if you have missed the live coverage or if you have not heard me clearly (or if i am not speaking clearly), don't worry. Here's an account of what have happened so far...
Day 1
Under No Roof is placed in a setting of a Chinese village, called "Hope Village". Through ths 2D1N camp, they will experience hardship and hunger as we place the participants under simulated poor living condition, similar to that of areas struck by natural disaster (i.e. earthquake).
Registration was just completed and the participants have reported into their various groups (named by different surnames, since the setting of UNR camp is in a Chinese village which will be struck by an earthquake), head by their friendly facilitators.
Basically, right now, the facilitators who are wearing the yellow UNR t-shirts and having a team building session with the participants, wearing white UNR t-shirts. You can see some of them playing team-building games and having fun with each other. Beside learning more about poverty and poor living conditions in slums and therefore, learning to cherish the things around them, UNR also offers plentiful opportunities for youths to make new friends.
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Opening Ceremony:
We are priviledged to have distingushed guests and artistes, such as Marcus Chin, Olivia Ong and PRC Embassy to grace our opening ceremony.
First game of the day: Family March
This game is to determine the group/family status for the game, which would determine other segments of the coming activities, i.e. the breakfast on the end day of the camp and the region in which they build the actual house. The family (consisting of 10 people) will sit sideways behind the starting line with their feet tied together. ( i.e. the right foot of the person is tied to the left foot of the person standing right of him.) The whole group is to stand up and walk sideways from the starting line towards the squatting region line marked out on the lane. The whole team will need to move towards the ½ line in squatting position after the last person in the group crosses the squatting region line. Once the last person crosses the ½ line, the last person will become the first person and move backwards in the squatting position until the last person in the line crosses the walking region line. After which the whole team will stand up and walk towards the finishing line (originally the starting line). Once the last person crosses the starting point, the facilitators will stop their stopwatches and the timing would be noted. The aim of the game is to complete this task in the fastest time possible. The group will be awarded different family status according to the speed with which they complete the task.
This game will allow a lot of teams to showcase their family spirit and teamwork and how well their family can work together. In times of disasters, for example the most recent earthquake in China, everyone needs to work together in order to rebuild their homes. With more people working and thinking together, difficulties can be solved easily. It is also important that through this game they will learn that nothing comes free in this world. Their current living standard is due to the hard work and effort and they had put in beforehand. It is also especially important that the family works together with combine effort to achieve the ultimate goal.
They are having dinner now. Dinner is plain rice with baked beans and sardine with an apple. An apple a day keeps the doctor away!
Disaster strikes!
We guided the participants to start playing a game.
During the game, we will blast the siren and play a recording live from China's earthquake scene, in order to simulate how it feels like to be caught by surprise in a disaster. The family members are separated by the facilitators into three stations. Family heads are gathered and instructed to reunite the family by looking through a very long name list, in search of their family members' names. Those who were not found by their heads within the time limit will be transported to West Coast Park (evacuation centre), separated from their families. The purpose of this activity is to allow the participants to feel how it is like to be separated from their groups/families all of a sudden.
In reality, things are worse. Unlike this simulated disaster, there is no gurantee that the family will be reunited once again and sometimes, there is no news of their members after the disaster. Family members also do not know where exactly to go to find their loved ones.
West Coast Park("temporary shelter")
Participants will be back in their families and they will start building their slums using pieces of cardboard on the wet muddy field. After constructing their temporary homes, they will play "water challenge".
Water Challenge
This game aim to teach participants that in times of disaster, water is scarce as water supplies are usually cut off and because it is an essential necessity, one must be prepared to endure the arduous task of transporting water, especially in remote villages, from a water source back to their own people. Along the way, one might meet with obstacles or setbacks such as accidental spillage of water or drying up of a water source e.g wells due to incompetent water management and in this game, this is accounted for by the fact that how much water one can collect is actually determined by the numbers on the pingpong balls that one picked.
For us, we take water for granted because it flows freely and conveniently at the turn of a tap. But when water supplies are cut off, that’s when one realize that how much work is actually needed to get water be it for drinking or for washing up. However one has no choice as forced by circumstances. Therefore, we must treasure and appreciate the simplest thing now: that we have clean potable water.
Debrief.
Sharing session and reflection time with facilitators.
Lights off! See you tmr morning!
Day 2
The participants have arrived at Vivocity after their morning breakfast. Most of them reflected that they did not get to sleep well. The slum fails to protect them from the chill in the middle of the night.
Nevertheless, the participants are still very enthusiastic, especially in playing the various station games and building their very own home for their family!
Games played and significance:
- Soccer and Captain's Sponge: Even in times of hardship and uncertainties, life still has to go on. The children use whatever little they have and improvise common games to play.
- Workstation: the participants need to learn to make use of scrap materials to make things that are sold to earn an income to support the family. In real-life slum areas, people make whatever they could find into items that they could sell to tourist. Adults bear the responsibility to make the best toy to earn as much money as possible so that their family can have a better life. Persuasive skills needed to convince people to buy your product. Making alone is not enough.
- Lost: There is no exit at all. This game simulates conditions in an earthquake where families lose their love ones and many people find themselves lost. In many cases, the lost victim would often try to find his/her own way out, without a clue that his family is looking for him. He often has to think very carefully about how he intends to move around as the debris may cause injuries while bare electrical wires may be hazardous. Survival skills are also important and this will allow the lost victim to decide where to move as the presence of coconut trees will provide source of water. In addition, the way the team members tried to find their member is similar to a situation whereby they have to guess where their family member is with no clues given to them at all. It is hoped that the groups will learn that this situation is actually very real and it is what the people are actually experiencing over in china.
- Trashures: This game simulates the conditions after earthquakes where by families would have to salvage for their belongings among the ruins. All their valuables are hidden under the debris and the only way of finding them is by your own effort as no other person will be there to help you find it. By only allowing them to move from hoop to hoop, it is an example of the obstacles they might face along the way for example a sudden collapse of a tree etc which hinders their movement. The obstacle course shows how difficult it is to move in the quake-hit region. At the end of the game, the participants will have to complete a jigsaw puzzle. Facilitators will ask members to reflect and ask what they think about the picture of the jigsaw puzzle.
- Blind logic: This game will allow participants to experience how it feels to be handicap (inconvenience) and blind (vulnerability) because of snowstorms and the earthquake. To communicate effectively with each other e.g. the handicap shouting out clear instructors to the blind to avoid obstacles (in real life: rocks, broken roads, etc resulting in certain areas being cut off). As a family, we should make up for each other’s disabilities and remain united, not leaving anyone behind, despite being separated at the start of the disaster. Team mates should cheer each other on throughout the game, which is an important source of encouragement when everyone is feeling down and out in a crisis. The temporary separation when they bump into other people or obstacles is to signify the mad rush during a disaster, which would result in some people getting injured or trumped upon, hence, unable to move until help is received or being delayed due to diseases like malaria for awhile before reaching the safety zone. Distraction by facilitators is to simulate the chaotic situation during the disaster, as everyone would be agitated and panicky. The moving of obstacles signifies the changing circumstances after a disaster, such as landslides or droughts and hence, people have no choice but to adapt to the situation and work around it to deal with the crisis. The facilitators taking away the passports while separating participants during the game signifies looting during a disaster.
House-building
Participants will be given mainly PVC tubes and paper bricks for structural support. Partcipants are to consider the architecture, interior design and stability of the houses. Some fortunate families actually get to build ther house with celebrities and Miss Earth. After the houses are constructed, they will be sent for judging and the family with the best house will win a trip to China to participate in the rebuilding efforts over there.
Our participants are indeed very creative and innovative, coming up with unique designs for the various parts of the houses, such as the windows, roof and even a chimney!
Meanwhile, VJCIC members are asking passer-bys to make donations towards rebuilding fund of Habitat for Humanity.
To conclude, this event won't be successful without the enthusiasm of the participants! Thank you!
