Monthly Archives: January 2012

Join us in our First Year-round Cleanup at Tanah Merah!

Posted on by

Following up from our previous call for volunteers to help manage cleanups at Tanah Merah and our subsequent meeting at the National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre, the volunteer Site Buddies are getting the action going!

Site Buddy Gladys Chua has put out a call for interested members of the public to volunteer some of their Saturday morning time to cleanup up the beach at Tanah Merah.

First year-round cleanup @ Tanah Merah
Date: 11 February 201
Time: 8.00am to 10.00am
Venue: Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal Departure Hall entrance/exit [ See map  for more details ] 

Gladys has put up a really comprehensive post detailing what the objectives are, the attire you should wear, items you should bring and how you can get there by public transport. Interested volunteers can register their interest by filling up the form on her blog!

 

We hope to see you at Tanah Merah on 11 February 2012!

Youth volunteers needed for Asian Green Youth Challenge!

Posted on by

We received an email from Cui Xiao Wen, Chairperson of the Asian Green Youth Challenge, requesting for our help in putting out an advertisement! They are currently recruiting members to form part of the Organising Committee.

Asian Green Youth Challenge is a youth initiated project under Social Innovation Park, devoted to incubating new, youth-based, innovative environmental projects and organisations. There are four stages in our project, Online web campaign, Conference, Competition and Incubation Programmes.

They are partnering the National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre (NVPC) to host an Information Sharing Session for interested volunteers.

Date: 4 February 2012
Time: 2.00pm – 3.00pm
Address: National Volunteer & Philanthropy Centre (NVPC)
6 Eu Tong Sen Street #04-88 The Central
NVPC is located right at Level 4 within The Central, directly above Clarke Quay MRT.

You can find out more about their proposal, the recruitment drive, and the Information Sharing Session by clicking the related links.

“What lies under” by Ferdi Rizkiyanto, a statement about marine pollution

Posted on by

This image has been making the rounds recently on Facebook and now has seen more than 50,000 shares and counting. It is an art piece by Indonesian digital artist Ferdi Rizkiyanto who has created several images highlighting global warming too. View his portfolio here.

I especially like this one:

Read this interview with him from 2009.

Meeting the volunteers for the Tanah Merah Year-Round coastal cleanups

Posted on by

In mid-November Jocelyne Sze (ICCS Manpower) and myself met up with Mary-Ann Khoo, the NVPC officer with sparkling eyes and brimming idealism. As we debriefed September’s ICCS, we decided to tackle the idea of a year-round cleanup at Tanah Merah – with fresh blood.

The next day, this advertisement above was posted on this blog and carried by various personal Facebook pages and blogs including the very important portal by Ria Tan, WildSingapore. We called for hopeful hearts to join the effort to protect the marine environment.

Yesterday I realised with some alarm that all of December had gone by. I had not fussed over the people who signed up but sent them a single reminder of the meeting. Surely, I felt, some would have forgotten about all this by now. However, eleven came and one sent apologies.

ICCS briefing
Sivasothi explaining rational and operational procedure.
Photo by Andy Dinesh

The ICCS team who went down to meet people who want to make a difference this evening were Andy Dinesh (ICCS Recce Captain), Xu Weiting (ICCS Tanah Merah Zone Captain), Cai Hongxia (ICCS Tanah Merah Zone Captain), Jocelyn Sze (ICCS Manpower), Mary-Ann Khoo (NVPC), Ng Kai Scene (ICCS North-East Zone Captain) and myself, N. Sivasothi (ICCS Coordinator). It was very encouraging for us to meet all eleven of them!

  1. Seow Ziqiang
  2. Au Yeong Kin Choong – absent with apologies, but ready for action
  3. Gladys Chua
  4. Lam Chee On
  5. Benjamin Tan
  6. Ching Yu Hang
  7. Wu Xinping Jennifer
  8. Anore Alfredo Nofuente
  9. Florence Loh
  10. Zhu Wen Wen
  11. Roy Eric Rivera
  12. Ong Sze Sze

How did they find us? Through SG Cares, WildSingapore, a friend, facebook etc!

The whys and hows was tackled during the one hour briefing, it was time to agree on our first trial cleanup! We all agreed it had to be after Chinese New Year for sure. A check of the tide-table on Mobilegeographics revealed that the tides on Sat 11 Feb 2012 were 0.91 m (7:11 AM SGT) and 3.50 m (1:54 PM SGT). That meant a workable shore around 8am – 10am.

However, Dinesh will examine the shoreline in early February and report back. Current movements and the monsoon might actually redistribute the Tanah Merah trash elsewhere during this period. If the shore is clear, we’ll move to Pasir Ris Site 6 instead.

With the date set, the volunteers will be assembled into three teams to organise their first cleanup and perhaps invite friends along. They can tap the ICCS store at NUS for trash bags, weighing scales and gloves. The exercise will help everyone understand an Organiser’s role – for in future they will be coordinating with and advising Organisers in running year-round cleanups at that site.

So we will next meet on 11th February 2012: 8am at Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal; we are looking forward to observing the team in action and working with them!

Meeting about the Tanah Merah Year-Round Coastal Cleanups

Posted on by

The ICCS team will meet volunteers who signed up to initiate the Tanah Merah Year-Round Coastal Cleanups at NVPC tomorrow!

We will meet at 7.00pm at the National Volunteer & Philanthropy Centre @ Central
Address: 6 Eu Tong Sen Street, #04-88, The Central, Singapore 059817 (map)

Last September, a massive cleanup exercise was initiated to tackle the trash at the Tanah Merah shoreline. It was soon realised that the shoreline requires help year-round. There are organisations and individuals interested in helping as I receive emails all year-round; however, they require guidance and support. With the ICCS coordinators team overworked, what was the solution?

Ask for help , of course! So last November, I issued a call for dependable leaders and supporters to help at Tanah Merah.

And 15 volunteers responded with some cleanup veterans amongst them. At the Wednesday 4th January 2011 planning session, they will meet:

  1. Andy Dinesh (ICCS Recce Captain)
  2. Xu Weiting (ICCS Tanah Merah Zone Captain)
  3. Cai Hongxia (ICCS Tanah Merah Zone Captain)
  4. Jocelyn Sze (ICCS Manpower)
  5. Mary-Ann Khoo (NVPC)
  6. N. Sivasothi (ICCS Coordinator)

In ICCS, we work within our limits. We keep plans simple and manageable so that we persist for the long-term and improve our methods and outreach over time. With the Tanah Merah project, we hope to setup a few teams so that each team only needs to lead ONE cleanup session a year and support the other cleanups where possible. Manpower will be recruited from organisations and individuals interested in helping out.

I am looking forward to meeting all of them!

Cheerio!

Sivasothi
—

N. Sivasothi
Coordinator, International Coastal Cleanup Singapore
e: iccs@rafflesmuseum.net
w: http://coastalcleanup.nus.edu.sg/

b: https://coastalcleanup.wordpress.com/
f: http://fb.com/iccsg/
t: https://twitter.com/coastalcleanup/