Serving overseas communities

Helping the disadvantaged abroad by embarking on service learning missions is a cause Ngee Ann Polytechnic students pursue with much fervour. 677 students embarked on overseas community service trips this past year. Here are some examples of their efforts to serve the global community.
   
• Fifteen School of Film & Media Studies students went on a community service trip to Chiang Mai. They stayed with families in Chiang Mai and worked with the Ban Tha-Karn School. The students refurbished the school and conducted English lessons for the pupils. They also benefitted from the opportunity to experience the Thai culture and the simple way of life.
   
• A group of Child Psychology & Early Education students went on a trip to Hanoi, Vietnam. They delivered lessons and workshops at a local kindergarten. Another group of Psychology & Community Services (PCS) students took part in a Youth Expedition Programme to Phnom Penh and Baray in Cambodia. These PCS students ran caregiver support programmes, confidence-building programmes for the disabled and distributed items such as hygiene packs and wheelchairs during house-to-house visits. They even helped to build disabled-friendly facilities.
   
• Thirty students from the School of Life Sciences & Chemical Technology embarked on a Youth Expedition Programme that took them to the Mekong delta in Vietnam to assist the Kim Son Primary School. The students refurbished three classrooms and learnt about the local culture. Another group of 26 students went to Duolun County in Inner Mongolia, China to participate in the Green Desert Project – an environmental conservation programme by a not-for-profit organisation. The group planted more than 1,000 trees to stop the desertification of the land.
   
• A group of 20 students from The Christiera Programme made a community service trip to Hmong village in Thailand to help construct a water tank that filters stream water and makes it drinkable for the villagers. They also built outdoor shacks to house toilets for the village children and gave them basic English lessons.