Inter-Racial and Religious Confidence Circle (IRCC) Retreat

"We’re all not painters but with a collaborative effort, we produced a masterpiece.”

– Mr Hilman Yaakop (West Coast IRCC), center, fifth from right

OnePeople.sg organized an IRCC Retreat cum work plan day on Saturday, 7 January 2012 at the Singapore Flyer. The objective of the retreat was for the IRCC members to bond and plan for their activities/events for the year. More than 40 IRCC participants from West Coast GRC attended the session.

The retreat included team bonding games, breakout discussions and sharing of work plan for the year. The highlight of the retreat was the” Missing Masterpiece” activity where participants had to re-create a painting masterpiece. This interactive painting activity enabled participants to demonstrate their teamwork, leadership and creativity.

Check out the photos of IRCC members showcasing their creativity.

Visit by PEACE Boat Delegates

Visit by PEACE Boat Delegates to OnePeople.sg on 17 May 2012

On 17 May 2012, Onepeople.sg hosted the Sri Lankan youth participants who were joining the Peace Boat voyage. This year, Singapore is one of the stops in the Peace Boat voyage. Peace Boat is working with two partners in Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka Unites and Weeramantry International Center for Peace Education and Research (WICPER) on board the ship for a young leader capacity building programme, centred on understanding and responding to the conflict there as leaders in their communities.

The aim of the visit was to explore opportunities to bring the Sri Lankan and Singaporean youths together, as well as to explore the concepts of multiculturalism and diversity in society. The sharing session was engaging for both the staff of OnePeople.sg as well as the Sri Lankan youths.

Our staff shared the background of the different ethnic groups in Singapore, as well as programmes that have been initiated to promote harmonious living among the multi-racial community. The Sri Lankan youths disclosed the difficulties they faced back home in integrating the Tamil and Sinhalese with each other after the Sri Lankan civil war; they had been brought up during the period of unrest and fear of each other.

The light sharing session continued over lunch. It was indeed an engaging and fulfilling time with the Sri Lankan youths as we learnt more about the personal struggles and difficulties they faced, and how we could help them in their efforts to ensure peace between the Tamil and Sinhalese youths. It is hoped that they put their differences aside and live together in a united Sri Lanka.

Visit by United Nations Racism Expert

As part of an eight-day mission, United Nations racism expert, Special Rapporteur Githu Muigai made OnePeople.sg one of the key stopovers in his first-hand study of issues relating to racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance in Singapore. Mr Muigai was joined by Mayor Zainudin Nordin, OPSG Board members and youth facilitators in a dialogue where they shared their experiences in our collective efforts to champion racial harmony.

It was indeed a great honour to host Mr Muigai who was treated with a presentation on OPSG, tour of premises and multi-ethnic refreshments on 24 April 2010. Mr Muigai lauded Singapore's remarkable achievements in the area of racial and religious harmony and commended Singapore Government's fundamental commitment to tolerance and racial harmony through policies. He was deeply impressed by the work achieved and Racial Harmony efforts undertaken by OnePeople.sg as well as various community partners and agencies.

Community Leaders' Conference 2013 - Securing Peace: Lessons From History

Over 200 people comprising of religious, community and government leaders attended the Conference on 16 March at Republic Polytechnic.

With the theme Securing Peace: Lessons From History, the Conference brought in Mr Jakob Finci, Ambassador of Bosnia-Herzegovina to Switzerland and President of La Benevolencija, to share on his experiences during the Bosnian War in the early 90s, in dealing with crisis. Being similar to Singapore in terms of multiculturalism, Mr Finci also shared about the diversity of his country from the Bosnian perspective.

We also invited Mr Janadas Devan, Director of the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS), to share on what constitutes (multi)-cultural and national identity and government policies, drawing on Singapore's history and his own life as examples.

Joining us for the dialogue panel was our Guest of Honour, Mr Chan Chun Sing, Acting Minister for Social and Family Development, together with the two guest speakers, Chairman OnePeople.sg and Sister Theresa Seow, Asst. Secretary of the Inter-Religious Organisation (Singapore). Together, they answered questions and clarifications from the audience on issues such as integration and identity.

Read Mr Jakob Finci's speech here and Mr Janadas Devan's speech here.

Check out photos of the Conference here.

"By sharing similarities / common problems from another part of the world, it helps to show us that there are similar issues faced around the world, and we are not alone" - Lee Hong Chuang

"It was knowledgeable. I learnt the experience of Bosnia. Its civil war is a lesson to Singapore" - S Visvalingam

"The conference was very timely to discuss the current situation in Singapore" - Rustom Russi Ghadiali

"Our history is very short. Our ancestors all come from certain lands and speak a different language. It is more uplifting to define a common future" - Mr Chan Chun Sing, Acting Minister for Social and Family Development