Building Bhutan: The SIF Way

The Kingdom of Bhutan is breathtakingly beautiful, and for many centuries, has been isolated from the rest of the world. But with the fingers of tourism creeping into its social fabric, its people are desiring to keep up - in particular, to jump on the IT bandwagon & hit the Internet highway.

I feel proud that as Singaporeans, we have a lot to offer in terms of sharing knowledge, skills & resources. And thanks to the Singapore International Foundation (SIF), Bhutanese teacher-trainees now get the opportunity to learn from our volunteers.

We had the pleasure of chatting with two Bhutanese teacher-educators, Karma Galey (Samtse College of Education) and Ugyen Wangchuk (Paro College of Education) today. I must say I was very impressed by their spoken English! I've never met anyone from Bhutan before, and so relished the idea of discovering more about their culture.

We're told that college students in Bhutan are so hungry to learn that their computer labs on campus are open 24 hours. In fact, they have no qualms about queuing up to use the computers in the wee hours of the morning!

There's so much that can be done for the Bhutanese, like equipping their teachers so that they can in turn equip the students. And the ripple effect will be tremendous: Youths make up 45% of Bhutan's population, so you can imagine how their social fabric will be gradually transformed!

Tam Peck Hoon, Manager at SIF, joined us today to tell us more about the NGO's work in Bhutan. What struck me about what Peck Hoon said was that for every computer that foreign organisations donate to Bhutan, a new one gets replaced by their government when it becomes obsolete. So their leaders are taking ownership and taking over.

Our friends from Bhutan Karma & Ugyen, together with SIF manager, Peck Hoon.

It's wonderful that in The Living Room, we have friends from all over the world warm our couch. Sure, it may not be the same as chatting with locals at a tea house 3,000m above sea level, but it sure comes close.

As an aside...

Stan & I were given new flat-screen monitors at work! *woohoo* This has freed up so much space that I can actually see my desk! I was so inspired that I springcleaned my table that very afternoon! *grin*

My desk looks pretty decent now. So Stan.... when are you levelling your moutain? Or shall I take a snapshot of your desk and post it on our blog? *evil cackle*

A Neu Man in An Old World Charm

He's a new man! From the third quarter of last year, he traded his class of secondary students for a roomful of government officials, some of whom could hardly string a sentence in English. He was paid half his salary by the Ministry of Education for six months and is presently on no-pay leave for the remaining six. To help him get by his stint as a volunteer, he gets an allowance as an in-field volunteer under the Singapore International Foundation's Singapore Volunteers Overseas (SVO) programme.

Meet Russel Neu Wee Teck - a secondary school teacher at East Spring Secondary in Tampines who's transplanted himself to teach English to Laotian government officials in Vientiane. He's a volunteer staff at Lao's Institute of Foreign Affairs (IFA) under their Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

His one-year stint will come to an end in the middle of this year, but he harbours hopes to have his stay extended by six months. This driven young man expresses his desire to stay on(subject to MOE's approval) due to how he's introduced curriculum changes to the course which equips the locals with English.

His supervisor at IFA, Ms Phimpa only had a glowing report card for Wee Teck and his dedication to his adult charges. She remarked how he not only made time to help his students outside of classroom hours, but how he even chipped in to help fill sandbags when the Mekong River threatened to break the banks last year.

Wee Teck's proactivity was also evident in his recommendations to tweak the current curriculum and the way he conducted his lessons in very creative ways, such as through music and movies.

Until he hears word on whether his request for an extension is approved, he's continuing to do Singapore proud by being our ambassador in the classroom among government officials of Laos.

It's been a wonderful linguistic exchange between Wee Teck and the locals. His command of Lao is enough to help him get by on a day to day basis at the markets and stalls that line the streets of Vientiane.

A Snapshot of Laos

Barely two weeks ago, I embarked on my second media trip to observe and feature the work of Singaporean volunteers overseas under the Singapore International Foundation's SVO programme. It was during my first trip in December last year where I was introduced to Singaporeans who were devoting their time, energy, resources and literally their life in Cambodia. This time, my eyes were opened in the Laotian capital of Vientiane.

Rural and rustic, some compare the city to the Singapore of the 60s. Landing at their airport, only three conveyor belts conveyed passenger baggage. The air was heavy, yet it wasn't so for the heart; there was an unhurried charm in the city. No metred taxis ply the roads, only three-wheelers or what resembled 'tuks-tuks' of Thailand.

The city's compact. No high-rise building attempted to pierce the sky. Apparently, there is a historical monument there of which no other building can surpass its height. However. work's begun in erecting the tallest building in the area - an eight storey shopping mall presently being built by Singapore investors, of which would be three quarters complete by the time Laos hosts the SEA Games at the end of the year.

About 60 Singaporeans are registered with the Singapore High Commission in Vientiane, but Singapore's Ambassador to Laos Benjamin Williams believes Singaporeans there number about a hundred. Apart from the new mall being built at the morning markets, there are also visual symbols that you can 'taste' Singapore right there. Notice APB's Tiger Beer brand on the sidewalk?

In fact, high-level state visits between the leaders of Singapore and Laos have intensified in recent years, suggesting that bilateral ties are surely improving. At the KuaLao Restaurant where I had local fare, there was a framed photograph of our President and the first lady atop a wine cabinet. What tickled my palate at dinner was the deep-fried Luang Prabang riverweed sprinkled with sesame seed and mak nam nom, or the 'milk' fruit - a name given to it due to the colour of the meat and juice. The peach-size fruit that looks purple or green on the outside, tastes like a cross between the mangosteen and duku langsat.

P(hysiotherapists) & R(ingers)

They assist in strengthening your muscles, work those liagments and ensure your joints don't stiffen at rehab. They help you regain your motor skills again. They are physiotherapists. And there's even something more special about them when they impart their knowledge and skills to skill-starved counterparts in developing nations like Cambodia.

Last week in Phnom Penh at the Technical School for Medical Care, I watched Tan Bee Yee (Senior Principal Therapist from the SGH Department of Physiotherapy) and her colleague Ng Yee Ling conduct a training class for seventeen Cambodian physiotherapists. They were part of a team of 12 volunteers sent there for the project under the Singapore International Foundation. This year marked the completion of the second cycle of a full year's training.

The trainees successfully completed the year-long training programme last weekend, graduating with an Advanced Certificarte in Physiotherapy Practice awarded by the Singapore General Hospital Postgraduate Allied Health Institute (SGH-PGAHI)

Dr Celia Tan who's Director of SGH-PGAHI and Team Leader is proud that her staff have in a small way contributed to the development of the physiotherapists there. She was also beaming when asked how much improvement she's seen in the way the Cambodian trainees (right) are treated their patients at their places of work in NGOs and hospitals there. It's not often I got a chance to speak to people who help people fix people!

Moving on to a 'live' conversation I had on the show today, those guests have surely left my ears ringing hours after I met them. The founder of the Ministry of Bellz, Damien Lim together with 5 ringers came armed with their English handbells and performed two pieces live in the studio. Here's a shot of them at the end of their session.