Reflection from a child sponsor about the upcoming exhibition “Mongolia: Affinity缘”

”Her ruddy cheeks caught my eye. The rest was history.

My affinity with Mongolia possibly started many years back at the Tree of Life event. Knowing that I would want to visit Mongolia someday, I chose to sponsor a child from this country.

It was years later that I visited the land of the steppes. Coming from an urban jungle, I relished our journey into the vast grasslands. We stayed in gers and rode on Bactrian camels under the blue sky.  As exotic our experiences were, what made my trip most meaningful was the chance to meet my sponsored child.

Her name is Mukhtuya and yes she still has ruddy cheeks. Both Mukhtuya and her mother greeted me with warm smiles.  I am humbled knowing that I have made a small contribution to her community.

Coming back to Singapore, I would like to do a bit more. Mongolia: Affinity gathers individuals from different walks of life, united in our common goal to do a bit more. Beyond the brushstrokes, we hope to share our stories with you.” – KN, volunteer and child sponsor with World Vision Singapore

What stories do you have about your sponsorship journey?

Join us and many other volunteers and friends to learn more about the community we are helping this coming Aug to Oct at NUSS Guild House Kent Ridge. 

For more details please go to:

http://www.worldvision.org.sg/get-involved/women-of-vision/upcoming-events/

https://myvision.worldvision.org.sg/campaign/mongolia-art-exhibition/

See you on the 18th Aug 2017 for the opening!

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Mongolia：Affinity 缘 Art Exhibition

MONGOLIA: AFFINITY 缘 ART EXHIBITION 14th Aug to 13th Oct 2017

from Women Of Vision

by Women of Vision

In 2016, a group of child sponsors and Women of Vision volunteers took a trip to World Vision Singapore’s area development programme in Uvurkhangai, Mongolia. Inspired by the beauty the country has to offer and touched by the needs of the community, a few of them decided to hold an art exhibition to share their stories. The MONGOLIA: AFFINITY 缘 Art Exhibition is an attempt to articulate their affinity with Mongolia and in partnership with Gallery@OURF, they hope to bring about greater awareness of the situation in Mongolia and help the vulnerable children and families living there.

Find out more on how World Vision helps Uvurkhangai community in Mongolia here.

OPENING NIGHT

Date:	18 August 2017
Time:	7:30pm to 9:30pm
Venue:	NUSS Kent Ridge Guild House The Chill-Lab 9 Kent Ridge Drive Singapore 119241
Guest of Honour:	Mr George Tumur, Ambassador, Embassy of Mongolia
Highlights:	• Guided tour • Sharing and insights • Light refreshments

Admission is free. As this is a private event fully organised by Gallery@OURF and Women of Vision, you may choose to make a donation ($55) for the committee to cover cost. Extra proceeds will go towards helping vulnerable children and families from World Vision Mongolia (WASH).

For more details and donation to World Vision, kindly go to https://myvision.worldvision.org.sg/campaign/mongolia-art-exhibition/

To sign up for the Opening, please register at http://www.worldvision.org.sg/get-involved/women-of-vision/upcoming-events/

Look forward to seeing you!

Painting classes for students from El Shaddai Learning Centre, Klang

This is my fourth visit to the school and this time round, I decided that the students can try to paint using art paper instead of rice papers as it was difficult for them to process the rice papers the last time around.

There 3 sessions were done over 3 afternoons from 8th to 10th June 2017. We even managed to get the brother of one of the girls to join in as he was accompanying her for all three days!

As we were planning to use these paintings and turn them into cards, I got my students to “re-paint” some of them again. The new challenge this time was to paint a pair of mother-daughter horses (or rather father and son horses) as part of Mother’s Day celebrations. Of course, my mischievous students told me it is to celebrate Friendship day!

The last day saw them painting hard and furious as I have told the class that I would have a prize for the best painting. I planned to give my journal book of my latest paintings to the best of them. When I saw how each painted so diligently and with so much heart (心画）I decided that everyone stands a chance to win this prize. So it was a lucky draw for them and the prize eventually went to the new recruit, Kinza’s brother who was very kind and sweet to sit through the first day to wait for her to finish class.

Kudos to all of them for their diligence!

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Class in action:

Critical Thinking and Problem Solving at El Shaddai Learning Centre, Klang

It was a 3 day workshop(8 to 10 June 2017) to help teach the students (ranging from 12 to 18 years old) how to apply critical thinking techniques and skills to problem solving.

I found the students to be articulate, curious and forthcoming in the discussions each day. The first day we had them share about the different types of problems they face and to categorise them as “Easy”, “Medium” or “Hard”.

Some of the problems they shared that were “hard” included “being addicted to games”, “cleaning their own rooms” and “doing homework.” There were some who shared that losing a loved one makes them illogical, angry and emotional.

One of the activities of the day was to be able to tell if a piece of information was “real” or “fake”. The students did extremely well for this exercise and were able to share relevant pieces of information to support their stand.

I have an enthusiastic 13 year old boy who volunteered to read most of the slides. When I shared about “Group Think”, all of them told me about this one boy in their class who was not at the sessions. As the 13 year old boy diplomatically puts it across, this boy has issues controlling his tongue and speak unpleasantly.

For the final presentation, the class was divided into 2 teams of girls and 1 team of boys to present arguments that support one of the following claims:

a) Boys have more self discipline than girls.

b) Boys vandalise more than girls.

c) Boys are more honest than girls.

It was a lively presentation and the teams did well with the preparation through searching for relevant clips and articles that supported their claims.

Here are some pix of the students at work during the 3 sessions. Guess who was the best speaker and which was the winning team? Well done class!

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有缘千里来相会

An interpretation of the great wall of China….in Chinese ink #class preparation

老街坊

Always fascinated by quaint street corners and nice cobbled streets.

Here’re two of mine as preparation for class teaching.

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Here’s wishing all mums a happy Mother’s Day!

I wanted to paint a picture that says the gentleness of a Mother’s love and after looking at some pictures, I thought this picture of a horse and its foal shared my idea of how it should be like.

Though I have mistaken it to be on first week of May, well as they say, better late than never!

祝母亲节愉快！

Calligraphy 福 as a backdrop for cultural openness and sharing at Tangs Tea House, Changi Village

A most heartwarming photo that is shared by the owner of Tangs Tea house with the painting I did for her restaurant at Changi Village. (Photograph courtesy of Sharonne Tan, owner of Tangs Tea House, Changi Village)

This painting encapsulates what she aspires her restaurant to be, the door to open more exchanges between cultures!

The meaning behind the painting by the artist:

“The open 福 represents the open doors of the restaurant to welcome guests from everywhere. The chicks are the customers, eager to see what is in the store. The 福  also represents the restaurant and the kampong spirit as represented by the chicks being curious about what is cooking. I used bright green as it is a halal restaurant as well as to represent it being close to nature. As the restaurant is done as a kampung concept, the chicks are what are common in a kampong house. They could well represent kaypoh neighbours too. Black is used in abundance as I am keen to represent the strokes used in Chinese ink（墨), although in a different medium(acrylic) as it also represents the owner’s dream that the restaurant is also an opportunity for education of the different cultures.”

 

A calligraphy workshop for University of Sydney students from School of Health Sciences

A random wish of mine to conduct a calligraphy workshop while I am having a break at Sydney turned out to be true! 心想事成!

This workshop was arranged by the founder of the art club and the workshop was held in the school’s library. It is a bottoms-up approach and one that is initiated by the students. My one word of advice to the students: don’t over plan and be too stressed if things don’t follow your plan! Sometimes the unplanned itinerary can be a lot more exciting than the planned ones:)

It was an awesome learning and sharing session as some of the students had never held a brush before! The kind students also led me on a tour of the campus and despite the light drizzling, it was a most heartwarming afternoon as these graduate students (masters and bachelors) will one day go on to be our health care officers!