim, to provide a sustainable means of economic livelihood for the community without pollution or the cutting of trees.
They will support Borong Polok Handmade Paper Unit by documenting the manufacturing of handmade paper and revamp the SDF website information. They will also help with product development and the marketing plan of the paper products. |
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Location: Fugong, Nujiang Valley, North-west Yunnan Province
Date: 23 July – 13 August 2007 (21 days)
Overseas NGO: Fujiang Development Foundation
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Location: Zunyi, Guizhou Province
Date: 23 June – 10 July 2007 (18 days)
Overseas Partner: Jing Ding Village community |
Location: Mae Taeng Valley,
North Chiangmai, Thailand
Date: 5 August – 13 August 2007 (9 days)
Student Partner: The Student Association Corps of SMU (ASMU)
Overseas Partner: Elephant Nature Foundation (www.elephantnature
foundation.org)
Local Partner: Green Volunteers' Network (GVN) |
Location: Yuksam, West Sikkim (India)
Date: 8 - 31 December 2007 (23 days)
Overseas NGO:
Khangchendzonga Conservation Committee (KCC) |
Location: Borong Polok, South Sikkim (India)
Date: 7 - 23 December 2007 (17 days)
Overseas NGO: Sikkim Development Foundation (SDF)
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