Mr Teo Chee Hean (fourth from left) Deputy Prime Minister & Coordinating Minister for National Security and MP of Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC officiated at the ceremony of Tzu Chi’s adoption of Sungei Api Api. Photo by Huang Si Ni
Before the start of the “Sungei Api Api Neighbourhood Eco Awareness Fair,” emcee Dai Yu Mei chimed merrily to the visitors that they were there that day to learn about saving the environment. She exhorted them to do recycling and to keep the environment clean and their hearts pure so that every family can enjoy bliss.
Jointly organised by the Tzu Chi Foundation (Singapore) and the neighbourhood grassroots committee of Pasir Ris East and West, the eco-fair aimed to instil greater awareness of protecting our natural eco-environment among the public. Representatives from the National Environment Agency (NEA), the Public Utilities Board (PUB), the North East Community Development Council (NECDC) and police from the White Sands zone were present, together with PUB’s mascot “Water Wally”.
Visitors to the event could take part in green activities outdoors, or experience indoor activities as Tzu Chi was also holding a graduation ceremony and showcasing the handiwork of its students from its Continuing Education Centre (CEC).
Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean, Member of Parliament for Pasir Ris-Ponggol GRC, was there to officiate at the opening and also made his rounds to observe the various activities.
Tzu Chi volunteers warmly welcomed visitors to the eco-fair who had arrived by bus and hailed from all corners of the island. Photo by Huang Si Ni
Representatives from the NEA, PUB and the NECDC were present at the “Sungei Api Api Neighbourhood Eco Awareness Fair” jointly organised by Tzu Chi and the grassroots organisations. Photo by Chai Yu Leong
The NEA’s exhibits included two transparent boxes containing normal mosquitoes and the black stripped Aedes mosquito. Photo by Chai Yu Leong
Returning to Purity
Situated between Tampines Expressway and Pasir Ris Drive 3, a 900m section of the Sungei Api Api had undergone a year of natural environment enhancement efforts under the PUB’s Active, Beautiful, Clean Waters (ABC Waters) Programme. Tzu Chi Singapore’s Jing Si Hall is sited at the banks of the river and the organisation was invited to join the “Friends of Water” programme. Since March 2015, it has been helping to keep the waterway of Sungei Api Api and its surroundings clean, while also organising green activities to promote water conservation in the community.
Among the activities that Tzu Chi organised that day were a themed exhibition, a drawing and colouring contest, and a recycling talk held indoors. The theme of the “5Rs (refuse, reduce, reuse, repair and recycle)” was woven into the station games, and the content of the exhibition included the nation’s distribution of water resources, experiential sorting of recyclables, etc. Various types of eco-friendly reusable utensils were also out on display, and volunteers exhorted the public to cut down on the use of Styrofoam, and advocated ways to save water and electricity.
Displaying the results of nifty handiwork that turned recyclables, such as paper, cloth and PET bottles into decorative items, volunteers showed the interested visitors how to extend the life of things. Visitors were wowed when they saw the ease with which such handicrafts could be created and were encouraged to similarly give life to materials which they formerly viewed as discarded items.
At the exhibition zone, too, visitors were also shown how to sort recyclables, and invited to take part in the monthly Tzu Chi recycling activities. In an interactive learning session, visitors had to collect materials to create their own “firefly”, which is known as “api-api” in the Malay language. At the last game station, they assembled their very own “firefly” with the “recyclables” they collected. Volunteers at the event were also hard at work promoting vegetarianism to others as a way to achieve health and to affirm our respect for life.
Volunteer Wu Li Feng had observed at the Tzu Chi recycling activities that people not only discarded their old items, but sometimes also their new ones. This made her reflect on the necessity of buying and stocking up on items, only to discard them later, which she now felt was such a waste of resources.
“It’s not just (a matter of ) using our hands, rather it is a form of spiritual purification,” says Wu of her first-time experience in sorting recyclables which left her perspiring heavily. Having come with an open mind to the event, Wu felt that doing our bit to protect the earth is to realise our innate nature, with which we give of our love and care to the less fortunate while embracing the virtues of gratitude and having few wants in life.
After watching volunteers demonstrate the making of eco-enzyme, Yan Xi Qin a grassroots leader discovered the joy of transforming waste into something useful.
“I hope that through the joint eco-fair with Tzu Chi, more of the Pasir Ris residents understand (how to) incorporate green living into their daily lives and protect the earth; especially (with the knowledge of) making eco-enzymes.”
Recycle for a Cleaner Earth
The Tzu Chi Parent-Child Bonding Class and members of the residents’ committee had invited people in the neighbouring areas to take part in the children’s drawing and colouring contest. Though the day was hot, the 25 children who took part were deep in concentration as they drew pictures of the ideal homeland they hoped to live in. Volunteers shielded them with umbrellas and made water available, while the parents enjoyed refreshments and kept themselves busy with reading materials, such as the Tzu Chi magazines and Jing Si Aphorisms provided by volunteers.
Residents from the neighbourhood were invited to bring their children to enter the drawing and colouring contest at the eco-fair. Photo by Lian Ya Hui
Li Zi Ying, a six-year-old child said, “I hope the world becomes clean; (if) everyone does not litter, it is (also a way of) protecting the earth.”
She is very familiar with the Sungei Api Api as she passes it every day on the way to school and sometimes gets a whiff of the unpleasant smell that emanates from the river. Parent Xing Mei Hua, who is an early childhood teacher, teaches her young charges about loving the earth in school and sometimes brings them to the beach to pick up litter. Though it was her first time that she has come to know of Tzu Chi, she hoped to join the Parent-Child Bonding Class in Tzu Chi and pass down the right values to her children.
For parent Huang Li Juan, it was the wish that her children could have hands on experience in recycling that brought her all the way from Yishun to the Jing Si Hall in Pasir Ris. She knelt by a poster of the poor scavenging for food at the rubbish heap, and explained the poster to her son Su Shun Wei.
When passing by the area where recyclables were sorted, volunteers placed PET bottles on the floor for him to flatten them with his feet, so he could experience the fun in recycling. This act also serves to save on the storage space required for recyclables. While having fun with recycling, the little boy also discovered a pencil that lay discarded among the rubbish, so Huang took the opportunity to teach him that we should cherish the things we have.
Though Huang does her bit to recycle things at home, she does not sort them out before bringing them to the recycling station at the bottom of her HDB block. After attending the fair, she now wants to start sorting the rubbish before she discards them, and hopes to bring her child to attend Tzu Chi’s recycling activities.
A Fun Day of Learning at Jing Si Hall
On the same day, Tzu Chi held its second semester graduation ceremony for the CEC students. The first to third level of Jing Si Hall was replete with displays of the student’s handiwork, interactive presentations of tea art, patchwork, Chinese calligraphy and Chinese brush painting, as well as performances. DPM Teo Chee Hean watched the performances on stage and also tried his hand at Chinese calligraphy, interacting with those that gathered around him to watch.
Visitors at the eco-fair had the opportunity to appreciate the handiworks of CEC students and also experience for themselves tea art, patchwork, Chinese calligraphy and Chinese brush painting. Photo by Hong Yong Xiang
Students from the yoga class demonstrating what they had learnt at the Tzu Chi CEC graduation ceremony. Photo by Nichelle Chan
A father and daughter pair of Indian race were trying their hand at Chinese calligraphy, and father Aravind said that he had not thought of stepping into Tzu Chi’s Jing Si Hall before though they had been living in a nearby condominium apartment for five years. As he was at the eco fair with daughter Ananya, he took the opportunity to visit the Jing Si Hall and was pleased to have picked up some new knowledge. He also spoke of the peace he felt upon entering the first floor of the Jing Si Hall.
Aravind (first from left) brought along his seven-year-old daughter to try out Chinese calligraphy and later enquired about calligraphy courses which he felt could help him cope with stress. (Photo by Huang Si Ni
At 3pm, a recycling talk at the multi-purpose classroom on the first level attracted about 70 attendees. Volunteer leader Wang Wei Xun shared what he had learnt about setting up a recycling point. He said that while the success of a recycling point depended upon having a committed person in charge and cooperation with the relevant government organisations to promote awareness, the selection of an appropriate location was of even greater importance. Wang also spoke of the need to cultivate the recycling habit in the young generation, with better parent-child relations being a positive outcome.
PUB speaker Li Fei Xiang spoke about the history of Singapore’s water and its future water plans. Photo by Lian Ya Hui
NEA representative Chen Ri Peng next spoke on the topic of how to prevent mosquitoes from breeding, urging the audience to check if there were pools of still water around the house and to keep the surroundings clean. This was followed by PUB speaker Li Fei Xiang whose topic was on sustainability of Singapore’s water supply. He recapped the history of Singapore’s water supply and shared the actions mapped out by the government in the area of water planning to ensure that Singapore could efficiently manage its water reserves.
Marine Crescent Ville Residents’ Committee (RC) chairman Xu Yuan Ya praised Tzu Chi for its recycling philosophy and said that its eco-friendly utensils were very practical. She hoped that the RC could set up a recycling point in the neighbourhood together with Tzu Chi. Saying that global warming was increasingly becoming a problem, and that the people in Singapore were not sufficiently aware of environmental protection, she felt that it was imperative to do more to promote environmental awareness.
As resource recycling is the last stage of environmental protection, educating the public and getting them to make changes in their lifestyle can decrease their carbon footprint at source and mitigate the effects of global warming. Thus through the eco-fair, grassroots leaders and residents were brought together in joint efforts to spread the philosophy of recycling and resource conservation to the general public.
Marine Crescent Ville Residents’ Committee chairman Xu Yuan Ya (left) listening to a volunteer explain Tzu Chi’s environmental protection philosophy. Photo by Chai Yu Leong
Tzu Chi volunteers made use of time after work to prepare for the eco-fair a few days prior to the event. Shown here are volunteers setting up the canopies beside the Sungei Api Api. Photo by Dai Xiao Tong
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PUB speaker Li Fei Xiang spoke about the history of Singapore’s water and its future water plans. (Photo by Lian Ya Hui) |
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