Star appearance @ NTU

For 2 days, the OLE team is back to our own school! Not only did our fellow course mates come to show their support, the rest of the NTU population also pledge their support at our booth. Play e slides and find your own pretty faces!



Nanyang Tech University

On the first day of our roadshow in NTU, we had a pleasant surprise! MediaCorp Channel U came to our school to record Campus Yummy Hunt 美食大专攻!!!! Check out FELLICIA CHIN pledging her support!!!!!!






Gosh, she is so gorgeous... everyone present was charmed by her beauty. Not only was she warm and friendly, she encouraged others to join her in supporting this cause! We were thrilled by her actions. Thank you Felicia!!!

Montfort Sec

From Bukit Batok, the OLE team traveled over to Hougang the very next day to spread the OLE message to Montfort Sec on Thursday!

Anyhow, our booth was plonked right in front of their assembly area so we did get quite a bit of attention. As usual, James was the centre of attraction with people wanting to take pictures with him. (Maybe next time we should just send James down and let him do his thing) We could feel that the holiday mood was in the air, with the students planning their outings and traveling plans. We just hope you gentlemen will factor OLE into your plans as well!

Here are some of your photos...



Montfort Sec_251007

To end this entry, we want to thank Mr Victor Ong for being so supportive of the cause and making everything possible!

As all Secondary schools close, OLE team will be moving to tertiary institutions. Next week, we are heading to the first university -- Nanyang Tech Uni! So happen to be our school too.. so ALL NTU peeps, we expect to see you at Canteen A!

P.S. All the best for all the Sec 4 and 5 students who are sitting for your 'O' & 'N' lvl!

Millenia Institute

For those who come visit our blog regularly, you might have noticed that the OLE Team is feeling suicidal recently. Look to the right column and you'll notice that the frquency of our school visits have increased. We're now going from once a week to 3 times a week! But chill...we're stepping up our efforts to reach out to more people before school's out and students go for their well-deserved break. So today, we're down at Millenia Institute.

Even before we stepped in MI, a sentence from the OM Mr Singh impressed us. Just when we are worried that we won't be able to show our videos and have a talk during assembly. He said, "Ok, I'll move assembly to the Hall for you." Can you imagine a school changing its assembly venue just because 4 youths wanna promote something called OLE? Talk about City of Possibilities... THANK YOU MR SINGH!~ =)

Anyway, we did our usual talks, videos and booth set-up. But today, we introduced something new to the usual line-up. We have toilet posters! They're like James and Lina, but they are posters and will be placed on the toilet doors. They basically carry the same message - that you won't get AIDS by sharing the same toilet with an AIDS patient. We have taken some pictures, so juz take a look below at our new posters.

Another thing we're particularly proud of is how the Millenians have decorated the thumbprint board. For the first time, we see butterfly shapes and angel wings formed by thumbprints on the board. :) We've taken some close-up shots of these interesting designs to share with all you and if you're the one responsible for it, WELL DONE!

Lastly, halfway through the roadshow, we felt that James was having too good a life sitting down and waiting for people to take photos with him. So we brought him around school to take pictures with all the Millenians who are there.

Look out for your pics!



Millenia Institute_241007


Next up, Montfort Sec will get the OLE treatment!

The OLE Run

Roadshows, exhibitions, school talks, thumbprint pledges and now... OLE Run is here!

We've been thinking about how young people like you and I can play a more active role in showing support for people living with or affected by HIV/AIDS. During our roadshows, we were touched when students came up and asked how else they could contribute apart from signing up as volunteers or pledging towards the cause. I'd say, it all start small, and it's gotta start somewhere.

The campaign so far has been in full force of raising awareness of such a situation, that discrimination and stigma against these people is indeed happening as I type this, no matter we like it or not. And the very least thing that we can do is to change our mindset.

On 30 November 2007, we will be having the OLE Run.

A total of 357 rounds of running will be accumulated by all participating runners. 357 more people infected by AIDS last year in Singapore, 357 more people who need our support. The run will be leading up to the launch of the OLE exhibition and what better way is there to show the burning passion (especially after running under the sun ;p) for the cause?

Each member in the team will be covering approximately 1.1km to 3.3km. If you have any queries or want to support the cause, sign up with other two of your friends to form a team of 3 and email your full name, email and contact details to youth_ole@worldvision.org.sg now!

We look forward to seeing you guys!

Anglican High School

Today we have a fun time at Anglican High!

Although it was raining heavily in the morning, the rain did not wash away the Anglican spirit. We felt welcomed by the staffs and students. Most importantly, the Anglicans showed that they are with us in this fight against hate.

AHS is our first secondary school roadshow and we were not very sure what to expect at first. But AHS proved to us that age is not a deterring factor in helping others. We were really glad that Secondary One students were as enthusiastic as their older peers in wanting to reach out their helping hands for the people affected by HIV/AIDS.

The OLE team will like to specially thank Mr Yeoh for cooperating with us and making it all possible!




Anglican High_221007
Next stop: Millennia Institute

Hwa Chong Institution

The OLE Team went down to HCI yesterday and I must say, it was quite an experience.

As we were not able to do a presentation during assembly, we went in feeling rather worried, bothered by the thought of not having students visiting our booth. However, you guys showed us that there was nothing to be worried about in the first place. Even though we did not publicise beforehand what OLE was about, many of you still took the initiative to come forward to learn more about the campaign. Maybe this is the Hwa Chong spirit that we have heard so much about, and we thank you for your love and compassion.



HCI

And our next stop would be... Anglican High School

Hate the disease, Not the person

For now, James and Lina have been down at different schools to convey a series of messages. I sure hope they have been successful. Let's take a look at some of them.

Message from James: Hi, I am James. I am HIV positive. But you will not be infected by sharing a table with me.



Message from Lina: Hi, I am Lina. I am HIV positive. But you will not be infected by running with me.



So very often, the misconceptions about people living with AIDS or affected by AIDS resulted in these faces behind the disease to be discriminated against or stigmatised. We hope to bring to awareness this issue. You have the ability to make changes, and the very first step is simply to hate the disease, but not the person.

You have one life, do something.

All in a Day's Work

On a typical school roadshow day, We wake up before the sun rises, slap ourselves awake, and proceed to lug the equipment down to the school of the day.



















All is still good while we begin to set up the booth for the day and getting ready for assembly sharing session for some schools.



All is still good when the students turn up at our booth and join in the fight against hate by pledging, voluntering their service, or simply going down for the OLE exhibtion.

BUT.

Hell breaks loose when we try to lug the James and Linas to their next location. Please see below: We huff and puff and try to stuff Lina into the cab, but to no avail. Then,



The cab uncle did magic, and in Lina went. Like, finally.



But despite it being shorter than myself, it took up two and a half seat all by itself.



Moving the cut-outs around is a definite killer.

It's not just about them...

Today's entry is not sth closely related to OLE or HIV. In fact, its about a movie called "Sicko" which i just watched. Yup, we keep whining that this project has kept team OLE up to our necks with work, but Victor aka XX here has the time to go catch a movie. heh...

Anyway, the movie is about how the US healthcare system measures up against other western nations like France, UK and even communist Cuba. I shan't discuss the success and failures of the healthcare system here, but sth about the film struck a cord within me. The film started off with stories of how people without medical insurance hope and pray everyday that they don't get involved in accidents, as they would not have any money to pay for their medical bills. But after sharing their stories, the commentary said,

"But this film is not about the Americans who don't have health insurance. It's about the Americans who do"

Somehow, this sort of explains why we have OLE too. OLE is not just about the 39 million people living with AIDS. It's also about what the remaining 6.2 billion people in the world who DON'T have AIDS can do to help them. For those of us who are fortunate enough to be with the majority, this campaign is for you.

Just imagine the things we can achieve if these 6.2 billion people band together to help the less fortunate 39 million. Think about it.

One Life on Facebook!

OLE Singapore is on Facebook now!

Please join the cause in facebook. The cause is named "One Life Experience [Singapore]". Do search for it in facebook and join us in supporting the cause!

Victoria Junior College

The OLE team has travelled to the Eastern side of singapore. This time, we arrived at Victoria Junior College!

It was a tiring but fruitful day spent at VJC. Students who came to our publicity booth showing an interest in participating in our events also showed that they understood the cause. Everyone was sincere in helping the people affected by AIDS, and not merely joining us for CIP points! The genuine care greatly cheered us on.

Before we started explaining the cause, the response from the morning assembly showed that many VJCians saw "James" and "Lina" but few actually sat near them. Hopefully after our visit, VJCians will understand this global epidemic better and more will be willing to interact with them in school. They will be around at VJC for another week. Do take photographs with "James" and "Lina" and share the photos with us!

The OLE team would really like to thank all staff and students of VJC for being so supportive of the campaign. Especially so to Ms Celena and all students of 07S45, 07S39, 07A14, 07S32, 07S56, 07V14 and 07S33. Thank you all for the full support!

Below are some of the photos taken in VJC. Just double click on the slideshow if u want to download any of your pretty faces!



Victoria Junior College

Next stop: HCI. See ya there next week! =)

The OLE Run

The previous school visit was indeed very, very, very gratifying. To see the hard work we've done so far received so enthusiatically by the students was a one life experience for us as well (note: one-in-a-lifetime experience, not the campaign, heh.)

There are many upcoming school visits and we're looking forward to every single one. To do some shameless plugging here: If your school is interested in having us, just drop us an email anytime! We'll be more than happy to share One Life with you guys.

Now . . .

More shameless plugging . . .

OLE Run is here!!!

So what is the OLE Run? It is basically a run with a symbolic format towards the cause, in teams of three. It'll be happening right before the launch of the OLE exhibition on 30 Nov, so do note it down in your calendar! More details coming up on the run :)

Meanwhile, if you wish to understand more about OLE, you can also check this out!

Who writes all these stuff?

It's really interesting to read emails sent to the youth OLE email. Most people start off their mails with "Dear so-and-so,..." and then say their piece. But for us, we are known collectively as Team OLE or OLE Youth. Makes us sound like robots generating computer replies!

So we've decided to sort of expose our identities and give you a name to our group. Yup, there're actually 4 of us writing this blog. Usually whoever feels like committing verbal diarrhoea will come do it here (OLE related of cse!) Being the only male in the group, looks like I'll be first to go then :)

Name: Li Xunxiang Victor aka XX
People call me: A social nerd.....cos they always see me reading up on cheeminology stuff and engaging in cocktail conversations with these random topics
Loves to: Talk cock with people at the school benches
Hates to: Wake up for early morning lessons
OLE stands for: "Oei! Lai Eh!" *Translation: Hey! Come eh*

Name: ChUa ZhEnGlinG JaNice aka Mousey
People call me: Girl that got blown away by the Shanghai wind....hahaha...
Loves: Enjoy yummy food
Hates: People shaking legs in the train

Name: Jennifer Law
People call me: the LAW
Loves to: Fill in feedback forms
Hates to: See bad customer service
OLE stands for: One Life Experience (I must follow law, this is the way it really is...)

Name: Choo Jingyi aka Jing
People call me: The laggard... This is my first time posting a blog entry (actually, just a quarter of an entry )
Loves: to wake up naturally. No alarm clocks pls...
Hates: it when I've no time to hang out with friends
OLE stands for: Those good ole' days~~~

Additional "Friend"!

We have added another new "friend" by the name of Lina!

Unlike James, Lina is a full body silhouette figure. Also, she is seen running.

We hope she will be welcomed by all just like James. Do interact with her if you see her running in your school!