As of May 2006, 351 Dengue Prevention Volunteer Groups, comprising about 4,500 members, continue to take on pro-active duties in combating the deadly virus.

DPVGs began in May 1998, when the fight against dengue took shape at Serangoon Gardens, in an initiative by Neighbourhood Committees and the then Environment Ministry spread the anti-dengue message in 13 residential estates.

Those who stepped forward as volunteers believed that stamping out dengue menace is both a personal and social responsibility.

After seven years, DPVGs are still actively carrying out their tasks. They speak to neighbours about the dangers of dengue fever, and ways to prevent it.

They organise dengue awareness exhibitions, recruit new members and monitor their local dengue situation through their scheduled walkabouts and house-to-house visits. By and large, these efforts have helped keep the dengue menace at bay.

Still OK

The “Singapore’s OK” campaign has become quite an institution since its birth in May 2003, in the midst of the SARS outbreak.

At the beginning of 2006, the NEA reviewed and enhanced the SOK criteria for foodshops, markets, pre-schools, hostels, public toilets, construction sites, condominiums and dormitories.

To reinforce the public health component of the Singapore’s OK eight good personal hygiene habits, the NEA and Health Promotion Board reviewed the habits, as follows:

Do not Litter;
Spit, cough and sneeze into tissue;
Wash hands with soap frequently;
Use a serving spoon when sharing food;
Bag your rubbish and place in bin;
Avoid crowded places and see your family doctor if unwell;
Keep places clean and free of pests; and
Keep public toilets clean

Exhibition posters depicting these habits are displayed in 125 hawker centres island-wide. Flyers for residents were also produced. The NEA is working with the 3P partners and the grassroots organisations to spread these hygiene messages to the community.

From Apr 2006 onwards, the NEA has been reaching out to owners of these premises encouraging them to renew their commitment in keeping their premises clean and hygienic.

Over the last two years, more than 90% of owners for these premises have shown their support and commitment to keep their premises clean and hygienic.

The “Singapore's OK” initiative is a voluntary scheme that encourages all sectors of the community to participate so as to show their commitment towards adopting good hygiene practices for good public health.

Singapore, Litter-Free

Last year, 19 national events such as the National Day Parade and New Paper Big Walk, as well as 230 community events promoted their events as “litter-free” events. The event organisers encouraged participants and spectators to make a conscious effort to take away all their rubbish with them and deposit the rubbish in the litterbins provided. Likewise, NParks’ event organisers are encouraged to implement “litter-free” initiatives at their events in parks.

The NEA piloted the “Singapore, Litter-Free” Primary Schools in 2003. Since then, the number of schools participating in “litter-free” initiatives is growing and has mushroomed from the pilot project of eight primary schools in 2003 to 118 in 2005. Participating schools are expected to communicate to their staff and pupils the importance of keeping the environment litter-free, as well as to ensure their events organised are made litter-free. Educational materials for the “Singapore, Litter-Free” Primary Schools are fully sponsored by the ExxonMobil Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd.

New educational materials and logos are being conceptualised and developed to heighten and drive home the “litter-free” message. Targeted initiatives will be introduced to reach out to the different segments of the community and extended to premises (i.e. hawker centers, parks, bus-interchanges and coffeshops).

The Cat, the Duck, and the Owl

Katie the Cat, Debbie the Duck, and Owen the Owl aren’t just lovable stuffed puppets– they’re mascots produced by NEA and PAP Community Foundation (PCF) to inculcate in kids a sense of love and care for the environment. Kids aged five to six will learn to appreciate and value our clean and healthy environment through the eyes of the three animal mascots. It’s hoped that the puppets will capture the kids’ attention and help bring public health education to life.

Katie teaches good personal hygiene practices, Debbie’s big on good toilet etiquette, and Owen’s into keeping our environment litter-free.

The educational kit to which the three mascots belong comprises a teacher’s manual and a placard book. The teacher’s manual is an easy-to-follow, step-by-step handbook, providing instructions and tips on how to conduct the programme. The placard book, a visual teaching tool, helps teachers deliver concepts and communicate lessons across using colourful and interesting illustrations. It was rolled out in early 2005.

Learning by earning

As of Apr 2006, about 880 and 244 cadet scouts/brownies have earned the Mozzie Buster and Food Watch badges respectively. The last series (I’m OK) of Public Health Badge is being rolled-out in 2006.

Together with the Singapore Scout Association and Girl Guides Singapore, the NEA has developed the Public Health Badge Programme for Cub Scouts and Brownies between the ages of 9 to 12.

This programme is designed to enhance the public health knowledge of Cub Scouts and Brownies so that they would be empowered to convey the relevant public health messages to their family members, fellow schoolmates and friends.

The Programme consists of three series, focusing on three key areas in public health, namely, mosquito prevention (Series I - Mozzie Buster), food hygiene (Series II - Food Watch) and a clean environment (Series III – I’m OK). Each Cub Scout or Brownie will have to undergo a different training programme to earn each badge.

The ‘Series I - Mozzie Busters’ and ‘Series II – Food Watch’ were rolled out in 2003 and 2005, respectively.

Environment Champions rule – in the workplace, too

Schoolchildren all over Singapore will be familiar with the red vests worn by their Environment Champion (EC) classmates. But now, you may find these greenies in your workplaces, too, championing green practices on behalf of the earth.

In October 2005, the EC Programme was extended to Private / Public Sector Organisations. By the end of FY05, 176 ECs from 44 Private and 51 Public organisations were trained to enable them to plan, initiate and implement environmental programmes in their organisations. To assist the ECs further in planning and developing environmental programmes for their organisations, NEA also developed a gap analysis tool, which the ECs could use to compare their organisations’ current environmental performance with their potential performance.

Training of ECs in schools continues successfully, too. The EC Programme for Schools was launched in Nov 04. In FY05, 1,701 ECs in 329 educational institutions were trained. Of this number, 123 ECs attended a second, follow-up training module on Motivational Skills in November 05.

To encourage and recognize ECs for their environmental contributions in schools, the Environment Champions Badge was launched in Nov 05. The EC Badge rewards ECs who are actively involved in environmental programmes in their schools and the community. The inaugural Environment Champions Badge Award Ceremony was held in Nov 05 at the CGW 2005 Schools Carnival. 14 Gold, 52 Silver and 65 Bronze badges were presented to outstanding ECs.

Teach the children well

Young ECs and their peers need guidance too – and that’s where their teachers come in. Called Environmental Education Advisors (EEA), these teachers play a significant role to promote environmental ownership through environmental programmes, engage and mentor the ECs.

NEA has an existing network of Environmental Education Advisors (EEA) in all primary, secondary schools, Junior Colleges and ITE Colleges. EEAs are our points of contact, an important force in driving environmental activities with schools and a good source of feedback.

In FY05, NEA focused efforts on building a network of EEAs in preschools. 3 Preschool EEA Introduction Workshops were held for 239 principals and teachers. During the workshop, participants enjoyed fun-filled sessions, which included an introduction to the Captain Green Book Series – a series of environmental books and songs aimed at introducing environmental protection issues to preschoolers.

Planting the seeds of green growth

Seed funding was also provided to encourage the organization of environmental programmes/activities for the community. In FY05, the Citizens Consultative Committee Community Ownership Fund was increased from $2,000 per constituency to $5,000 per constituency. In addition, a Community Development Council Community Ownership Fund of $50,000 per CDC was introduced.

Capacity building also took the form of providing seed funding to school Environment Clubs to encourage them to organize environment-related activities for the school population.

In FY05, 72 primary and 47 secondary schools benefited from the seed funding, organizing activities such as school-wide environmental competitions and workshops for students and staff.

Clean, green, and raring to win

The green movement is growing among schools, and, fused with healthy competitive spirit, has manifested as a host of new nationwide environmental competitions, with schools taking the lead in organizing.

Clean & Green Week 2005’s Schools Carnival was more than a showcase of youthful environmental innovation – it was an explosive finale to some of these competitions:

Raffles Institution (RI) organized The Green Game, an environmental awareness quiz based on a winning website presentation designed by RI.

Woodgrove Secondary School (WGS) organized the Living Art Sculpture Competition, a sculpture competition using recycled materials.

Marsiling Secondary School (MSL) organized the Solar City Competition, a competition featuring innovative projects using alternative energy

Nanyang Girls’ High School also organized the inaugural Regional Environment Science Conference for youth in October 2005. More than 400 students from Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines and Hong Kong SAR participated in the conference.

Nan Hua High School ‘s iconic programme National Environment Quiz expanded the competition from primary school to secondary school due to popular demand. The quiz attracted 870 student participants from 170 primary and secondary schools.

Building networks, reaching out

Forming and developing networks is a priority, as it enables environmentally active and proactive individuals and companies to interact, share best practices, and be encouraged and rewarded for their action.

In tandem with the training of Environment Champions, NEA’s Education & Partnership Department (E&PD) also focused on building EC Networks for Schools and for the Private and Public Sectors. Dedicated networking sessions were held for each group to interact and share best practices. Efforts paid off when E&PD was able to mobilize the ECs network in the schools to carry out Dengue Prevention talks during the peak of the dengue outbreak in 2005.

Youth Environmental Envoys (YEEs), a network of like-minded youths, passionate and committed to environmental issues is starting out on its second year. It provides a platform for youths to share their ideas and plans on what they are doing to spread the message of environmental ownership amongst their peers and the community, gets feedback and advice on their plans as well as project partners. Collaboration amongst youth members on projects such as creating environmental board games, running competitions for schools and capacity building programmes for green clubs in secondary school sees them further strengthening the network and the conviction that environmental ownership is the key to environmental sustainability.

In November 05, NEA introduced the “Recycling Outreach Programme”, a new Community Involvement Programme offered to schools. It aims to involve schools in reaching out not only to their school community, but also their neighbouring residents to encourage environmental action and awareness towards minimizing waste and recycling. A total of 9 schools have participated in the programme and helped to promote the message of recycling to their neighbouring community since Mar 06.

Adopt a sustainable attitude

The Adopt-A-School programme encourages corporations and their staff to join efforts with students to take ownership of the environment through the development of joint projects. In FY05, NEA increased the number of matches between schools and private companies from 43 to 120 matches, facilitating synergies between the private sector and schools.

The projects were showcased at the CGW 2005 Schools Carnival. Some interesting projects include:

Victoria Junior College and Hewlett Packard
Automatic Air-conditioning Unit : The project involved using a cost-effective device to automatically switch off air-conditioning units in rooms when people were absent from the room. Utilizing Passive Infra-red (PIR) technology, the device was trial-tested in a classroom and found to be reliable, effective & durable.

Balestier Hill Primary School and City Building Management
Recycled Paper Charcoal Cubes : The project involved recycling used paper, to convert them into solid cubes, and substitute them as charcoal for barbeque purposes. The idea came from a teacher and his class. The students collect paper, put them into compressing device, make them into blocks, then sun and dry them to be used later as BBQ fuel

Princess Elizabeth Primary School and ISK Singapore
Recycling of Water from Eco-Pond : Pupils investigated the amount of water saved by recycling water from their eco-pond after second filtration.

Knowing where we stand, and taking off from there

In FY05, evaluation and review continued to be an important focus, in order to continually improve NEA’s response to its environmental initiatives.

NEA’s second Knowledge, Attitudes, Beliefs and Practices (KABP) Survey was conducted in FY05. The Dengue Fever Education Programme (DFEP) topped people’s minds when it came to best remembered environmental campaigns in FY05. But while almost three in four of the people polled were aware of the two campaigns, participation remained under 10 per cent- showing the need for continued efforts to encourage Singaporeans to become involved in doing something for the environment.

Despite this, the survey showed that on the whole, Singaporeans felt that environmental issues were important, with many giving a high 90% importance level to the issues. Also encouraging were the improvements made in FY05, when compared to the baseline survey in FY04.

One area of improvement was in the level of environmental practices carried out, which increased by 4% to 54% in FY05.

Another improvement showed that more Singaporeans felt that the individual had the ability to make more of a difference than the government on issues such as keeping public toilets clean, preventing dengue fever and mosquito breeding and keeping Singapore litter-free.

The last area improved showed that while Singaporeans remained a practical lot, there was a small increase in their willingness to pay higher prices for environment-friendly products.

To enhance its partnership with the 3P sectors, NEA also initiated a 3P Partnership Index Survey for the first time, to measure the development and changes in our partners levels of involvement and commitment towards environmental sustainability. The findings will be useful in helping NEA refine its programmes and the way they are rolled out, based on the views of our valued partners.

For FY06, NEA intends to introduce a new award and take the review process even further:-

• Friends of the Environment Award (working title) – the new award aims to recognize the efforts of individuals in the 3P sectors in promoting environmental awareness and ownership in their communities.

• The KABP Survey for Schools aims to focus on the views of the student population in Singapore, so that future programmes may be better tailored to the youth.

NEA’s big task now is to concentrate on moving from awareness to action. This will require continued efforts at capacity building and networking.

This applies not just to students, but to the private sector as well. So the development of more iconic environmental programmes with the private sectors so as to enhance their role of corporate social responsibility, is also of high priority.

It is hoped that these events showcase NEA’s partnership Strategy to Engage and eventually Empower our partners from the 3P sectors to take ownership of the environment, and to plan / initiate environmental initiatives on their own.