Hasnita A Majid, Channel NewsAsia 28 Jun 09;
SINGAPORE: A passionate environmentalist and a defence contractor have won this year's MediaCorp's Gaia Life Challenge.
The duo beat two other pairs of contestants to win the top prize which includes S$3,000 cash.
Spending time in their "temporary homes" under the full glare of the public has not been easy for the contestants, especially when it is warm in the cubicles even with the fans switched on.
But the contestants gamely endured the inconvenience to help raise environmental awareness.
They spent 24 hours in the transparent acrylic cubicles, coming out occasionally to face challenges that require them to answer questions and carry out activities on saving the environment.
They also went online to blog about their experiences.
For Jaclyn Ng and Jasbindeerjeet Singh, the experience has been worth it. They emerged winners after completing various challenges and collecting the most points.
Ng said: "The message is: no action is too small and no action is of course too large for everyone to do their part to save Gaia and try to think about your carbon footprint and tell yourself that if you can save here, it basically means that you can save Gaia."
The pair won electrical goods such as an air-conditioner, an LCD TV, a fridge and a standing fan on top of the cash prize, which they will use to fund an initiative to promote projects on the use of renewable energy among schools.
This is MediaCorp's second year at promoting the green message through such activity.
Shaun Seow, MediaCorp's Deputy CEO (News, Radio, Print), said: "I think the interesting point about this year's challenge is that there are a lot of games and through the games, the contestants have come to realise, for example, that turning on the aircon uses 100 watts (of electricity) compared to 30 watts in the case of a fan.
"This was apparent in the kinds of blogs that they were putting out, and through the online presence they are actually spreading the message to their friends and family."
He added: "The response (to MediaCorp's Gaia Life Challenge) was good, in the sense that many contestants (had) wanted to take part but we had to turn them away...
"Obviously, in this climate (amidst the H1N1 scare, all sorts of economic decline) it is quite difficult to make people understand the green message and we are glad that we are still trying to reinforce that we've got to save Gaia, Mother Earth."
The winners will become the MediaCorp-Gaia Ambassadors for a year to help spread the message of going green.
- CNA/ir
