Singapore Launches Third Annual “Under No Roof” Event * * * * Some 500 Teenagers Compete To Learn About Poverty Housing

June 8, 2005

Experiencing poverty housing for a night: participants in last year’s “Under No Roof” event had to spend the night under flimsy shelter

SINGAPORE , 8th June 2005: Over 500 teenage students are expected to compete in a TV-style reality show this Saturday designed to publicize issues surrounding the need for a world where everyone has a decent place to call home.

Each task in Habitat for Humanity Singapore’s “Under No Roof” challenge raises awareness and highlights poverty housing and homelessness.

Some 57 teams of 16-18year olds from seven or eight international and local schools are expected to take part.

Teams of up to ten students must decipher clues and perform tasks that will provide a glimpse of what it feels like to be poor, hungry and without proper shelter. The top team will win an opportunity to participate in a Habitat Global Village trip in Asia .

Under One Roof 2005 is being co-organised by the Community Involvement Council of Victoria Junior College, a well-established school in Singapore .

Each team will be invited to compete to see who sells as many Habitat “More than Houses” wristbands. The funds will go to support Habitat’s work in tsunami-affected communities in India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand where Habitat has a major reconstruction effort under way.

This is the third year that HFH Singapore has held “Under No Roof”.

Last year, participants were invited to learn what it means to be homeless. Recalls volunteer Wei Teen, “I had knowledge of how some people have to live. Last year, sleeping on the cold hard pavement with no roof overhead, being subjected to downpours, heat and insect bites was a real challenge. It made me realize how fortunate I am to be blessed with all the comforts in my life and how not to take them for granted.”