By Cheryl Lim

TWO Singaporean volunteers will be leaving for Dili, East Timor on Saturday to bring cheer to about 10 underprivileged children.

Singapore Press Holdings' (SPH) my paper reporter, Miss Dawn Tay, 26, and SPH portal AsiaOne webknowledgist Hannah Teoh, 27, will teach the children basic photography skills on their 10-day trip for the project, Envision East Timor.

Miss Teoh said: "Here, almost everyone has a camera. To these youths, having a camera and learning how to use it is a luxury that's beyond their imagination."

The purpose of Envision East Timor is to boost their self-esteem, said Miss Tay.

She hopes that photography will act as a medium to set them thinking about how they can contribute to their country.

She said: "We will do that by asking the youths what they like about their country and what they want to see changed, and get them to express the answers through photographs."

It all began when Miss Ting Siew Lee, 31, and Miss Wong Li Shan, 30, Dili-based volunteers from Singapore welfare group Cocoon, who teach needy children there English, broached the idea to Miss Teoh and Miss Tay, both photography buffs.

Both Miss Ting and Miss Wong have an interest in photography, too, but have been too busy to run a workshop themselves, Miss Ting said.

Over a month, Miss Tay and Miss Teoh designed the course, and collected as many second-hand digital cameras as they could.

Miss Tay said: "Many people just came forward. One woman donated four digital cameras."

They amassed 24 digital cameras, and Miss Tay's mother donated a new 19-inch LCD television and a DVD player. Cocoon will lend the cameras in Dili to youths after the course.

The biggest challenge so far for both women was time management, said Miss Tay, who juggles a full-time job with church and sports commitments.

But both feel that it is well worth the effort because "you're living for something bigger than yourself", said Miss Teoh.

If successful, the course will have another run with more volunteers, said Miss Tay.

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