PSG in OCIP

OVERSEAS COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT PROGRAMME (OCIP)

The OCIP experience is designed to extend care to people around the world. Through OCIP, students become more globally aware and learn to care for the people around them. 

This is the first time Parent Support Group (PSG) members went together with the students. This is a natural progression as PSG has been contributing generously to the fund raising efforts of OCIP over the years. 

The two PSG members who went with us are Mrs Helen Wee and Mrs Sophie Fernandez. They were of a great help during the trip. Besides taking care of the students’ physical needs, they also served as mentors to the students. They shared new perspectives with the students and this value-added to the trip reflections and learning. Below are their reflections after the trip.

Mrs Sophie Fernandez's Reflection

There is a time in life when one may think, “maybe it is time to start to give back to the society”.

In my busy life at work, I have been focusing on growing the business of Pacific-Tec, a now well-established scientific company involved in distributing, supporting, training and providing consultancy in Radiation and Analytical X-Ray products. I started it in October 1994 being a young French Business Graduate just landed in Singapore.


After many struggles, rewards started and family life provided a nice balance, which kept me happy and satisfied. With committed and highly competent partners, good products in a niche market and perseverance, the ingredients to success were showing fruits and we were expanding.

A couple of years ago, building on the company a stronger corporate identity seemed the way to go for higher recognition. The Image “corporate branding” milestone now in place, I was looking for more challenges and naturally the Community work or “Community Social Responsibility” (CSR) came to my mind.

I am fortunate to live in Singapore and have a 15 year old son who is studying in Temasek Secondary, a very caring school that carries high values of personal development, human responsibility and team spirit to name a few.
Because this school cares for its students, teachers and parents, I felt attracted to join the Temasek spirit via the PSG (Parents Support Group) committee.
Social Responsibility being in the back of my mind for some time, I was waiting for the right opportunity to get involved in an overseas community engagement project. When OCIP 2013 in Cambodia and Laos was announced by Mr. Tan, Temasek Secondary Principal, I had no second thought that this was an experience I wanted to get.

We live in a modern, safe, efficient, politically and economically stable, well-organized, clean society with no serious natural disasters. A small red dot called Singapore. A cocoon. A safe heaven for many with a government that looks after its citizens.

So why come out of our comfort zone?

The world is not as pink everywhere and it is important to measure our fortune coming from a developed society. We tend to forget it and take things for granted. We criticize, show anger, arrogance, jealousy, and greed in this down-to-earth society and lose our very essence as a human being. We thrive for more and more all the time and are never satisfied. We look down on others. Unfortunately our society transformed us and a wake-up call is needed to bring us back to reality, simple life with its basic needs and true values we once had.

Visiting a third-world country is always an eye opener but is often done within our comfort zone, with a safe cozy environment, among tourists in a decent hotel. Years back, I went to India and some remote provinces in Philippines and saw smiling children in poor villages with little in life.
I never had a chance to go to a remote village in a developing country such as Laos and live the live of the natives. Moving forward, serving the community of the village and just be a human being, humble and caring, with a mission to help and bring some hope to the locals.

Laos is a great country that has not been able to develop at the same pace as its neighbors Vietnam or Cambodia, partly as the active mines occasionally kill innocents.

Certain places in Laos have kept a French spirit, which I particularly felt in Vientiane and Luang Prabang.

I am grateful to Temasek to have facilitated this very unique and hard to describe experience of sharing the life of Lao village people.
I appreciate the learning journey and hope that my personal contribution as well as our team effort brought positive values to the Lao people and children we met as much as the values of being humble and more caring for others we received from them.

It is a challenge to arrive in a village with a language barrier – we do not speak Laotian and have a limited timeframe to carry on a task to its completion.

Proper coordination, efficiency, team spirit, communication are essential and I was quite amazed to see how well our team interacted and delivered. Some students developed leadership skills better than others but all acted responsibly and in harmony with the local culture while being in the village.

Reflecting upon our arrival in the village of Na Xang Phai Primary School, I felt a “Cultural Shock” when I saw the pathetic school with empty old looking walls, huge black chalkboards, damaged wooden tables are clumsy wooden benches. This was the school. No books, no computers, no CDs or videos, no Lego blocks, no stationery. Ceiling fans subsidized by Temasek Secondary school had been installed the day before our arrival.
There was just electricity, water supply and a canteen to provide us with sumptuous unexpected meals.
The school was dirty and we had to sleep on its floor into our sleeping bags, without any mosquito nets, mattress or pillows. I have a slip disc and the hard floor is not ideal but somehow I accepted the lack of comfort. This alone takes away one’s pride and teaches you to be more humble.

More than sleeping on the floor in a classroom with flying or crawling insects around, I was taken back by the lack of hygiene. We had to cross an empty field to go to the toilet or to shower with cold water only using a plastic pale. The floor was dirty, the place smelly and insects all around sometimes flying over the holes through the concrete or open areas. Minus three stars I would think.
I never looked forward to going for a shower twice a day or even feared a need to rush to the toilet at night with torchlight!  However human nature is adaptable and I was slowly settling in after a couple of days but the lack of hygiene is for me the most unpleasant situation I experienced there.

Still reflecting upon the village life, I felt sorry for the children who are contented with the little they have and smile. Some go to school bare footed but all wear a simple white and blue thin clean uniform. By contrast, Singapore high quality fabric and embroideries is an insult to their uniform. I felt amazed at those children who hardly understand English at Primary level as school is not compulsory but sit down and attentively listen and look at you. Their thirst for learning and level of concentration also contrast with Singapore noisy and sometimes disrespectful children.

It was a very pleasant surprise to be able to teach them Basic English, songs, outdoor games, craft and balloon sculpting with the language barrier we were facing.
It was even more rewarding to see the growing number of children coming for class day after day as they were passing the word to their friends about new learning skills, photo taking souvenirs and receiving free stationery. It grew from 36 to 66 in 3 days.

Preparing the class the night before and planning in a group the program to teach to the students, the games and activities to provide them was a difficult task made possible thanks to the Temasek team spirit in my group.

I felt happy that we could give them those few stationery, books and managed to teach them in a more conducive environment with a renovated school.
They were from various age groups, from 3 to 12, all in one classroom squashed on the clumsy wooden benches happy to learn.

The closing ceremony in the village was touching too as we had completed our task and were handing over the school with a fresh lime green look. There was a sense of pride to have achieved a goal and hopefully to have given them some hope and happiness so that they might be more willing to go to school in future and learn better/faster.

Moving forward, I think that even a week in Laos has opened our eyes and made us be more appreciative of what we have. We learned to keep strong, endure all odds, act responsibly as a team and reflect upon situations better.

We appreciate better our surroundings by being aware of the cultural differences and eventually realize that our human nature can adapt and blend to the local environment with an open mindset.

This experience is a fantastic learning journey that I wish all Singapore secondary children should experience. I wish the Singapore government could implement measures to provide such exposure to all Singapore spoilt children as part of their curriculum.

Finally, as a mother, I am proud that my son also took part in this OCIP in the other village where he experienced an even harsher environment digging holes and preparing cement for pillars and walls to build a community wall.

I hope that our individual contribution as a team made some difference to the life of the Lao people we served and will bring them a bit more comfort and tools to build upon and improve.
I hope that my son will be a changed person with a better heart and will inspire his younger sister to appreciate things and not take them as granted. If she joins Temasek Secondary end of this year, I will ensure she also experiences the OCIP for its values are many.

One can only hope that this young generation will develop greater values of resilience, cooperation, initiative, focus, commitment, confidence and lead to the next generation of Inspiring Entrepreneurs and Leaders or Singapore workers with the right attitude.

Mrs Helen Wee's Reflection

When I agreed to help out for the OCIP trip, it was not only out of a desire to help the school, but also because I was curious to discover how life was lived in this part of the world.

I found myself in a remote village with intermittent electricity, spartanly furnished rooms, and little else in the way of creature comforts. We slept on the floor, only a thin mattress separating our bodies from the ground. Mosquitoes and other insects unidentifiable flew around the house freely. We perspired while we slept, a thin layer of sweat the only protection against biting insects. It was a stark realisation that our city home was far away and we were in a place alien and inhospitable to our soft ways. I was not sure that I would last the entire five days.

Chickens and ducks, dogs and cats roamed with lawless impunity, scratching for food in the dirt and drinking from puddles of water thrown out by the villagers after use. It was unsanitary by our modern standards. There was animal excrement randomly scattered on the ground and the smell reached to the heavens.

Under the merciless sun, we carried heavy tools and walked for the better part of an hour to the fields. Simply getting there was tiring. The walk sapped our vitality and spirits and we had yet to accomplish anything productive. We dug the soil in order to erect a waist high partition wall about two metres long. Then we weeded a field the size of five to six football pitches. None of us had it easy. I now have a profound appreciation of the humble farmer and the back breaking labour that goes into growing the vegetables that ends up on our dinner tables.

The villagers live a simple, self-sufficient life. Their houses are constructed one section at a time depending on the resources available. Those of us who aided them in this endeavour had to dig many deep square holes, making the sides straight to sit metal bars upon. A mixture of sand, cement, pebbles and water was then poured into the holes to set. To build a complete house usually takes about five to ten years.

They wake and rest in tandem with the rising and setting of the sun, unburdened and unconcerned with outside preconceptions. They battle with mother nature and subsist on the simple yields of their harvest. The children in the city eat what they like, often times choosing to go hungry rather than compromise on taste. Here, the children eat whatever grants them nourishment. Taste is secondary, choice is a luxury.

There is a gentle innocence to the villagers. They have different values and aspirations. We tell our children to study hard so that they may have high paying careers and easy lives in the future; they tell their children to study hard so that they will grow up to be knowledgeable about the world and become someone useful to society. Here the peoples' lives are bound to the earth. This kind of rooted living forms strong connections. There is an abundance of kindness, tolerance, a respect for nature, and a willingness to share that is oftentimes lacking in metropolitan society.

Time passed along, and I had made it through the entire five days. My five days of rural living has made me more aware of the comforts and luxuries we often overlook and take for granted in Singapore. We are a lucky country and we should appreciate what we have.