Video testimonials of our e-travellers

“LooLa’s Virtual Service Journey offering came along just at the right time, when our school, like so many others around the World, had to introduce severe restrictions on any off-campus service activities. Our students were extremely excited and jumped at the opportunity to engage in real-time with family members from a small village island community in Indonesia, facilitated by the incredible staff from LooLa. Via a series of Zoom calls the students quickly came to understand the urgent needs the family were facing, with an already difficult situation made worse by Covid restrictions. Following a fund raising initiative, the students were able to observe in real time how key improvement measures, such as a water pump, water supply pipe, toilet, and LooLa’s trademark Safe Water Garden, were installed, bringing immediate relief to the family from their daily struggles. The ongoing long-term connection that we have now established between the family and our students via a WhatsApp group, to me could be the most powerful aspect to this fantastic service learning opportunity.”

Best Regards / Mit freundlichen Grüßen
​
Michael Söldner
Head of Experiential Education / Teacher of Geography and Individuals & Societies

Safe sanitation is a human right that we must provided to all.

As Dole, we will continue to support this great initiative, hoping that many others will find inspiration as much as we did!

On a more personal note:

Working with LooLa to bring safe sanitation to an Indonesian family was a truly fulfilling and moving experience.

Pak Andres and his family are truly wonderful people and we felt proud to make a difference in their lives.

We look forward to meet them in their home as soon as the borders open again!

Pier Luigi Sigismondi
President Dole Packaged Foods

• • “Very meaningful experience!”
  • “Meaningful and beautiful”
  • “Amazing”
  • “Impactful”
  • “Truly Eye-opening”
  • “Wish it would have been longer than 2 days!”
  • “We really managed to create a bond with the family”
  • “It was awesome to see the joy on the families faces”
  • “This experience allowed me to appreciate the little things in life more than before”
  • “I feel very blessed that I was able to participate. I feel I have truly seen another part of the world rather than be in my own world”

Listen to the 1 April 2021 awesome CNA Interview with NYP students Jolin Toh from the Diploma in Nursing and Joel Lim from the Diploma in Business management, and hear Jolin say, towards the end, that the virtual tour actually allowed her a deeper contact with Indonesian people than a physical visit!

Sanitation projects are essential but are often not sexy enough to attract sufficient funding. Good sanitation prevents many childhood diseases and ensures a healthy environment for families. Here in Singapore, we often take clean running water and properly treated wastewater from toilets for granted, but it is life-changing for those without it.

I and my team strongly felt the need to help bring good sanitation to Indonesian villagers. We are delighted to have helped provide good sanitation for the Suparno family. Their children can now grow up in a safe environment without being surrounded by wastewater and they have clean running water. Treated wastewater will help them grow important cash crops like chilli, bringing the family much needed money.

I hope this project will inspire more to contribute for this worthy cause and for others to undertake similar projects. This is just the beginning and there is so much more that all of us can do to make the world a better place.

~ Stella Chan

This was a great experience for every one of the students in our team. Having such a project being held virtually is definitely a first for all of us. The 5 days spent together with the Indonesian people, discovering how our lives are so different despite being neighbors brings about a new sense of appreciation of the things that we often take for granted, including easy access to clean and processed water where with the simple turn of our taps we get an abundant supply of it within a span of a few minutes. Unlike us, Indonesian village people must retrieve their water from nearby wells to gain access to water.

Being SP Optometry students, it was shocking to hear the traditional eye-care cures when they experience, for instance, red eyes (hint: it involves the application of urine!). It brought about a new sense of meaning in this 20-hour journey as we shared our knowledge with them on the proper practices to care for their eyes.

On behalf of the whole team, I would like to thank the LooLa staff for creating such a pleasant environment for us to interact with the Indonesian village people with minimal communication issues. Their ability to adapt and learn quickly on the spot made the activities that we planned run smoothly with minimal hiccups! We have learnt a great deal, not just about the issues faced by Indonesian people, but also about the importance of the Safe Water Garden that is bound to greatly contribute to villagers’ health and well-being.

– Loi Jun Hao, YEP-GO program