During the March 2011 vacation, Second Year Diploma in Banking & Financial Services (BFS) student Lynn Goh Xin Ying, together with a group of fellow students from Ngee Ann Polytechnic (NP), went on a five-day community service trip to Batam. Their area of operation was a kindergarten in an impoverished village in Batam, where they helped to concretise a broken and undulating walkway in the kindergarten. They also painted murals and taught the kindergarten children English and Art and Craft.


Pictured Left: Hard at work - mixing and pouring concrete on the kindergarten walkway


One highlight of the community service trip was an outing to the beach with the kindergarten children. Lynn witnessed how simple pleasures such as a visit to the beach and playing in the water could bring such joy and excitement to the kids. She was astounded to learn that it was the first time the children had ever been to the beach, something that Lynn, having been born in a well-developed country, has taken for granted.  She also learnt that entertainment and play to the Batam children meant picking litter like tidbit wrappers and plastic bottles from the ground or rubbish dumps and throwing them around. 

As Lynn shared:
I signed up for this overseas community service trip to have a meaningful vacation and I came back with so much more. At the end of the trip, there was a really strong bond between the children and us. It was not easy to bond with them as we had language barriers but I believe that we had touched their hearts with enthusiasm and sincerity, just as they had touched ours with their simplicity and innocence. If given another chance to go for such Serve Trips again, I will definitely sign up to gain another valuable learning experience that would last a lifetime.


Pictured Above: Lynn Goh (extreme left) and other NP students teaching the Batam children Art and Craft and having a sing-along session with them

Article and photographs contributed by: Lynn Goh Xin Ying (BFS, Year 2)