She has since done that and much more. She brings many others like her on board with her travel agency, Love Travel Co. Ms Zheng who shares her vision, challenges and experiences running the Taiwanese social enterprise with SEforum.

1. Could you share with us on how Love Travel Co came to existence?

In 1998, as the President of Taipei Young Female Chamber, I organized a group tour to Singapore for physically challenged citizens. We managed to gather enough donations from the public for 40 participants as well as 46 volunteers as funding for the tour. Still, we were selective on our participants. They must be below the age of 40, never been overseas before, belong to the low-income group, and are physically disabled. However, there were over 200 people who wished to register for the programme.

With so many people interested, especially the elder ones, I promised them that I would start a tour agency to realize their dreams to go on a trip despite their physical difficulties. This is done in the hope that, the trips would give the people motivation to be self-dependent, contribute to the society and even take initiatives to help others. As such, Love Travel Co was born in 2000. My vision is to create a team of giving and amicable travel companions, including tour guides and team leaders, to be part of our special customers’ great memories.

Since then, Love Travel Co has been in operation for 10 years and we are proud to receive many recognition from the industry and our customers. The greatest one is upon receiving the Honorary Travel Agency Distinction Award in 2008.

2. When and what inspired you to set up Love Travel Co against all odds?

I entered the travel industry as a small assistant. And after two years of hard work, I brought my first group of customers to Korea. I was worried that my disability would make the trip inconvenient for me. To my gratification, they insisted on me being their tour guide, and they have helped me to go around places. Not only had they realized my dream, their encouragements also inspired me to make the wishes of others like me come true. Therefore, I started Love Travel Co as the first travel agency in Taiwan that caters to customers with physical difficulties. Also, I envisioned that some of its profits would go to helping the physically and financially challenged.

3. What are some of the interesting stories and/or challenges you met in the course of running andpromoting Love Travel Co?

Our most accomplished moments are bringing out the people

who did not get to go to the outdoors for a long period of time. For example, a young man, whose both legs were amputated, had been on the bed for 8 years. His biggest wish was to bathe in the sun and breathe the fresh air outside. As he was unable to use the normal wheelchair, we brought him out by an ambulance and a stretcher. After the trip, he became much happier and motivated, and started learning to use automated wheelchair. Now, he is actively involved in choir practices and performances, going around the city on his own.

As for our greatest challenge, it would be the limited numbers of wheel-chair friendly buses and hotels in the market. It is hence more expensive and difficult to go on a trip logistically.

4. Which are the most popular countries or areas in Taiwan that you have brought your clients to? Where are some of the areas you hope to bring them to in the future?

Japan is our most popular location as the country offers a very wheel-chair friendly environment. It is also considerably near to Taiwan. Singapore is a frequent location as well, though it is more difficult to rent a wheel-chair friendly bus there.

In Taiwan, there are still lots of potential for improvement on wheel-chair friendly facilities. I wish that Taiwan could become a great place to travel for the physically-challenged and I have been actively spreading the idea to the related industries.

5. Where do you hope to see Travel Love Co in five years time?

I hope that in 5 years’ time, Love Travel Co will be able to fund, purely using its profits, more people with physical difficulties to step outside of their house and see the world. We would like to be both a charity and a social enterprise.

Everyone has a dream. And I believe that by seizing each opportunity you are given, your dream could be realised.

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All this was made possible through Cornerstone Works, a social enterprise based in Taiwan. The organization helped develop Xiong’s interest in stone crafting. And with marketing assistance from Taiwanese social enterprise Lovely Taiwan, Xiong’s art works can be purchased in many other cities outside of a small workshop in Hualian town where it was produced.

To describe his experience, the humble man quotes a verse from the bible: “The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.”

“When I first arrived in Cornerstone, I stared at the crude stones for 3 months. One day, I suddenly realized that the stones are just like me, ugly and raw. I often disliked myself, just like how I looked down on those stones. But deep inside my heart, I want to be someone to be looked upon, and then I thought the stones would be feeling this way as well,” said Xiong. “I picked up my burin (a stone-crafting tool) ever since that day, and began to converse with the stones in my special way.”

He added: “I really appreciate Lovely Taiwan for their help, the team has given me an impetus to work harder so that my stone works could tell their own stories to the rest of the people.”

And just like Xiong, many other local artists have received support from Lovely Taiwan to continue their passion.

Situated in the heart of Taipei, Lovely Taiwan provides a collective platform for all designers to exhibit and sell their wares at its small but elegant establishment. It boasts an admirable repertoire of over 100 unique handicrafts created by designers from locations all over the island, including rural or disadvantaged communities.

Examples of other delicate creations stocked by Lovely Taiwan are figurines constructed by well-known metallic artist Jiang Cheng Yao, hand-crafted organic soaps by students from special schools, and unique cases knit by the indigenous Taiwanese.

The social enterprise emphasizes the product values that go beyond mere profit such as a sense of community and the importance of cultural retention. One of its founders, senior media worker Xu Lu, pointed out that they hope to establish a platform that connects the people and the community through the products and the sharing their stories.

Giving the indigenous people an avenue to show forth their talent and skill without having to travel tremendous distances to bring their works to the market not only opens a window of opportunity for them but also connects them to the entire Taiwan.

But to achieve this is no minor feat: Lovely Taiwan’s founders have traversed across the country, visiting up to 130 communities to discover this rich variety of handicrafts, which reflects the distinct potential and style of its Taiwanese artists and communities. Through these efforts, a more holistic picture of Taiwan’s cultural heritage could then be obtained and shared with everyone else.

Still, being unique is not enough for products to succeed in the contemporary market; the products have to be given a chance to stand out. Hence,

Lovely Taiwan also ventured into giving advice and consultation to the artisans on product, image and packaging development.

Xu Lu cited an example: Handmade chocolates from Taichung Women’s Prison were simply wrapped with aluminum foil and contained in a zip-lock bag when they were first sent to Lovely Taiwan. The social enterprise would then dutifully repackage each piece with colourful, glossy wrappers before placing them in elegant, eye-catching containers. This gives products a better fighting chance in attracting the attention of potential buyers to take a closer look, whereby they would then notice the meaningful stories behind each product and its significance.

However, Xu Lu stressed that the foundation would not override the designers’ artistic integrity. Designers can be assured of retaining the avenue of expression and actualizing their ideas. The Lovely Taiwan Foundation was set up not to lead but to work hand-in-hand with these creative minds, supplementing their skill with solid marketing strategy. Lovely Taiwan also hopes to encourage other Taiwanese to set up local shops, and contribute to the community.

He added that Lovely Taiwan is just a small beginning for a greater scheme of action.

Just like how XIong has transformed the seemingly useless stones to meaningful symbols of love and beauty, by giving local talent from all over Taiwan a stage to shine, the foundation aims to achieve a sustainable development for the local industry and bring out the understated grace of the country through the products it carries.

Lovely Taiwan’s elegant wooden cat and dog figurines could be purchased at Do Things Different here.

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When he had a dream to teach children how to live sustainably, he not only built Green School Bali – arguably the first of its kind in the world, offering a holistic education of traditional math and science subjects paired with a green curriculum and a creative arts programme – he used what he believes is the most eco-friendly and sustainable building material on Earth: bamboo.

In Hardy’s case, this penchant and belief in bamboo has led him and his wife, Cynthia, to launch the Meranggi Foundation to encourage farmers to plant bamboo, create PT Bambu as a design hotbed and production facility for bamboo buildings and furniture, and open Bambu Indah, a hotel based on sustainability.

Along the way, he built what could possibly be the world’s largest bamboo building, the Heart of School, a grand, imposing, three-storey structure, located within Green School Bali.

Located 20 minutes North of Denpasar and 15 minutes South of Ubud, Green School’s eight-hectare campus sits among lush vegetation, divided by the Ayung River. It looks more like a serene, though rustic, holiday resort than a school.

The school’s tagline is “Equipping Children For 2025”. By that, the Hardys want, besides teaching the standard International Baccalaureate (IB) and International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) syllabus, to inculcate in their students the love of learning.

The Green Studies programme includes topics like carbon footprint analysis, water studies and even, organic farming and gardening. Within the Creative Arts and physical education programmes, students delve into yoga and batik painting using natural dyes made from vegetation on site, and martial arts, with the Balinese traditional art of Mepantingan being an important component. Students, aged between three and 15, learn by doing, with each child tending to their very own vegetable patch.

And as part of that commitment to greening the environment, Green School is built entirely out of bamboo – even its blackboards, desks, chairs and lamps.

Bamboo is the latest darling of eco-conscious architects, designers and manufacturers all over the world. The demand worldwide is high for bamboo for clothing, flooring, furniture and as building material.

Bamboo’s environmental benefits arise largely out of its ability to grow and spread quickly – in some cases, one meter a day – without the need for fertilizers, pesticides or much water.

A bamboo grove also releases some 35 per cent more oxygen into the air than a similar-sized stand of trees. One hectare of bamboo can sequester up to 12 tons of carbon a year.

Bamboo also reaches structural maturity in four to five years and produces a crop each year (compared to 30 to 50 years for most tropical hardwood trees), helping to improve soil conditions and prevent erosion along the way. Bamboo is so fast-growing that it can yield 20 times more timber than trees on the same area.

For the Hardys, bamboo was chosen not because there was lack of a better material – in current times, that is. It was chosen with an eye to the future.

John said, in an email interview: “Green School chose bamboo in the spirit of plenty. With rapidly escalating world cement prices, not to mention the sheer amount of fossil fuel that cement consumes, we must look to alternative building materials.

The world needs it. We have run out of cheap natural resources. Bamboo is a renewable resource, which sequesters carbon into the bargain.”

Some cement was used, however. While most of the cement is primarily underground, a small percentage of the classroom floors are made from cement, but “in general we want Green School to be really green, which means less cement”.

In part, they have also chosen bamboo for the children.

“Frankly, it is hard to talk to students about sustainability while they are using the last piece of rainforest for their chair and their table. It is the painful truth that they are going to have to stretch to get enough rain forest timber to build their homes.

“Bamboo is available and plenty, and when it is treated with borax salt, it is rendered immune to the bugs that like to eat it, so it becomes a permanent material.

“Every student at Green School will have an opportunity to plant his or her own bamboo and, eventually, four to five years down the line, will have a chance to harvest, treat and build something with that bamboo,” he added.

John has certainly created beautiful structures with bamboo.

Not only do they blend in seamlessly with the environment – the local craftsmen and their time-honoured traditional building techniques no doubt played a big part in this – the Green School buildings are engineering marvels in their own right.

Take the school’s administrative centre, the Heart of School.

Heart of School, built at a cost of US$225,000, is a majestic, three-storey building containing three interconnecting spirals. Towering over 20 meters tall, it enjoys over 2,000 sq m of floor space. Building the structure – construction started in late 2008, has taken 2,630 bamboo poles and 10,000 strips of alang-alang roofing. It houses the school library, IT laboratory, meeting rooms, exhibition spaces and offices.

John’s passion and belief in bamboo doesn’t just end with the school and its children.

Through the Meranggi Foundation, he encourages local Balinese farmers to grow bamboo. The Foundation works with farmers across Bali by providing seedlings of commercially viable bamboo to participating farmers free of charge.

The Foundation maintains detailed planting records, monitor bamboo growth rates and the associated carbon capture, and secures markets for future bamboo trade.

It has now already planted 15,000 seedlings with farmers across Bali. It is estimated that in seven years, that will yield 1,500,000 poles – enough to “grow” 150 new buildings every year.

However, the journey is just beginning for the Meranggi Foundation.

In an interview with Green School student for the school’s student newsletter, Chris Majors, the bamboo nursery’s manager, shared that some farmers they approach “don’t want any involvement in what we’re doing, and some want hundreds of plants right away… what we’ve learned is not to do hard sells”.

“Work with farmers who are willing and will help spread the bamboo word,” he added.

“A change in perspective will take more than a few months… The potential of bamboo has not yet been embraced fully by the Balinese. It will be quite a while before farmers come to us after the first harvests.”

Such is the reality of the task at hand for the Foundation.

But ever the epitome of someone who lives the life he believes in, John has this advice:

“If you need a lot of timber in the future, don’t look for wood, look for bamboo.

“It fixes a huge amount of carbon in the soil and this is a good solution in the world of ever escalating problems. It is a rapid solution to some of the problems that are facing us.

“Plant bamboo.”

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1. Tell me about Green Drinks Singapore.

Green Drinks Singapore is a non-profit group, which tries to involve everybody, and every environmental interest through our documentary screenings, free talks by industry experts, discussions, workshops and networking sessions. Since we started out, we have evolved from just networking sessions to having a diverse range of programmes. In addition, we have grown a following of more than 700 members on Facebook, and have been featured several times in the media, such as Channel NewsAsia, The Straits Times, Time Out, Her World and Female, among others.

2. What led you to take a stand on the environment?

I never thought I’d be the one saying this but doing absolutely nothing or being indifferent would certainly keep me awake at night. I suppose it’s because I have always hated injustice as a child, and it’s like watching a movie where the bad guy gets away with a heinous crime and is never prosecuted in the end. Except it’s in real life: The bad guy comes in the form of corporations that operate not illegally but immorally, and sell us a product that has either abused animals or people, or are loaded with pesticides or chemicals. We live in a world where every product is unethical unless otherwise implied when it should be the other way around!

The short answer to this question is that I’d only realised my passion for the environment a few years ago when I felt irked by the lack of accessible recycling facilities. Also, I started reading up more about the environment and becoming more aware of how everything and everybody around us is interconnected. I knew then that I had to do something. Something and not nothing.

3. Why Green Drinks?

We are called Green Drinks because we have adopted the Singapore franchise of the global movement, which started in London. It is termed as such because it has everything to do with the environment, and in an informal setting, preferably over drinks. I first got to know about it when I read a 2007 issue of the American edition of Women’s Health, and thought to myself, “I got to start that in Singapore!”

4. What are you doing on a daily basis to get others involved in green issues?

First of all I make sure that I walk the talk, because one has to set an example in order to convince and encourage others to adopt a change in mindset. As often as I can, I submit articles to environmental-centric portals like eco-business.com and Green Kampong to get the message out. Also, I’m always thinking of ways to engage people through Green Drinks, to keep things current and fun, while being educational at the same time.

Recently, I also started a public relations practice called Sustainable PR, targetting only SMEs in the environmental sector. I hope to use this as a vehicle to push the green economy along by increasing awareness and driving demand for green products and services.

5. Do you think green products can be visually desirable as well?

Certainly! Let’s start with ethical shoe company Terra Plana, which uses discarded leather sourced from NGOs and minimises the use of heavy metals and toxic adhesives in their range of gorgeous shoes. They also use recycled materials to make their shoes, such as recycled rubber, PET bottles, and rice husks.

Another company that successfully marries form and function would be Bloomerang that manufactures bloomerHang hangers made out of recycled cardboard. Using the surface area as advertising space, the product is as eco-friendly and ethical as can be using only soy-based ink in the printing process, and of course, being recyclable.

Others include CHOOSE the eco store and Qi Global’s stocks which includes Nahui Ollin’s candy wrapper bags, Escama Studio’s ringpull bags and several other ethical products, such as Ethletic shoes and soccer balls. CHOOSE also carries the Wattson electricity monitor, which looks very stylish. Also worth checking out are Echo’s beautiful range of Gulguvenc products made using PET bottles.

6. How would green utopia look to you?

It would be a world devoid of all forms of chemicals such as cigarettes, disposable ware and advertisements. Every product would have as minimal packaging as possible, and people would reduce consumption and not just think of recycling. Homes and building would feature sustainable design and have little use for air conditioning. Careful town planning will also be done to ensure easy use of bicycles and there will be plenty of green spaces to act as the lungs of the city-state. It would be nice to see only electric cars on the road!

Also, I would like to see the government invest more in alternative energy like solar energy and vertical-axis wind turbines so as to reduce reliance on fossil fuels. In addition, the government could encourage composting in town councils, as well as communal vegetable plots to encourage community bonding.

7. What advice do you have for a layman to begin going green?

I would encourage people to start by being more mindful about where everything comes from and where everything goes. If it is not immediately obvious, I would suggest doing some research on the Internet, which holds a wealth of information. For example, one could go to www.cosmeticdatabase.com to find out exactly what toxins lurk in their trusted skincare product. Reading labels is another kind of behaviour I would encourage. It is always good to know what you are really buying, especially if you are buying this for a loved one. This applies to food as well.

Does your chocolate bar or ice cream contain palm oil? Was it sustainably sourced, or are you one of the demand drivers for the orangutans losing their habitat, or worse, their lives? When you shop for furniture, are you buying wood? If so, is it sustainably sourced, or are you contributing to deforestation? When cleaning your clothes, would you take them to the dry cleaners, which uses the toxic chemical perchloroethylene, that poses not only an eco risk, but a health risk to staff, and is only effective on oil-based stains, which exempts sweat and wine? Why not try the wet cleaners instead?

Lastly, it is worth remembering that we are all interconnected and part of an ecosystem. Whenever we disrupt the process of nature, whether it is to do with the oceans, animals, or environment, we will inevitably be affected.

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Clean and Green

One day, however, the chance combination of being frustrated by a broken hanger found in his locker and seeing a creative wall advertisement in the locker room resulted in the idea of bloomerHang®, an eco-friendly hanger that doubles up an advertising platform.

In June 2008, Zhiwen founded bloomerang, a $10,000 start-up. His former junior college classmate, Wong Joon Ian, also 28, joined him later in August the same year. Currently, bloomerHang is the sole product offered by bloomerang and it is 100% environmentally friendly.

The biodegradable hangers are made in Singapore from recycled paper board and card board, held together by water-based glue and carry advertisements printed in earth-friendlier soy inks. The glossy advertisements are also given their shine by an oil varnish instead of a thin film of plastic or spot UV varnish typically used in product packaging and magazines.

Unlike abroad, despite the high volume—tens of thousands—of hangers used every month, few laundry and dry cleaning service providers here encourage customers to return their plastic hangers for reuse. According to the waste statistics and recycling rate in 2009 from the National Environment Agency, only eight per cent of plastics used in Singapore are recycled.

“We have seen our bloomerHang perform in laundry operations as well as under retail operations’ conditions and we are working on the feedback received from the businesses and end-users to constantly improve our bloomerHang.” said Zhiwen, addressing the concern that the paper board hangers are not as sturdy. bloomerang is a finalist in the President’s Design Award 2009.

Produced by social enterprise Bloomerang, the innovative concept of well-designed and eco-friendly paper hanger bloomerHang, which is a finalist in the President’s Design Award 2009, relates a creative business idea with low capital start up. Bloomerang does not rely on the grants or funding that sometimes comes with the social tag. But at the same time, it fulfills both environmental and social aims.

Green Advertising

However, yet another concern that the duo are often questioned about is that they are more expensive to produce and hence, more costly for users.

The cost of a bloomerHang is many times higher than that of a plastic hanger and instead of producing overseas where costs of production are low, they chose to produce bloomerHang in Singapore for easier quality control checks and for a smaller carbon footprint by cutting back on the carbon emission from overseas and overland freight transportation.

But here is where the ingenuity of the social enterprise steps in.

Advertisers looking for a novel and targeted platform to advertise their products and services cross-subsidise these hangers. For example, Terra Plana, a UK lifestyle shoe brand, which has two outlets at the ION Orchard and Mandarin Gallery, pays for 5,000 bloomerHang to be distributed through bloomerang’s closed channels. These bloomerHangs carry Terra Plana’s brand messages, as well as a discount coupon.

Paper hanger ads bloomerHangs are distributed through laundry and dry cleaning service providers, hotels and boutique hostels for backpackers and gyms such as the Green ‘n’ Clean Laundry, the Gallery Hotel and Dynaforce gyms. To discourage indiscriminate abuse of the free hangers, bloomerang charges a stipend sum of five cents, a marked discount from plastic hangers sold to the launderers, for example, at 13 cents per piece. However, bloomerang hopes to move to a truly free model in the near future.

Green and Good

It is a win-win for the distributors, advertisers as well as end-users and the environment. Businesses like the launderers, gyms, and hotels receive these eco-hangers at a much lower price while advertisers get their messages across to highly sought after audiences including households of PMEBs, sports enthusiasts, tourists and independent travelers to Singapore.

Now, freshmen and seniors staying on campus would also have access to bloomerHangs as well—the eco-hangers are found in the wardrobes on NUS and NTU campuses. SMU student hostels have recently signed up as well.

For users like Josephine Cheong, she reuses her bloomerHang for some of her laundry until they tear then guiltlessly dump them when they can no longer be used.

“I feel good using the environmentally-friendly hangers because they do much less damage to the environment. Besides, they look much better than the usual ugly plastic ones and are much lighter than the wooden ones,” said Ms Cheong, who often has to dump the many plastic hangers that come with her laundry.

To date, bloomerang has replaced some 30,000 plastic hangers with its recycled and 100% biodegradable paper board and cardboard eco-hangers.

To find out how to save the earth one hanger at a time, visit Bloomerang’s website here.

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Cassandra finds her way around with the aid of a collapsible walking stick.

You may have heard the expression “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”, but is that really true? What comes to mind when you see a blind person walking down the street? According to most people I ask, they tell me they either feel pity or admiration.

It totally shocked me once when I heard a few aunties behind me in the MRT whispering: “Poor thing, they have to live in a home… People have to bath and feed them.”

On the other side of the spectrum, there are also those that look upon people like me as demi-gods for they think our ability to do the simple things in life as extraordinary. The daily little things I enjoy doing for my family and myself like surf the net, cook, bake, and even make-up seem so wondrous to them.

But to me, it’s just doing things a little different from others to get the same end result. Having passion for the things I do drives me in life.

I love to surf the net; technology is such an amusement for me. With the aid of my speech-software, I am able to use a regular computer. My speed-reading of audio messages on my Mobile phone or laptop often amazes sighted friends. But really, all of us can do the same. The sighted speed read with their eyes; I just do it with my ears. It’s not like I have supernatural hearing abilities, it’s just that I depend on my hearing more than the sighted folks and got better at it over time.

Blinded from the age of eight from a degenerative eye condition called Stargardts. People often think I face many more life challenges than the usual man on the street.

Dinner time - Cassandra makes it a point to feed her daughter, Kady, personally.

But the reality is that I am just an ordinary girl with bigger dreams and a lot of resilience. I am not only a mom to my beautiful angel and a street busker, I am also studying to be a counsellor.

Always look on the bright side. Keep on the sunny side.

Lyrics like these hold more than a grain of truth for me. For the last eight years, I have been singing on the streets of Singapore.

For me, busking is a fun job with flexible hours. One of the most memorable things that happened during one of my busking sessions was when a foreign sounding guy followed me to the taxi stand after I ended the session and talked to me all the way. The flipper was when he asked: “May I have your hand in marriage?” Up to today I thank my lucky stars that just at that moment a taxi pulled up and I jumped in without answering!

However, not everyday is filled with such colorful events. On another occasion, tourists requesting song after song of which titles I never heard of before surrounded me. Good thing was that at about the 10th foreign-sounding song requests, I hear “Yue Liang Dai Biao Wo De Xin.” A busker’s staple.

I don’t find any additional challenge being a visually impaired busker. My job scope is the same as others in my line of work. I perform, brighten up the day of passer-bys, and put a smile on their faces. Sight is not a requisite to do my job well. Moreover, I am thankful to have many blind ambassadors in the music industry that lead the way for people like me to be acceptable.

One of my beliefs is to never give up; tiny successes always lead to bigger ones.

When I was a teenager I always had dreams to do something in the helping profession, but what was a blind girl to do? Not a doctor, not a nurse or a vet as I would have liked, so I put aside my dreams in my 20s and chose to have fun and do the things that swept me off my feet such as getting married, showing dogs and singing.

In recent years, however, the dreams started haunting my nights again. The little voice inside my head kept asking: “Where’s the girl that wanted to do good?”

“Oh, but I have been out of school for over 10 years by now and have so much on my plate, having a little girl of my own, doing the nine to five. Where was I to begin?,” I thought.

But on my 30th birthday, I spent the entire day ransacking my storeroom looking for the coveted box containing all my papers and report cards from my school days.

When I finally found the result slip I so casually put away 10 years ago I nearly fainted, what or rather where was I to go looking for a second career with such poor results?

Returning to school after a decade, Cassandra hopes to touch lives with her acquired skills.

But I did not give up then. I decided then to start from taking the TOEFL and lucky for me, I did rather well. Next up was to look for a university to study counseling, for I have decided that my life journey was incomplete until I entered the helping profession and what better way than becoming a counsellor?

Starry-eyed with my TOEFL results, I approached all the top universities offering counselling programmes, but the first few slammed their doors on me. One even told me: “Sorry but if you have a visual problem, we don’t want you even if we don’t have to do anything extra to help. Go somewhere else!”

Still, I refused to give up – the same resilience, or some might say stubbornness, egged me on.

Finally, I chanced upon an obscure website offering a Masters in professional counseling with a university in Australia and I called them. Although the school is not very well known and I have to travel from west to east to get to school, I jumped in without a moment’s hesitation. And now I’m doing my Graduate Diploma in Counselling.

When I complete my Masters, I intend to make my dream of helping others come true. I would advise all to get employed doing the thing they love best, for I believe when one’s work is her passion, it is no longer work.

My vision is to be able to help people who have lost the ability to see in the height of their life. I would love to hold their hand and walk with them, helping them find the resilience to come back and join the rest of us. I would like them to feel  “What a wonderful world we live in!” and help them see the pretty colors of the rainbow in the night. There is still so much to live for even when ability is taken away from us. I wish to rub off if only a little of the resilience inside of me to touch these people in limbo land.

To end off, I wish to share a verse of my favorite song by Dianna Ross, in times when I feel beaten, singing this beautiful song renews my strength.

“Live believing
Dreams are for weaving
Wonders are waiting to start
Live your story
Faith hope and glory
Hold to the truth
In your heart…”

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The recent flourishing of social enterprises to support and integrate the visually impaired community is a heartening sign of Singapore society progressively becoming more inclusive.

These social enterprises range from traditional outfits employing the visually impaired people in consumer services, such as the Society for the Physically Disabled’s (SPD) mobile massage and car-washing services, to more unconventional social initiatives that cater to the aesthetic needs and creative potential of the visually-impaired. The latter group of social initiatives or rather, innovations, not only enables the visually impaired to develop artistic skills and self-confidence for employment but also actively creates opportunities for them to showcase their talents.

In part one of our series in highlighting such social initiatives and innovations for the visually impaired, we present Clay IN-SIGHT, an art-therapy course that provides the visually-impaired with the opportunities to craft, exhibit and market their own pottery art.

Creating beauty from scratch

Another inspiring programme providing creative opportunities for the visually-impaired in Singapore is Clay IN-SIGHT.

Elaine Wong, a clay artist in her earlier years, longed to return to the art despite her inability to see. “Being a part of a pottery workshop has really given me a real sense of achievement,” said Elaine. “The activity itself is an enjoyable hobby and here we have the chance to interact with sighted volunteers, establish rapport with others and also develop marketable skills.”

More importantly, Elaine believes that Clay IN-SIGHT creates a real opportunity for integration, as artworks are a common medium that both sighted and non-sighted people can communicate through.

One of these venues was the recently concluded Clay IN-SIGHT Exhibition, hosted at PaTH Market at Vivocity in December last year. The exhibition showcased the works of fourteen Clay IN-SIGHT participants.

One of exhibitors, Ben Wong, created a pair of footprints. To him, his artwork symbolizes the importance of taking the first step in every endeavor–a fitting symbol for a programme with a far-reaching impact.

“The exhibition was a great success,” quipped Ben, “It really showed the public’s willingness to purchase our art and to support us. Many remarked that the pieces

were sincere and expressive, and we had the opportunity to explain our inspiration to them too.”

Launched in April last year, Clay IN-SIGHT is a unique pottery programme designed specially to help visually-impaired participants interested in art and craft to manifest their inner visions into physical reality through the use of the clay.

Jointly organised by pottery workshop Clay-Street and the Singapore Association for the Visually Handicapped (SAVH), Clay IN-SIGHT has reached out to about fifteen SAVH members to date, who attend fortnightly classes facilitated by a team of twenty volunteers that assist the visually-impaired participants on a one-to-one basis.

Programme coordinator T. C. Kok shared that there are plans for the images of these artworks, which range from cups and bowls to personalized pieces such as nameplates and footprints, to be placed online. Members of the public and corporate representatives can then place orders for these pieces to serve as gifts or ornaments.

Beyond creating a space for the visually impaired to express themselves, Clay IN-SIGHT also help members of the public to understand and interact with the visually-impaired. Volunteers, too, have found their experience with Clay IN-SIGHT very meaningful.

“This is really another perspective on volunteering–where our role is essentially as facilitators to help the visually impaired make their visions into reality,” explained volunteer and clay artist Theingi Wint Wint Soe.

“We use highly visual language to enable them to know precisely what to do, which is a new form of communication for me. It is truly amazing what they can imagine, and their sense of touch is very strong so I don’t find it difficult to work them at all!”

Madhuri Wagle added: “The main challenge we face is in figuring out what it is that the artist wants to create and to help them get there. But things don’t have to perfect–in fact it is the imperfections that make these pieces so unique!”

Beyond the exhibition, Clay IN-SIGHT aspires to contribute to the green movement in 2010 through Drink towards a Greener Earth, a social initiative to promote wider usage of re-washable ceramic mugs in organizations and at work in place of disposable plastic or foam cups.

Through creating spaces for participants to learn personal grooming skills and to market their artistic talents with the support of friends and expert guidance, Clay IN-SIGHT fill a unique niche in the social enterprise landscape–enabling the visually-impaired to develop more self-confidence through practicing their art.

You can support Clay IN-SIGHT by stepping forward to volunteer their services as a workshop facilitator, or donate directly to Clay IN-SIGHT. For more information on how you can support this project, please contact Mr. Alvin Yong at alvin@clay-street.com.

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Kendra is a professional guide dog, and her job is to guide her master to various places—office, lunch, and the gym among others.

She is extensively trained from the tender age of two months old to be well behaved while at work as well as confidently and safely assist her master in crossing busy traffic junctions and through crowded sidewalks and shopping malls. Kendra and her master travel all over our sunny island on buses, trains, taxis, and even on board a plane at times.  When they are not on the move, Kendra quietly tucks herself under Mr Kua’s chair and takes a little snooze to recharge for the next adventure.

Kendra, however, is currently a rare sight in Singapore. She is the only guide dog in Singapore now. Kendra is a generous donation from The Guide Dogs for the blind INC. (GDB) based in America, who hopes to see mobility of Singaporean visually impaired improve through the use of guide dogs.

But thanks to The Guide Dogs Association of the Blind in Singapore (GDAB), Kendra would not be alone much longer. Arrangements are currently made for more guide dogs to arrive in the coming months.

Kendra’s owner, also a founding member of GDAB, Mr. Kua Cheng Hock said: “A guide dog exponentially enhances the safety and independence of a visually impaired individual.”

He added: “Guide dogs are especially important in Singapore as our fast pace of life often means family members or passersby do not have the time to help a sight challenged person cross the road or get to the place he or she would like to go.”

Mr. Kua is deeply passionate about helping fellow visually challenged individuals be able to lead independent and more productive lives. He has been campaigning for the lawful use of guide dogs by the visually impaired in Singapore for more than three decades.

In 1982, Mr. Kua brought an Australian trained guide dog to Singapore but had to return it, as the culture here, such as establishments and public transport, was extremely unreceptive of a guide dog. Saddened but not discouraged, Mr. Kua continued to lobby for improvements in public areas for the use of guide dogs so that the visually impaired of Singapore may better travel about.

Finally, in 2005, Mr. Kua came together with a few philanthropic friends bound by their love of dogs and their compassion for the visually impaired, and formed GDAB. Their vision is to provide a high level of quality care for the visually impaired by providing a trained guide dog for suitable individuals, as well as to make changes in our environment to integrate guide dogs. The GDAB also hopes to raise funds for professionally trained mobility instructors to provide continual support to beneficiaries and their guide dogs after training.

Since 2005, GDAB has improved the infrastructural support for the use of guide dogs in Singapore. For one, they obtained approval from the authorities, allowing guide dogs to live in HDB flats (public housing), where usually only small dogs are allowed as pets. Also, through GDAB’s continuous lobbying, guide dogs are now exempted from legislations that prohibit the entry of animals into food establishments and onto public transport.

Nonetheless, more doors need to be opened for the ease of guide dogs use in Singapore. GDAB still has much work ahead of them as they aim to make Singapore a friendlier city for the visually impaired. Currently, some of GDAB’s projects are working on raising awareness in the general public through school and community talks as well as visiting businesses and service providers like hotels and hospitals all over the country to invite them to be guide dogs-friendly establishments.

According to Mr Kua, the challenges of having a guide dog now are similar to that of 28 years ago. Although media interviews have helped broaden awareness and access to guide dogs here has improved, there is still much to be done to educate the public about the legislation in order to ease the use of guide dogs in Singapore.

For example, people are still afraid that guide dogs may bite them and taxi drivers fear that guide dogs may dirty their taxis. All these misperceptions are largely due to lack of awareness—the general public would often label a guide dog as just another pet. Most are unaware that guide dogs are even better behaved as they are professionally trained to help enhance the lives of their visually impaired owners.

In the past, Mr Kua, a very active sportsman, was reluctant to visit the gym in fear that it would inconvenience others who might worry for his safety. Because of the many fitness equipments there, people would often stop their work out fearing Mr Kua’s white cane would get caught and he would fall or jam the equipment.

Now with the help of Kendra, he could now confidently and safely make his way around them in the gym. Additionally, his social life blossomed whiles taking Kendra downstairs to relieve herself—he got to know more of his neighbours.

There looks to be a happy ending for Mr. Kua’s dream of enabling the visually impaired to enjoy life better through the use of guide dogs. Now, in partnership with the guide dogs school in America and with the expertise of GDAB’s board members, which includes veterinarians, opthalmologists and lawyers, what was once a dream is slowly but surely turning into reality.

To find out more or if you wish to lend a helping hand to GDAB, please visit GDAB at http://www.guidedogs.org.sg/.

About the Author: This article is written by guest writer Cassandra Chiu, who was blinded from the age of eight from degenerative eye condition Stargardts. She also shares her life experiences, hope and dreams of being a counsellor with SEforum here.

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He spends most of his day serving its residents, many of whom form the vibrant migrant population there.

Shin Yong is co-founder of HealthServe, a non-profit organisation that was set up in 2006 and which caters largely to the needs of the migrant workers and the local poor and needy in Singapore. HealthServe aims to raise awareness, empathy and acceptance of vulnerable and marginalised communities in Singapore and aboard and their services include areas in service learning, research, outreach, counseling and medical treatment.

“Migrant workers make up a significant part of our workforce of about a quarter,” said Shin Yong. “But they are also the ones who lack most access to healthcare services. Hence, we set up HealthServe to fill this gap.”

According to the Ministry of Manpower, the number of foreigners form a 35.2% of total employment in December 2009.

But it is not just about providing services, said Shinyong, it is also about building rapport with the people you serve and understanding their needs.

In the beginning, the migrant workers living in Geylang were apprehensive about HealthServe’s first clinic in Geylang. Volunteer doctors who expect the clinic–which provides medical services at low rate of $5–to be crowded, was shocked by the turnout. For the first three months the clinic was open, there were barely any patients.

Shinyong likens it to walking into a kampung where nobody knows them.

“We cannot just walk into a community blindly and do our thing. We will surely meet with problems. Similarly, when we set up our clinic here without first knowing or understanding them, they say why $5 so cheap? ” said Shin Yong.

“So the volunteer doctors and I went out of our comfort zone and walked the streets. We met the people in the area; we shook hands with everyone and introduced ourselves. When they understand where we are coming from, people then started coming in. “

Now that patients are pouring in, they may call or email to make reservations for treatment at the clinic. Between HealthServe’s clinic in Geylang and a partner clinic in Little India, healthcare services are available three days a week.

“Other than financial and medical needs, the migrant workers have mental and emotional needs as well. We hope to cultivate a strong sense of community like a kampung (at HealthServe) in Jurong,” said Shin Yong, who plans to make the new arm of HealthServe in Jurong “like a community centre”.

Asked Shin Yong: “If you don’t even understand the community, then who are you really serving?”

Community seems like the buzzword here at Healthserve. Regular leisure activities such as ping pong sessions and festive celebrations are a common sight there.

“Through bridge-building events like Games Day and dumpling parties, barriers are broken and many workers found friendship with Singaporeans,” said Feng Guang, a Chinese national who is now logistics and migrant support manager at HealthServe, one of the organisation’s seven full-time staff. In the last dumpling-making session, more than 1,000 dumplings in Chinese jiaozi style and Nepali momo style were made.

On top of getting word of their healthcare services out, HealthServe volunteers and staff’s interactions with the migrant workers–and building a community with them–also open a window into their world.

As they find out more needs of their patients, they grew from a clinic in Geylang to provide pro-bono legal services, HIV screening tests and social assistance on top of the initial subsidised medical care. HealthServe also distributes public health information and materials to commercial sex workers, migrant workers and vulnerable groups in the community, and conducts elementary conversation English classes for foreign workers.

“When you know them–the community–you will find out about their other needs. So from medical services, we helped to find help for legal advice, then HIV screening and then counseling… It all comes together,” said Shin Yong.

He cites an example of how HealthServe considers every aspect of help that may be required: Chinese national Jing* came to Singapore late last year to claim her alimony, which her Singaporean ex-husband has not fulfilled since 2007. Two years ago, when she went to Sichuan with her daughter, Xiao Yan*, the major earthquake struck.

Now, on top of rendering her legal advice, Jing undergoes counseling at HealthServe in a bid to put the trauma from the earthquake behind her. HealthServe will also be providing mother and daughter financial assistance for a year upon their return to China.

Other than growing their portfolio of services, social enterprises under the HealthServe wing also grew to include travel immunisation packages and a thrift shop in Geylang.

“To meet more felt needs of the migrant workers, we set up the social enterprises as an engine for our financial sustainability,” added Shin Yong. HealthServe’s services are currently supported by donors, foundations and the social enterprises under its wing.

Next, HealthServe has future plans to move into working with more governmental agencies. Currently, the social enterprise has already partnered with the Youth Expedition Project (YEP), Health Promotion Board, Ngee Ann Polytechnic and the National University of Singapore among others.

Said Shin Yong: “We wish to work with other VWOs and like-minded agencies to collaborate and share resources to provide more services for the less marginalised, whether it is for the same group of people or not.”

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Her responsibilities include management, balancing finances and handling discipline problems as well as duties down to the smaller tasks such as ensuring that everyone has enough food, manning one of the help-desks, and even buy groceries.

The day does not end until twelve hours later, when she returns home only to continue with work that can be done from her second home – where she lives but spends less time in – such as to clear H.O.M.E. emails on her handy Blackberry.

This is a typical day in the life of Bridget, founder and president of H.O.M.E., for the six years since she begun the non-profit organisation.

It all started in 2004 when she became acquainted with issues concerning the marginalisation of migrant workers in Singapore through a Fillipino priest. He was looking for volunteers who were willing to aid mistreated Filipino migrant workers in Singapore, where the welfare of domestic workers is largely determined by employers and governed by few laws.

For example, domestic workers in Singapore are not included under the Employment Act, which regulates working hours and conditions, due to the nature of their work in a home environment. For them, weekly day offs are not mandatory although employers are encouraged to grant their domestic worker rest days. Otherwise, the domestic worker should be compensated in cash.

However, the contract does not specify a domestic worker’s salary. On top of the commonly debated issue on day offs, foreign workers also have to bare the brunt of xenophobic feelings towards them in the neighbourhood such as in the much publicised case of Serangoon Gardens.

Hence, when she first learned of the plight of the domestic workers, Bridget, who came from a background of human resource management, was appalled.

She cites two examples why: An average domestic worker earns about 350 Singapore dollars a month for working 30 days and for about 16 hours a day. That boils down to less than a dollar an hour – a measly wage for all the hard work an average domestic worker has to do daily. Also, an average condominium’s architect would often construct the maid’s room just enough to fit a single bed and often without much ventilation.

But what’s worse, says Bridget, is that the majority of the domestic workers here do not even have a weekly day off.

“These are the basics. You should treat your domestic worker like how you want your employer to treat you. Wouldn’t you want a day off each week?” said Bridget. “Besides, you can resign if you want to but these workers can hardly do that. They may have to top up their loan to be referred to a new employer. If not, their work permit will be cancelled and they will be sent home penniless.”

Without an appropriate counsel, these domestic workers may suffer any oppression or even abuse that they meet with silence rather than risk getting sent back to their home countries. Or they may also be forced to leave without a trial or any compensation due to the lack of evidence.

Other times, as it takes a considerable amount of time for investigations to be completed, these workers would simply choose to return home as there is nowhere here that they can go to for shelter and no one here to help them.

And this is where HOME steps in.

“We’ve not done too bad over the past five years,” Bridget said. HOME has gone beyond its initial vision to provide counseling and paralegal assistance to migrant workers under duress from their employers. It has established two shelters to provide for migrant workers who are no longer able to reside with their employers due to abuse or threat.

Also, HOME runs a 24-hour helpline and two help-desks for workers in distress. The organisation is the only humanitarian endeavour in Singapore that provides shelter for migrant workers.

But six years, a Nobel nomination, and several success stories later, Bridget remains humble about the immense value and service that H.O.M.E. offers in Singapore. A devout Catholic, Bridget credits her success to her faith. “Faith has often enabled me to overcome the fear of running into financial difficulties,” said Bridget.

H.O.M.E.’s biggest challenge lies in finding sufficient funds to sustain their shelters. “We need at least $20,000 a month, or 250,000 a year,” said Bridget.

That was one of the reasons why Bridget decided to set up StarHome, a work placement service of a social enterprise, in 2005. She hoped that the social enterprise would be a helpful part of the mission and at the same time, generate some income for H.O.M.E.. But despite her setting up StarHome out of her own pocket, there were opposition from some profit-making employment agencies that accused her of making money out of her mission and being unfair competition.

“There was a perceived conflict of interest with running H.O.M.E. at the same time, and since it was never profitable anyway, I gave it away to an ex-domestic worker who is currently running a shelter in Batam,” said Bridget, who ran StarHome for three years before taking the practical route out by giving it away at her own loss.

She shares her lesson on social enterprise learnt: “It is not easy running a social enterprise. You have to consider whether the business will become a liability for the organisation instead. That is why I set it up under my own name. And later, rather than spend the time changing public opinion, I chose to focus on the mission at hand by giving it away to someone whom I can trust.”

In fact, Bridget also had ideas to set up a thrift shop to raise funds but due to the nature of H.O.M.E. – it serves foreigners rather than locals – they were unable to get tax exemptions or subsidized rental like the other charities and the plan was shelved.

Still, rather than giving up on H.O.M.E. due to tight finances, Bridget employs her experience in the field of human resource to the fullest – H.O.M.E. is run entirely by volunteers. By recognising and matching the skills of their volunteers with the needs of migrants workers in Singapore, H.O.M.E. has managed to maximise the capacity of its volunteers to running the organisation at as little cost as possible. Bridget, for one, works full-time without pay.

But finances aside, she says, almost as challenging is changing the mindsets of the local society.

Said Bridget: “Migrant workers aren’t popular with the locals.”

“People have said that I’m so foolish for investing so much time and money in this work. I even had to convince my own mother and daughter that the work I do is for a just cause.”

When she just begun, Bridget received obscenities on her mobile from some employment agencies who felt threatened by H.O.M.E.’s existence and people who oppose her work such as employers who had their maids protected through H.O.M.E..

On the other hand, she has also met people who encourage her greatly especially those through their actions – good employers who treat their domestic workers well by giving them the basic weekly day off and some, even sending them for courses to improve themselves.

“But the good employers I’ve seen are largely the angmohs,” said Bridget. “Perhaps it is the culture we were brought up in.”

The social and economical impact of migrant workers has long been an international agenda. For example, the rights of migrant workers lists third on the United Nations global agenda. However, the Convention on Protection of Rights of Migrant Workers, which was adopted in 1990 and acceded by 21 states, is not acceded here in Singapore.

It might well be a result of our culture but Bridget trusts that the Singaporean government is beginning to realize the impact and importance of addressing migrant worker issues.

“Neglecting them may result in severe repercussions such as a strain on diplomatic problems or a stain on Singapore’s image as a choice of city for foreign talents to work in, especially when about one third of our population is made up of foreign workers,” said Bridget.

“Therefore, there should be more in terms of social services for foreign workers and Singaporeans of all people should understand. After all, most of our ancestors are migrants themselves.”

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