Choo Kim Poh PBM and Aaryan Shanmuga
Choo Kim Poh PBM:
My passion for nature and respect for the environment is rooted in my childhood days during the Japanese Occupation (1942-1945) when food was scarce. Each household received a small bundle of rice (ration) to last one week. My mom put all sorts of leaves into a pot of watery porridge to increase the volume (for meals). We were always hungry. My mother grew sweet potatoes, tapioca and vegetables. As a young child, I realised the importance of plants and helped to take care of them.
This love of nature blossomed in my adult years and I became keen to share with others. As a teacher in charge of the school environment club, I initiated the yearly coastal clean-up where over 100 students were involved in cleaning part of our East Coast beach. Some students and I also participated in the reforestation project in Bukit Timah Nature Reserve.
As chairman of Braddell Heights WEC Interest Group ‘Green-4-All’, I organised activities to create awareness and love of nature among residents. I organised “Green Day” in 2016 with an exhibition and hands-on activities on growing mushrooms, cooking herbal rice and creating table-top gardens using recycled plastic water bottles. On an ad-hoc basis, I give talks at CCs, RCs and childcare centres. Recently I collaborated with our Zone F RC to train some NYJC students for their project on growing plants in bottles.
The highlights of my contribution to Braddell Heights was initiating and helping to organise the Clean Green Activity at Braddell Heights Hub in 2019. Bearing in mind the objectives of Reduce, Reuse and Recycle and protect and care of the environment, I donated 1200 plants, trained trainers and had a very successful event where participants grew 550 miniature gardens in recycled plastic water bottles. We were honoured to be entered into the Singapore Book of Records.
My story traces how I developed a love for nature and the environment and my involvement in community work. I find doing community service very fulfilling and have been serving our community for over 40 years!
Aaryan Shanmuga:
Singapore is a beautiful country. There are lots of trees and nice big parks. I love to go cycling in the parks and it is interesting to see various insects, birds and even otters at the parks. The plants and trees are very important because they give us plenty of fresh air and shade. I’m thankful to everyone who has been passionate about building and helping to make Singapore into a garden city. It would have taken a lot of sacrifice, time and dedication.
My father taught me it takes a lot of hard work to achieve a goal. He was away from the family working when I was born. He sacrificed his time with the family to ensure we had a good future. As I grew up, my parents noticed that I enjoyed drawing and encouraged me by buying art tools like paint brushes, crayons and acrylic paints. This helped me explore more and I also participated in competitions.
I had my painting displayed at Ilham Gallery, Malaysia. I also won 2nd place at Safra Visual Arts Competition 2020 and won the International Fish Art Competition 2021 by Wildlife Forever. Winning these competitions did not come easy, I used to spend many hours to complete a drawing and painting. There were also so many competitions that I joined and did not win. My father taught me not to give up and to believe in myself. He showed me this by stories of Mr. Lee Kuan Yew and all the struggles he went through to build Singapore. I watched a documentary about him and learned his determination was one of the reasons behind Singapore’s growth. My parents also took me to the National Museum of Singapore to learn of the journey and I was amazed by our progress from the Japanese Occupation till today.
After learning all this, I told myself that I may not be the best today, but I hope I will become one and will have my art displayed in the National Art Gallery. I will continue to work on my skills to achieve that.
I started watching football games with my father at the age of 5. He shared lots of stories with me about all the different football clubs and football players. As I liked football a lot, my father started to coach me and I also joined the St. Gabriel Primary School Football Academy. After joining the football academy I learned a lot of new skills and realised it takes a lot of practice to be good at it. I hope I can be part of Singapore’s National Football Team and play at the World Cup. My favourite player is Cristiano Ronaldo, I hope I can meet him one day too.
I’m very thankful that Singapore is not only a beautiful place but a very safe country. The Armed Forces have always been doing a great job to ensure this. In these hard times of Covid-19, the frontliners have risked their lives for the nation. Singapore has risen again and children like me can hope to see coronavirus being overcome. It takes a lot of people’s lives and sacrifices to continue to ensure Singapore to come pass every struggle that hits the country.
I wish all the children in Singapore believe in themselves and go for their dreams. I learned we need to practise, focus and be dedicated to reach our goals and should not let failures discourage us. I wish the children of Singapore would explore their skills and interests and would not be distracted by playing video games, phones and television.
