Writer: Dawn Lim
What do you do at The Tender Gardener?
Olivia: I try to connect people with nature through stories, personal experiences, workshops, etc. I want to show people that interacting with nature is an intrinsic part of being human.
I believe a lot of our problems begin with a disconnection with ourselves. Being closer to nature can help us with that reconnection. Hopefully, that helps us form more empathetic relationships outside of ourselves: with people, animals and the environment.
Tell us about your neighbourhood.
Olivia: I live near the Potong Pasir area. I like its sleepy vibe and the big green space nearby. A lot of my neighbours have been living there for a while.
Sometimes, I would take a 20-minute walk home and look at everyone's gardens. However, I can see the face of the neighbourhood changing quickly recently and the presence of new malls and condominiums can be quite cold.
What kinds of community spaces would you like to see more of?
Olivia: I think the concept of a community centre is good, but I feel that it needs to go a bit further so that it's a place where people would want to gather. I think it's good that they have workshops and things like that, but perhaps they can look more into enhancing the comfort and aesthetics of their spaces for people to linger longer.
The spaces at the Tzu Chi Recycling Centre are very calm and welcoming and we should have more of such safe and therapeutic spaces. They have some small shops including a bookshop there and there is an area where people can sit down and do their work.
Olivia Choong. Image credit: Olivia Choong
What about a more endearing and loveable city?
Olivia: For me, it must be quiet, with lots of green spaces. You must be able to hear birds and creatures, not only traffic.
For some years, I used to live in Northern New South Wales, in a rural part known as the Byron Bay hinterland, in Australia. All I had there was a tiny house, but it didn't matter because all the good things were happening outside. With that said, it could never beat the home that I grew up in.
More importantly, I feel that we can be more liveable if we turn inwards towards our own community and be connected to what we really value. I think that in turn will enable us to care more about other people around us and the city in general.
The Tender Gardener Olivia Choong started The Tender Gardener blog to connect city dwellers with nature. Through the contents on this platform, she hopes to inspire people to embrace a life of plants and the biodiversity that comes with it. She also works at the Edible Garden City Funan twice a week. www.tendergardener.com
What motivated you to start “The Codette Project”?
Nurul: I’ve spent most of my adult life overseas. So, when I came back to Singapore, I didn't have a community or a space that I felt comfortable in. A lack of representation and diversity in narratives of success had also always been obvious to me.
So, in some ways, I created The Codette Project because I wanted this community that was committed to representation and diversity, and now I have it.
One of the Hackathon sessions by Codette Project prior to COVID-19. Image credit: Codette Project
Tell us about your hackathon events.
Liyana: We ran Singapore’s first all-women hackathon in 2018 and again in 2019 to provide a welcoming space for women to share their ideas and solve problems together. While most hackathons are intensive, technical, overnight events, which can be intimidating, we didn’t think it had to be that way.
Nurul: We designed the hackathons based on the needs of women from diverse backgrounds and made sure the events ended at 8pm to accommodate those who were carers.
Many of the women played multiple roles in their day-to-day lives as students, professionals, mothers, and carers. So, attending our hackathon was very freeing because everything was provided for, from childcare, a breastfeeding room, prayer spaces and halal as well as vegetarian food.
What do you need to create a welcoming space for your community?
Amilin: Catering to women and minorities does not require a whole new building or an entirely new kind of space. It is about an attitude – to provide spaces that support diversity and inclusiveness. The central question we should be asking people is: "What do you need to make this space yours? What are your needs?" For all the spaces that we have used for our activities, we were always allowed to create a space catered to our needs and that's important. It's important for people to feel like there's a wide variety of viewpoints and representations in every space.
Atikah: It is very important to get the people who live in those spaces to be active in creating the spaces that they want to live in. That's what I think will create a loveable city. It is when you have a vested interest in it. There’s been a lot of such effort to involve the community in creating the spaces they want. We need to continue to build on these efforts.
The integrated complexes such as Our Tampines Hub or Heartbeat@Bedok are examples with great spaces because these have a good mix of different uses for the space. There are facilities, there's a running track, there's free movie screenings. These are good examples of using spaces effectively and making people feel welcome.
Nurul: A loveable city should have less inequality. I think it's only possible to love a city that commits to being more equal and more just to everyone who lives there. And that should be reflected in every experience they have with the city. It's who you see, where you live, what you eat.
Liyana: When I was growing up, my grandparents took care of me. Every time we go to the market called Pasar Bulat ("round market") in Tampines, my grandfather would prop me up on the parapet and he would stand there talking to other uncles while my grandmother went around looking for stuff. Over time, the men got to know each other because they're always sitting there waiting for their wives. This is the kind of atmosphere and community I love to see. A loveable city is one that is inclusive and non-judgmental, where people extend themselves forward to say hello, to reach out to somebody that doesn't look like you.
The Codette Project Nurul Jihadah Hussain started The Codette Project in 2015 to empower minority/Muslim women by providing access to social and economic opportunities, opportunities in the tech industry, and a safe and welcoming space to explore technology. Liyana Fauzi, Amillin Hussain, and Atikah Razak are part of the Codette team. They are also in the technology, built environment and communications fields. www.thecodetteproject.com
What does Common Ground do?
Shihui: Common Ground is a civic centre dedicated to helping citizens, practitioners and organisations develop their capacity for bridging divides and building communities to collaborate on solutions to community or societal issues together.
It is a place for community to hone their skills in initiating and navigating conversations across diverse perspectives. We are a campus, community and consultancy – the organisations gathered here each have their specific areas of focus. This facilitates the exchange of community expertise and resources.
We are constantly experimenting with new forms of engagement and community-building. We welcome groups and individuals who share the common purpose of building a resilient and cohesive society to reach out to us and other members of Common Ground.
The Common Ground civic centre in Bedok. Image credits: Thought Collective
What is one significant project you are working on?
Shihui: We are currently working on a multi-year exploration of mental health and wellness. The work began in 2020 during the Circuit Breaker1 when many youths came to one of our resident partners, Campus PSY, to share their mental health concerns.
We supported Campus PSY and brought in another resident partner, Studio Dojo, a trans-disciplinary strategy, design and innovation practice, and worked on a digital dialogue series where young people who are experiencing different kinds of mental health challenges during the pandemic period could gather and learn from one another.
Given the experiences that were shared, this led to a deeper study where we spoke with different youths and young adults, on their experiences discovering and managing their mental health conditions in Singapore.
18 UX designers volunteered to analyse the data gathered. What was meaningful was how the design community lent their professional skill sets to explore this community issue that is relevant to all of us. When we shared the work with some sector stakeholders, they found new and surprising insights.
We are following up with a project on mental health and wellness at workplaces this year, in 2021.
What kind of community are you fostering?
Shihui: We bring stakeholders with different causes and skill sets together, as in the case of us bringing together the mental health and design communities.
Our work here is about creating a community experience where various partners in the community and social sector can work together from an alignment of vision, built upon trust and friendship, which allows for deeper collaborations.
What will make our city more endearing and loveable?
Shihui: It would be very hard to have the bandwidth to think about what makes our city loveable if it was not already very liveable.
I say this from a point of gratitude and understanding of the journey that we took to make our city liveable, because that was an incredibly difficult journey. And now, we still have an exciting journey ahead of us to make our city even more loveable.
Going beyond the built environment and physical spaces, what makes a city loveable is understanding the relationships embedded within our communities, our connections and interdependencies. Inherently, all human beings want to feel loved and accepted. It’s important to think about the care that we take with the people around us.
How are you rediscovering our city again?
Shihui: Recently, I've been going on long walks with friends around Singapore.
Walking is a way of discovering the city at a slower pace. With the gentler pace, there's more time to look at our surroundings and to see the magic in the mundane. It's a bit like, if we were only working partners, we will just meet and talk about the work. But the time that is needed to grow the relationship needs to be set aside intentionally.
And it's the same — I need to take the time to know more about my city and come to discover what I love about this city, what is the meaning that it has for me.
The Thought Collective Khee Shihui is the Programme Director at Common Ground, which is part of the larger Thought Collective group that seeks to build up Singapore’s social and emotional capital through its various groups of social enterprises. www.thethoughtcollective.com.sg
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Top image: A gardening workshop by Olivia Choong prior to COVID-19. Image credit: Olivia Choong.
1 Circuit Breaker was the nationwide stay-at-home order enacted as a preventive measure by the Government of Singapore from 7 April to 1 June 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.