GIRLGEMS Finalists: Brenda

Participant: Brenda Tan Yue Lin (Solo singing)

Fish Leong's 听不到

back to school (part 2)

News Release

News Release Singapore, 21 August 2007

For Immediate Release

TKGS girls rocking the way into social entrepreneurship and creative fund-raising with a hip charity concert ‘GIRLGEMS 2007’ on 25 August 2007

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“We believe that every girl is as unique, dazzling, sparkling and special in
their own way, just like a gem. Girlgems is about YOU and everything you CAN be.”
– Nurul Syafina, Team Leader of ‘The Wonders’

'The Wonders', a team of four students from Tanjong Katong Girls' School (TKGS) Interact Club will be staging a fund-raising concert on 25 August 2007 at TKGS. The event is in conjunction with the prestigious Citibank-YMCA Youth For Causes competition 2007 which allows schools to raise the most funds for their chosen voluntary welfare organizations. 'The Wonders' aim to raise $10,000 for the Association for Women for Action and Research (AWARE) youth programmes.

"I saw the extent of my peers starving themselves, going to extremes, and spending tons on makeovers, hoping to look like celebrities and their idols. I feel that they lack the confidence to present themselves. We are really tired of that, and know that something has to be done. We really hope to raise awareness and influence others to want to make the difference to their lives," said Nurul Syafina, team leader of 'The Wonders'.

By raising funds for AWARE's body-image sub committee, the girls hope to spread the awareness and articulate messages of self-affirmation and empowerment to young girls in Singapore.

Apart from special performances by Singapore Idol finalist, Paul Twohill, hip-hop duo, sleeQ and Norman Then, there will also be exciting song and dance performances by TKGS's own talents as well as other female performers from other schools. The event is a highly collaborative effort to involve and include as many young female talents as possible. Booths set up by TKGS’s very own entrepreneurial club, 'TK Towkay,' will be selling food and accessories to raise funds. AWARE’s President, Ms Constance Singam will also be attending as the Guest-of-Honour for the event.

For more information on GIRLGEMS, please contact:

Nurul Syafina

Team Leader, The Wonders

Tel: (65) 96574520

Chai Pei Shan

AWARE Volunteer/ Project Mentor
Tel: (65) 9823 8554

Email: girlgems@gmail.com

Blog: www.girlgems.blogspot.com

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The Wonders

'The Wonders' consists of four passionate and creative TKGS girls: Syafina, Nadiah, Syafiqah, and Siti spearheading this fund-raising event – GIRLGEMS 2007. They hope to raise $10,000 for AWARE's youth programmes. GIRLGEMS 2007 is a creative charity fund raising, social entrepreneurship for Citibank-YMCA 'Youth-for-Causes' 2007.

Tanjong Katong Girls' School (TKGS)

Tanjong Katong Girls' School (TKGS) has a vibrant and dynamic performing arts/sporting culture that exposes our students to a wide range of experiences and opportunities to bring about peak performances and for character development. TKGS runs a robust academic programme, and has also provided opportunities for our girls to participate in various community service programmes through leveraging upon their talents and interests.

Association of Women for Action and Research (AWARE)

Association of Women for Action and Research AWARE is a Charity with Institute of Public Character status.

AWARE’s youth programmes include comprehensive education programmes and workshops.

AWARE's mission is to promote a society that provides optimal opportunities for women and men to realise their highest potential. AWARE believes that gender stereotypes and discrimination benefits neither women nor men, and that gender equity is a necessary component of healthy families and societies. Formed in 1985, AWARE is the leading women's advocacy group in Singapore. AWARE's strengths lie in identifying social issues that adversely affect women and families, and in researching the causes and possible solutions of these issues.

For those who need immediate support, AWARE's helpline and counseling services help over 2500 women each year. AWARE also has an education arm that provides training on diverse issues such as self-esteem, sexuality, gender stereotypes and assertiveness. AWARE is supported by a large group of committed passionate volunteers, mainly women, but with increasing numbers of men.

girlgems banner !

Research - "The Gift of Listening" blog

While I was researching on eating disorders among youths in Singapore, I found many relevant links to blog posts, confessions and sharing of experiences among the online community.These are some of the real issues facing teens today.

Would like to share this very meaning blog 'The Gift of listening" with you...

Letters to Forum
http://www.giftoflistening.com/2007/08/too_thin_teens_letters_to_the.html


There are online resources to seek help, support or a listening ear
http://www.giftoflistening.com/resources.html

Eating Disorders Helpline - Tel: 6345-3435 (10:00am - 4:00pm Phone Mail Mon-Fri

Links:
Anorexia Nervosa
Anorexia Nervosa And Related Eating Disorders

The story behind The Wonders

Four girls have always harbored an extraordinary wish to make a big difference to the youths in their community. In June, a unique opportunity came when Syafina, heard about Citibank-YMCA Youth For Causes competition from their school principal, alongside the call to raise funds for Voluntary Welfare Organisation.

"I saw the extent of my peers starving themselves, going to extremes, and spending tons on makeovers, hoping to look like celebrities and their idols. I feel that they lack the confidence to present themselves. We are really tired of that, and know that something has to be done. We really hope to raise awareness and influence others to want to make the difference to their lives," said Nurul Syafina, team leader of ‘The Wonders’ on the compelling reason behind this cause.

Her friends, Nadiah Bte Yuseli, 14, Syafiqah Syazwani, 14 and Siti Nurbuwwah, 13, also feel strongly against bingeing and purging in order to look or feel good about themselves. After hours of research, they discovered that eating disorder is on the rise among their peer. After brainstorming for ideas, they decided starting a campaign would be their first step.

‘The Wonders’, the passionate and highly-motivated team consists of four socially-conscious girls from Tanjong Katong Girls’ School (TKGS) Interact Club. Since June, the girls had embarked on this social enterprise project and ‘Girlgems 2007’ was born The TKGS girls behind this youth-initiative and fund-raising event hope to raise $10,000 for the Association for Women for Action and Research (AWARE) youth programmes.

Together with Peishan, AWARE volunteer from the body-image team, and Harmin, Centre Manager of AWARE, the team worked tirelessly with the help of the TKGS teachers, and principal, Mrs Phyllis Lim, to rally support from the whole school. Everyone did their part in gathering volunteers, calling for sponsorships and selling ticket.

The key fund-raising event is a concert held on 25 August at TKGS. ‘Girlgems 2007 – in aid of AWARE’, is a fun and hip youth event that invites young women from all walks of life to reaffirm their self-acceptance. It is an exciting event with talented female performers, vibrant dances, solo and group singing, which are held exclusively for youths ranging from ages 13 to 21.

It is a celebration of girls - Girlgems allows every young woman to appreciate herself for who she is and who she hopes to become. It is a validation of self. It's about being comfortable with who you are and recognizing your potential to be all that you can be. It is about being true to yourself. Casting aside archaic notions of women as Barbie dolls, or second-class citizens, the event encourages women to be first class citizens, to embrace new and healthier role models of success and beauty.

The event is graced by Guest-of-Honour - AWARE President, Ms Constance Singam. The line up of special performances includes Singapore Idol finalist, Paul Twohill, a hip-hop duo, sleeQ and Norman Then.

Their creative approach to social entrepreneurship involves a series of fun-filled entrepreneurial activities with ‘TK Towkay’ corner, booths selling food and accessories, and funds raised by wearing ethic costumes on Carnival Day and National Day celebrations. The resourceful girls tie in marketing efforts with self-designed blog (www.girlgems.blogspot.com), that features interesting footages of the auditions.

As part of the community and public outreach efforts, AWARE invites residents from the youth welfare homes, Pertapis Centre for Women and Girls (PCWG), in the hope that the message behind this meaningful concert resonates with the audience and builds on their self esteem.

For ‘The Wonders’ themselves, it is also a process of self-discovery and reaching out to the community and working towards a good cause. It is also a wonderful time to celebrate girls’ pride and forging new friendships!

Come to GIRLGEMS concert on 25 Aug@TKGS. Book your tickets today!

In the news - Eating Disorders "Too thin teens" - Sunday Times

Too thin teens

12 August 2007

Straits Times

By Tan Dawn Wei & Bryna Sim

Anorexia cases here are up and the attitude of some teens that it's hip to have the illness has doctors worried

ALL she wanted was for her sisters to stop calling her 'fat' and 'bimbo' and to win more friends at school.

And the best way to get there, she felt, was to lose the baby fat on her face. But that led her straight to hospital and 'humiliating' treatment for anorexia nervosa.

The 14-year-old's plight is sadly typical of most sufferers of the eating disorder.

Like many victims, Michelle - not her real name - is from a middle-income family, goes to an elite girls' school and does well in her studies.

Her problems started last year in Secondary 1.

Taunted by her classmates and sisters, she started rejecting food, eating only vegetables and small spoonfuls of rice for dinner, sometimes her only meal for the day.

'All the girls around me were very thin and they all seemed to have many friends. I felt very left out,' said the pale, rail-thin teenager in between sobs.

When a school trip came up earlier this year, a teacher noticed her bony frame and sallow face and decided she was not well enough to go. The school counsellor then alerted her parents.

By the time Michelle's mother, Mrs Lim, checked her into the eating disorder programme at Singapore General Hospital (SGH) last month, the 1.5m-tall teen had lost 10kg in six months and weighed just 29.5kg. She should be at least 42kg to qualify as healthy.

Mrs Lim has since taken Michelle out of SGH after objecting to its order of complete bed rest. Michelle could not shower for days and had to use a bed pan, which her mum called 'humiliating'. She also wrote to The Sunday Times and Singapore Children's Society to complain about the treatment.

But her illness did not come as a complete surprise to Mrs Lim as she had been through it herself.

'I was hoping it wasn't anorexia, but I was in denial,' said the private tutor. 'I didn't want her to end up like me.'

Michelle, who still suffers from hair loss, severe constipation and insomnia, returned to school last Wednesday, but dealing with her illness will be a 'long, hard process', said Mrs Lim.

It is a traumatic story that is becoming increasingly common here. There are no statistics on eating disorders, but a 2005 study cited 126 cases of anorexia seen by the Institute of Mental Health from 1994 to 2002.

Before 2002, SGH, the only hospital here with an eating disorders programme, saw about 20 to 30 patients a year. Last year, it saw 200.

What is concerning professionals is the attitude of some of the teens who see anorexia as hip.

'There is a copycat effect. It's like an 'in' thing among girls, especially those in girls' schools and universities,' said Dr Liow Pei Hsiang, consultant at Alexandra Hospital's psychiatry unit, where the number of patients seeking treatment for eating disorders has doubled in four years.

And so it is. Michelle and her classmates fight to be the skinniest in class. 'We would try to outdo each other by seeing who ate less that day, or who exercised more,' she said.

The most common eating disorders are anorexia, in which a sufferer severely restricts food intake, and bulimia nervosa, which involves bingeing and purging.

They hit females 10 times more than males. Females in adolescence and their 20s are particularly vulnerable, said Dr Lee Ee Lian, senior consultant psychiatrist and director of the SGH eating disorders programme.

At least one top girls' school, Methodist Girls' School, has seen a slight rise in the number of students with eating disorders but counsellor Ann Robers declined to give figures.

Teachers have been given checklists designed by Mrs Robers to help identify girls who may suffer from any psychological problems, including eating disorders.

The students are also regularly weighed in physical education class - if their weight drops sharply, the counsellor and parents are notified.

The Health Promotion Board is monitoring the issue and organises seminars for teachers and school counsellors on dealing with various health issues, including eating disorders.

SGH's Dr Lee has seen her fair share of truly challenging cases over the years, like several teen patients with body mass indexes (BMI) of nine and who were so weak they could not speak or swallow. The healthy BMI range is from 18.5 to 22.9.

One anorexic woman was hospitalised 50 times in four years while another had severe psychotic depression. 'She heard voices telling her to kill herself, which she eventually did,' said Dr Lee.

The eating disorders programme loses one patient every year to suicide, pneumonia and starvation. Not all suffer from eating disorders exclusively; some may have other psychological problems.

Studies put the mortality rate of eating disorders at between 5 and 20 per cent. But even if you do not die from it, there could be long-term effects like brain atrophy, osteoporosis and infertility.

Dr Ken Ung, of Adam Road Hospital, says 10 to 20 per cent of those afflicted never recover.

'Every time I see a case, I pray and try every trick in the book. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't,' said Dr Ung, who treats up to 50 new cases a year. 'You can say, 'You're not getting out of here until you put on 5kg'. But when she leaves, she stops eating again.'

One 13-year-old sufferer who is determined never to starve herself again is June (not her real name).

Last year, the 1.53m-tall teen ate only bread and hit her condo's gym every day. 'I would look in the mirror and still think that I was fat, although I was actually very skinny. I wanted to eat, yet I told myself I hated food because I was afraid that I would get fat.'

She was always tired, getting styes and coughs that would last for months.

After her weight plummeted from 40kg to 32kg in the first four months of last year, she started to will herself to eat and is now 43kg.

The youngest of three children of a university lecturer and housewife can proudly say she wolves down four slices of pizza at one sitting. 'And I feel like a whole new person,' she said.

SELF-DELUSIONAL

'I would look in the mirror and still think that I was fat, although I was actually very skinny. I wanted to eat, yet I told myself I hated food because I was afraid that I would get fat.' JUNE, 13

Eating Disorders

In this ward, nurses check to ensure meals are finished

12 August 2007

Straits Times
By Bryna Sim & Tan Dawn Wei

ENTERING Ward 46A at the Singapore General Hospital takes a bit of doing.

Visitors to Singapore's only eating disorder treatment ward must navigate a maze on the sixth floor of Block 4, before reaching the ward tucked away in a corner.

Bags and pockets are checked to ensure no one is sneaking in food, as patients are on strict dietary and weight-monitoring regimes.

Once inside, the silent presence of painfully thin, pale girls greets you. Each sub-ward houses about five to six patients.

The days are not regimented except for two things - dreaded by patients - meal and supplement times.

'They are the most stressful parts of the day,' said 14-year-old Michelle (not her real name), whose mother had her discharged after a three-week-long stay.

Patients said they get an hour to finish their food. Nurses peer at plates and bowls and if they leave so much as a piece of chicken fat or rice grain, the meal is marked as 'incomplete'.

That spells trouble for patients as it means they will have to swallow one more supplement on top of the three they take a day.

Desperate means

NURSES readily admit they have become stricter and craftier over the years as they try to keep up with the girls' creative ways of making food disappear.

Some patients throw up right after a meal, shovel food into their hospital gown pockets or even hide it between their sheets.

'We used to allow them to toast food, but they would just burn it deliberately,' said one nurse.

But hunger fuels their creative juices. The girls say they compete to see who succeeds in not gaining weight as the days go by.

Lynette (not her real name), 13, even did star jumps in the shower to try to burn off calories. She was caught and doctors apparently ordered Complete Rest In Bed (Crib) for the four girls in the sub-ward.

That meant they could not shower or use the bathroom for days on end. All bowel movements are done using a bed pan.

Even standing on the bed is banned.

For their own good

SUCH methods prompted Michelle's mum, a 43-year-old home tutor, to write to the Singapore Children's Society and The Sunday Times describing them as 'sadistic, inhumane and humiliating'.

The senior consultant psychiatrist and director of SGH's programme, Dr Lee Ee Lian, said Crib is meant to be 'life-saving and curative, not punitive'.

Defiant but dangerously sick patients who refuse to eat sometimes have to be strapped down or force-fed through a tube, say doctors.

A specialist at Adam Road Hospital, Dr Ken Ung, said: 'Such treatment methods are primitive. But they have worked.'

The girls behind this BIG project

This project is an intiative of four girls from the TKGS Interact Club ...

The TKGS Interact Club is the youth wing of the Rotary Club of Singapore. It is an organization for schools all around the world to help students get involved in leadership and service. Interact, which comes from inter (national) act (ivity), enables us to interact more with the society and take part in other community involvement programmes. These in turn open up our eyes to the world of the less privileged and broaden our horizons.

The newly founded Interact Club in TKGS, is a club launched for pupils who are keen in making a difference in other people's lives. Interactors will be given a chance to learn the skills of interacting with different groups of people through various activities and components of community service. One such example would be the BP Mentoring which started in the year 2004, where Interactors mentor students from Tanjong Katong Primary School and Haig Girls' Primary. Interactors will also have the opportunity to travel overseas to meet with other interactors from various countries to learn and share experiences, as well as to exchange cultures. This will allow our members to be exposed to what we do not encounter in our everyday life. Our theme for the Installation is " Sol Eterna : Eternal Sunshine". This represents our Club's intention ? to keep on shining and bring warmth to every nation in the world.

Thanks for the guidance and support by Ms Gladys Hoy :)

A Sneak Peek ...

"Barbie"

Some months back, I did a project on Barbie culture, exploring the consumptions of norms and ideals of beauty.

Do you live a life like Barbie's?
Growing up, do you idolise or wish you can be Barbie and why?

Barbie Doll – Marge Piercy

This girlchild was born as usual

And presented dolls that did pee-pee

and miniature GE stoves and irons

and wee lipsticks the colour of cherry candy.

Then in the magic of puberty, a classmate said:

You have a great big nose and fat legs.

She was healthy, tested intelligent,

Possessed strong arms and back,

Abundant sexual drive and manual dexterity.

She went to and fro apologizing,

Everyone saw a fat nose on thick legs.

She was advised to play coy,

Exhorted to come on hearty,

Exercise, diet, smile and wheedle.

Her good nature wore out

Like a fan belt,

So she cut off her nose and legs

And offered them up.

In the casket displayed on satin she lay

With the undertaker’s cosmetics painted on, a turned-up putty nose,

Dressed in a pink and white nightie.

Doesn’t she look pretty? Everyone said.

Consummation at last.

To every woman a happy ending.

Girlgems Auditions

girlgems auditions were held on 21 and 28 July at TKGS hall.
6 teams are going into the finals on 25 Aug, STAY TUNED!

The Wonders

The young and aspiring social entrepreneurs

The Wonders: Nadiah, Syafina, Syafiqah (L-R)
and Siti (not in photo)

SUPPORT US!

Photographer: 'Mentor' Peishan, ex-tkgian and AWARE volunteer

8pm at Bugis, Delifrance
BUSY WITH PROJECT!

take ONE...

TKGS celebrates National Day Celebrations with Carnival Day

National Day Celebrations cum Carnival Day on 8th August 2007

On Wednesday 8 August, the TKGian community will be celebrating National Day through community service. Every year, the school creates opportunities for the students to plan activities for the community on Carnival Day. This year, the school has merged our National Day and Carnival Day celebrations. On 8 August, TKGians will be involved in a host of activities. They will host our guests from various community groups who will be joining us for the celebrations. At TKGS, the students believe that small acts of kindness will go a long way, especially if it comes from the heart. Community spiritedness is imbedded in the school's culture. In previous years, the school started off by showing the students how to be involved in community programmes. The perseverance of the school has paid off in that now the students are coming forward and initiating their own projects to serve the community. Besides being involved in planning the activities, TKGians are also encouraged to support 'Be Yourself Day', a community service initiative in support of causes like AWARE ( A ssociation for W omen for A ction and RE search). TKGians will show their support for the cause by making a donation and coming to school dressed in their ethnic costumes or red and white outfits. See latest news>> Photos coming up!