AJ team of 27  YOUTH VOLUNTEERS took a journey of a thousand miles to ascend the highlands of Inner Mongolia and embarked on the GREEN DESERT CHALLENGE in Jun.  The challenge:  to combat the desertification on the grasslands. and Northern China by building the Great Green Wall.

They raised about S$10,000 from families & friends and support from National Youth Council under the Youth Expedition Project (YEP) to plant 1000 trees in Duolun County of Inner Mongolia.  With a highly driven   “Mulan” team (21 ladies and 6 men) leading the charge, the challenge was met after 10 days of work digging and planting from 7am till 8pm daily, after the last drop of summer daylight disappeared from the grassland sky.

The Result?1023 trees! Great Beginning…

“PLANT AN ACRE OF GRASS LAND IN DUOLUN AND RECOVER A PIECE OF BLUE SKY IN BEIJING” is the slogan of the desertification project in Inner Mongolia since 2001.

Since 2002, Asian Journeys has been a partner and advocate for Inner Mongolia’s Duolun tree-planting project.  We have developed the project name “GREEN DESERT PROJECT” to challenge Singaporean youths to dream the dream of greening the desert. It is an oxymoron, and an ambitious and humongous dream.

“Pouring water into sand” and “hoping plants to bloom in the wastelands” are just some of the responses we have gotten since we started.  That has been the challenge of environmental efforts around the world, an exercise of seeming futility.  Another oft-heard remark: What can I do to make a difference? Why should I do it when the masses do not seem to bother?

As we like to say at AJ, citing Laozi:  The Journey of a Thousand Miles begins with the First Step. The First step counts, the first tree counts and now the first Thousand Trees have been planted with volunteers and donors.

We will plant 5000 trees in the first AJ tree-planting site, then the next 5000 trees in the next AJ site. We can Make A Difference in the green desert project.  Keith and Joyce and the 25 youth leaders are among our international volunteers at Asian Journeys who have made their journeys and… made a difference.

Keith and Joyce, two of AJ’s most enthusiastic green volunteers, believe in this and have been leading the charge with the Green Desert youth meetings from the first Sunday of the New Year in 2010.

A group of boys and girls from the Heartlands in Tiong Bahru attended the training session where they learnt about the Great Green Wall project.

Another hundred Cub Scouts joined the Green Desert Kids Club programme on Mar 27 at the Bedok Reservoir as we prepared them to observe Earth Hour that evening through learning about Trees Alive.

Keith and Joyce will prepare and lead a team of 20 youths and NUS undergraduates to Inner Mongolia in Jun 2010 to plant trees at the  Asian Journeys tree-planting site.  This is part of Asian Journeys’ endeavour to join the county government and villagers as they combat desertification over the past decade.

During our visit in April 2010, we experienced sandstorm as the entire county and grassland was ravaged by sand dust blown in from the north.  Much the sandstorm this year was carried as far as Wuhan and Taiwan as well as Hong Kong.

At Asian Journeys, we aim to plant 5000 trees over the next 3 years and raise S$10 for each Zhangzisong (fir) sapling we plant.

Corporate sponsorship will be welcomed as much as individual donations towards the youths’ efforts to build the GREAT GREEN WALL of China through planting millions of trees to stop the encroaching desert dunes from engulfing the grasslands.

JOIN US…Participate in your own ways…

As we plant trees in the desert and nurture youths in the heartlands, we invite you to partner us and invest in our next 10 years, …or is it the next 100 years?!

And the Trees of the Fields will clap their hands!!

SPEAK UP & SPEAK WELL

HAVE FUN, HAVE CONFIDENCE

DARE TO SHARE YOUR IDEAS & LEARN TO SPEAK UP WELL in

4 Sessions (Basic Workshop)

Tuesday evenings May 18,25 Jun 1, 8.  7-9pm

Office Address: Blk 743, Bedok Reservoir Rd, #02-3081

This 4-session Workshop series is designed to be an introductory course in encouraging youths to Speak Up and Learn the art of Speaking Well. It will build self-confidence in youths, develop skills for oral exams, build oratorical skills and train thinking skills. Participants will be given opportunities to practise speaking up at every session and learn what it takes to prepare a good speech, including speaking with confidence, the use of use of voice and speaking gestures, developing skills with words and rhetorical devices, and most importantly learning to listen and appreciate the various types of speeches for different occasions.

Training Pathway:

1. Getting Started: Speaking Up

Overcoming Fear of Speaking Up: Courage and Confidence to Try

2. Anatomy of a Good Speech: Start & End Well

Good Opener, Climatic Finish and a Solid Body in between

3. Speaking with Passion & Expressions

Speaking with Your Vocal & Body Language: Gestures & Postures

4. Speaking Well, Thinking Well

Rhetorical Strategies and Words that Linger

The Instructor/Coach:

Mr Lawrence Ko, Exec Director, Asian Journeys Ltd. BA (Hons)

Corporate Trainer and Consultant, Leadership Coach and Workshop Facilitator (SIM Univ, Civil Service College), Competent Toastmaster, charter member and former Vice-President(Education) of YMCA Toastmasters Club, formerly organising secretary of PESA inter-school/JC speech contests 1997-2000, speech contest judge, speechcraft workshop trainer and with extensive experience as leadership director & trainer with Overseas Radio and Television (ORTV) and Trans World Radio (TWR-Asia). Asian Journeys’ Speaking Skills training  is available for every youth interested in self-development, as part of Asian Journeys’ Red Dragonfly Project to encourage Youth Development in the Heartlands, supported by Lee Foundation. We have trained students from secondary schools, JCs, Polytechnics, university students and postgraduate students/doctoral fellows over the past year. Come join us!

Who can Join? Youths 14-17 years old. Foreign Students are welcomed. Workshop fees: $60.00

REGISTRATION … To register or enquire, email info@asianjourneys.org or call 96474904

or mail registration form to Mailing address: Asian Journeys, Bedok Central PO Box 729 Singapore 914611.

Over twenty foreign students converged at the first fellowship meeting of Asian Journeys’ international students club at a small auditorium chinese bookroom in Bras Basah Complex.

Ben Yeo and Zhou Jing shared their journey of conversations with Lawrence since Chinese New Year and their heartbeat of serving as volunteers of Asian Journeys to help reach out and organise international students living and studying in Singapore. Their aim is to build a community of friends who can grow and learn together in this precious springtime of their lives while they are away from home.

Lawrence Ko, ED of Asian Journeys, shared a message on the Global Youths of the 21st Century to encourage the youths to enjoy their journeys while in Singapore which is a global city, and to intentionally nurture themselves into global youths.

Six traits or global literacies were key to help them develop into self-confident cosmopolitan youths with social graces, etiquette and global perspectives. Living in the metropolis of Singapore or Asia, the youths need to be bicultural and indeed multicultural with cross-cultural skills and learning. The Global Youth of the 21st C needs also to be well read and well travelled and not be a frog in the well. As the Chinese proverb puts it, Read ten thousand books and travel ten thousand miles.

The Asian Journeys International Students Club will be an excellent platform to foster such a transnational mindset as there will be programmes for youth leadership development and short journeys into the terrains of neighbouring countries, and opportunities to make friends and build a sense of community here in Singapore.

Membership fees: $10.00.  Open to Foreign students in Singapore.

For membership enquiries/register for next meeting, please email info@asianjourneys.org

Next Meeting: Sat 29 May 7pm. Bras Basah Complex level 4. #04-41. Chinese Success media resources.

Volunteers welcomed to join

GREEN DESERT PROJECT

Youth Expedition Project (YEP)

NORTHERN CHINA – INNER MONGOLIA

A Community Service Project organized by ASIAN JOURNEYS

A Youth Expedition Project supported by National Youth Council (Singapore)

On 3 Jan 2010, Asian Journeys’ Green Desert YEP team comprising young leaders led by an architect, marketing manager, teachers as well as youth participants from Beyond Social Services, met for the first team preparation session over baked rice, curry puffs, snooker and team games.

This marked the first step of a journey towards the Jun 2010 YEP trip to Inner Mongolia for the team. Over the next 6 to 9 months, the team will gather regularly to learn through training and service and contribute creatively to environmental education and stewardship efforts both in Singapore and China.

Asian Journeys’ Green Desert Project was one of the projects highlighted at the National Youth Council YEP Networking Session on 6 Dec 2008 held at the NYC, Somerset Road.

Over 40 youth leaders were invited by the YEP team to consider organizing youth expedition teams to various ASEAN countries as well as China and India.

Lawrence Ko, AJ’s ED, was one of the speakers who shared about youth social engagement through the YEP. Lawrence challenged the youth leaders, many of them who were finishing their military stints or were already in the universities, to get involved in social activism and organizing young people for community change.

Citing Reinhold Niebuhr, the great American thinker in the 20^th C, Lawrence asserted that “It is better to be creative than to be learned. Creativity is the essence of life.” There is much that can be done to study and understand the social challenges facing Asia and the environmental challenge is but one of these.

Later at the rug sessions, Benjamin Lim, a volunteer leader of Asian Journeys and president of AJ’s Green Desert Club, was at hand to also enthuse inquirers who were exploring getting involved in China projects especially the Green Desert project to help build the Great Green Wall of China through tree-planting in the northern provinces and countryside of China.

We welcome youths and adults interested to join us as Green Volunteers as we serve together to engage and mobilize more young people in this journey towards Environmental Stewardship.

A. Desertification in Northeast Asia (China)

Desertification is the degradation of land in arid, semi-arid, and dry sub-humid areas. It is a gradual process of the loss of soil productivity and the thinning out of the vegetative cover resulting from human activities and climatic variations such as prolonged droughts and floods. What is alarming is that the land’s topsoil, which takes centuries to build up, can, if mistreated, be blown and washed away in a few seasons. Among human causal factors are overcultivation, overgrazing, deforestation and poor irrigation practices. Such overexploitation is generally caused by economic and social pressure, ignorance, war and drought.

Each year for the last few years, the winds of March or April bring the desert to Beijing. No ordinary storms, these sun-darkening blasts shift and deposit millions of tons of sand across the city, into Tianjin and onwards, over the water to the Korean Peninsula and Japan. The dust storms, known in China as ‘Yellow Dragons’, have been increasing in frequency over the last decades.

The Chinese authorities have made the battle against desertification a top priority and are investing huge resources in putting it in check. There is a massive reforestation programme, a plan to lay down a “Green wall” of trees and plants stretching from Beijing to Inner Mongolia, and farmers are being urged to cut back on livestock numbers.

B. Background

Asian Journeys organised two trips to Duolun couny in Inner Mongolia in 2009, to study the efforts by the local government to combat desertification since 2001. In 2010, Asian Journeys will be allocated a plot of land for tree-planting as part of the partnership with the local government and forestry department of the county.  It has a been a journey of learning and collaboration lasting over 8 years.

In Sep 2002, Asian Journeys was invited by the local governments of Duolun and Dalateqi in Inner Mongolia to participate in tree-planting conservation program. A site visit was made in September 2002 with a small team of enthusiasts to meet local officials and understand the proposed projects. Asian Journeys will embark on organizing a 5-year program 2007-2011 to mobilize Singaporean youths in partnership with China youths from Beijing to participate in the Green Desert project viz., to plant trees both in Beijing and in the grasslands of Inner Mongolia. The Youth Expedition Project (YEP) supported by National Youth Council of Singapore is one of the learning programmes which can help accomplish these goals and objectives.

C. Objectives

A. To help Singaporean youths develop awareness of Environmental issues in general and of the growing problem of desertification in North East Asia in particular, especially in Inner Mongolia

B. To help Singaporeans learn and participate in Green Desert Environmental Promotion Efforts in Beijing, the capital city which faces some of the worst sandstorms of all time because of the growing desertification of the grasslands of Inner Mongolia, especially in the lead up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics

C. To rally youth volunteers from Singapore, Beijing and Duolun county to join in reforestation efforts through tree-planting, and addressing issues related to macro and micro policies, technology and urban lifestyles to ensure sustainable development

D. Goals: To Help Address the Issue of Sandstorm and Air Pollution in Beijing and Inner Mongolia due to Desertification in Northern China Grasslands

1. By researching and raising awareness of the need for environmental protection through youth-initiated programs in Singapore to educate and mobilize resources

2. By identifying with the local populace and leaders of Beijing city and Inner Mongolia province in their myriad of efforts to confront the environmental problem of sandstorm and air pollution due to desertification through various programs to jointly educate and raise awareness of the global efforts in addressing issues of desertification and environmental degradation.

Other project partners past and present include:

Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing YMCA, Shanghai YMCA, UNISIM (Singapore), NTU Environmental Engineering dept, Ngee Ann Pol;ytechnic (Sch of Life Sciences), ITE College East and corporate partners such as Hyflux(Hydrochem in Shanghai)

And past participants include student volunteers from NUS, NTU, Singapore Polytechnic, Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Nanyang Polytechnic, Nanyang JC

For more information and partnership possibiltiies, please call:

Project Team Leaders: Keith Khoo and Joyce Lim

Project Core Members: Sashi, Shunting, Jian Man

Project Coordinator: Lawrence Ko (Tel +65-9742 9493) or email lawrence@asianjourneys.org

…as we reach out to Youths in the Heartlands of Singapore and Asia!

Volunteers for Green Desert project

The Green Desert project is a platform for Youth Environmental Education in Asia. 

1. Web designer and writers :

Come join a team of young people to help set up a website for young people of Asia to learn and discuss about the Environmental challenges facing Asia and the world… research and write about the issues ranging from global warming to climate change, river conservation and water treatment, desertification and forest conservation… and brainstorm on how we can live more creative and sustainable lifestyles in the 21st century.  

2.  Participants on Green Desert Youth Expedition Projects to Inner Mongolia, Northern China

Join teams of Green Desert YEP (supported by National Youth Council ) to journey to the grasslands of Inner Mongolia, China to learn to combat desertification, plant trees and build the Great Green Wall of China. A great way to explore the rugged terrain of the Mongolian steppes and catch a glimpse of the vast expanse blue skies merging with the green grassland.

Scheduled trips in 2009: Jun 6-20; Sep 10-23.  (estd Cost: $900 per person after 50% subsidies from NYC YEP)

Current partners: Beyond Social Services and ITE College East.

3.  Youth Leaders, Organisers and Mobilisers of Green Desert Club to plan and organise projects locally. 

Lead as strategic coordinators of youth teams or support the teams by designing and organising exhibition panels, compile images and develop powerpoint slides and videos for presentations at youth forums and environmental events.

Join us as volunteer trainers and Green organisers and be trained to organise Green Desert Kids Club programmes which we organised in Mar and Sep school breaks for primary school children.  Help the kids learn about conservation and appreciation of nature through creative learning programmes.

Join in UNISIM environmental field trip to China along the Yangtze River conservation study and visit the Three Gorges Dam, on a Master of Environmental Science project facilitated by Asian Journeys in August 2010.  Email lawrence@asianjourneys.org for more details on this project. 

4.  Participate in Green Desert Ubin Beach project. 

This is a local environmental stewardship programme coordinated by Asian Journeys in partnership with National Parks Board from Jun 2009- Jun 2010.  Scope of project includes introduction to Asia’s enviornmental challenges, study of beach erosion and marine litter and mangrove trees planting.  Suitable for groups of volunteers in teams of 10, 20 or 30 for youth groups, school CIP or family groups.

5.  Support us as a Partner / Member of Green Desert Club  

Purchase a specially designed green desert t-shirt for $20 and enable the Club to continue in the aims of creating awareness, appreciation and action programmes in youth enviornmental education in Singapore and Asia.

CONTACT ASIAN JOURNEYS NOW!  

Join us in this journey of

ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP for Creation.

For more information, or to volunteer, please email Timothy at timothy@asianjourneys.org or info@asianjourneys.org. 

Unto us a Child is born…

His name will be called

Wonderful, Counselor…Prince of Peace.

Isaiah 9:6: For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

At this time a man named Simeon was living in Jerusalem. Simeon was a good man. He loved God and was waiting for God to save the people of Israel. God’s Spirit came to him and told him that he would not die until he had seen Christ the Lord.