Planting Hope in the Desert; Mentoring Youths in the Heartlands
May 5, 2010
The Chinese proverb says, Plant Trees to enjoy the Fruits for a Decade; Nurture Young Lives and Impact the Century!
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!!
Speaking Skills Workshops for Youths MayJun2010
May 4, 2010
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.
AJ Int’l Students Club : Living in a Global City
May 4, 2010
GLOBAL YOUTHS OF THE 21ST CENTURY
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.