Ground-up social movement and working with youths are vital to rapidly change social norms. Activating youths bring extensive social media reach which in turn garner buy-in unlike conventional...
We had the privilege to listen to several Filipino youths present what they understand of the Tobacco Free Generation International Social Movement on 9 January 2021. This was under the leadership of...
Response from students from a sample location in 2019. Students born in year 2006 and 2007, ages 14 and 15 respectively after understanding the implications of TFG. We think it is possible to be 100%...
Well done Dinalupihan team. I see sincerity, determination, unity, commitment, courage against the tobacco industry and therefore global, public health leadership. Cheers also to the adult leaders of Dinapulihan for standing firm in supporting your fearless youths to protect TFG2 “TOBACCO FREE GENERATION, THE FUTURE GENERATION”
Feedback from one of the TFG Singapore team members DY ” Love this! As a former partipant in the TFG movement from Singapore, I am proud to see my Filipino brothers and sisters promoting this movement with such passion and veracity that can only be found in those who truly believe in the cause they fight for. As the current generation, it is our duty to step up and do our part to fight the tobacco epidemic in any way we can. Social media is one of them; it is an excellent way to spread information quickly and effectively. Since many people have access to smartphones and use social media often, I hope that this video will reach as many people as possible, and inspire them to support the TFG movement”
Congratulations to our Tobacco Free Generation Advocates from the 2018 GapSemester programme. Regan, Ethan and Shashank mastered their TFG materials and confidently delivered the TFG sub themes to leave permanent impressions in these juniors. Shashank graduated from Concord Primary and it is exemplary that he has reached back to his alma mater, bringing along his fellow Rafflesians. Thank you Concord Primary for welcoming TFG last 18 October 2019. Your students were very attentive and participatory. Congratulations Concord Primary for these well behaved learners.
Shruti: The public were generally very receptive towards our advocacy and we were able to target people from various age groups which definitely gave us an added boost. Being able to contribute something back to the community with Tobacco Free Generation has been enlightening and heartening. We are definitely sure that our activities have brought about a positive impact to the community!!
Jessica : I was surprised that most of the participants were so enthusiastic about playing the games, especially the chapteh and five stones, and that so many of them would support the idea of a Tobacco Free Generation.
Francine : I thoroughly enjoyed interacting with the public and getting to know more about their opinions on tobacco free generation. Overall, I had a meaningful experience participating in this! F
Hui Bin : Not only was this experience rewarding and fulfilling, I also had a lot of fun learning how to manage a large group of public when the booth was very crowded. I learnt to quickly toggle between speaking English and Chinese quickly when needed, and learnt to manage and motivate different types of people. Overall, it was an extremely enriching experience for me.
Sophie : It was an interesting experience as I had never had such an opportunity to interact with so many members of the public before. This experience was worth my Saturday afternoon. I also feel that the tobacco-free generation idea is an interesting and possible more effective take on curbing smoking.
Chloe : It was an opportunity to learn more about tobacco free generation and about how youths are easily influenced to smoke as I am not usually exposed to these youth. I was heartened to see so many people in support of this cause and even smokers who responded that they were more inclined to stop smoking! Overall, it really was a valuable experience!
Yun Han : I had an enjoyable experience interacting and teaching the public. Many knew about the harmful effects of smoking quite thoroughly too, given the amount of awareness raised about it by the government. However, I think that this activity promoted this message a step further. It is no doubt that the public would be more willing to encourage their family and friends to not pick up smoking too! Overall it was really an interesting and meaningful experience for me!
Amelia : I think that this journey has been very enriching, from the planning to the execution of this initiative. I think it was very heartening to see our participants from different ages and walks of life enjoying our activities and the traditional games, and so many of them saying that they learnt something from our activities and would support the idea of a Tobacco Free Generation.
Natalie : The volunteering experience overall was definitely very enriching and I felt that my time was well-spent for a good cause! Personally, I also learnt about the negative effects of smoking and the vision of a tobacco free generation. During the event, it was heartening to spread the message to young children in whatever small way I could and seeing them pledge to support the TFG at the end made me feel a sense of satisfaction. Maybe, in whatever small way, I contributed towards another child choosing to never smoke.
Heidi :It was a meaningful and fulfilling experience for me. When asked if they would take up smoking in the near future, the public also indicated that they would not and some even supported having a tobacco-free singapore. Overall, it was a good experience.
Shermaine : I think the most unexpected thing was many people were happy to be playing the games they played during their childhood. They shared their childhood memories with us. People of all walks of life bonding through the games drawing in the younger generations trying out the games. The public was also very supportive of tobacco-free generation ideas. I think one of the best parts was interacting with young children.
HY :I think the best part of this initiative was when we saw participants interacting with each other. An example would be when people from the older generation demonstrated how to play traditional games for the younger children and of course when they were receptive to our message and supported our cause!
Natasha : I had a meaningful experience promoting for Tobacco Free Generation. Most did say that they would tell their children not to smoke as they understood the dangers of smoking. They could help us spread the message of a TFG future too. Overall, it was very fun and heartening to see so many people participating actively!
Rebecca :Volunteering that day was extremely meaningful. I appreciate the promotion of a tobacco free generation. I felt proud that I could spread awareness on this.
Giselle : It was quite a fulfilling experience as I’ve never interacted with so many people before. Sharing and spreading the message to stay away from smoking has been quite successful in a way though we were met with many non smokers. I think if we had more teenage visitors, it’d have been more successful. Overall, it was a meaningful experience and I really enjoyed it!
Bernice : From volunteering that day, I realised that children are easily influenced by their elder siblings and parents. They may very well also affect bigger decisions such as whether or not to pick up smoking. This is why I was especially happy when parents encouraged their children to learn about the project’s message and together pledged to support a Tobacco Free Generation.
It was great to have your team and you in our school, raising the awareness of the ill effects of smoking and t introducing to them to the TFG 2000 proposal.
Your team’s sharing has been engaging and impactful. The questions asked in the sessions and video presented enabled my pupils to be constantly reflective and insightful. Our pupils mentioned that the talk was meaningful.
Thank you so much for taking the time to come to our school to share with our pupils.
Regards
Mdm Wendy Ng
AE Coordinator
Nan Hua Primary School
We congratulate the four Raffles Institution students for reaching out to 12 year old students before these younger ones are tempted by smoking or vaping.
5 and 7 August 2019 : Four 17 year old students who learnt about TFG last year, stepped forward to explain TFG to the younger peers as part of their Community Outreach Project. There was immediate engagement as they were sharing as peers. They were neither imposing a top down enforcement nor showing the deaths and diseases of nicotine addiction. They discussed.
This has been labelled against TFG in 2016 : “Such a cohort ban would be easy to circumvent, … For example, a person affected by the ban could buy cigarettes overseas, or get an older relative or friend unaffected by the ban to buy cigarettes for them”.
Think beyond : These scenarios exist even with the Minimum Age Law (the affected cohort buying overseas or above 18 buy cigarette for the under 18). They are inappropriate application to negate TFG.
Congratulations to 10 Year 3 boys from Raffles Institution Singapore in advocating for Tobacco Free Generation at the Philippines in August/Sept 2018. Together, we shared TFG knowledge across several municipalities and congratulated them for their TFG progress.
Tobacco Free Generation thank Sengkang Primary School for hosting us in another TFG education session on 16 October 2017 to 660 students, aged 10 to 12. In this event, the children learnt about not being a replacement smoker by watching the easily available, internet materials on secrets of the tobacco industry. We also seen a phenomenal role playing by student Sufian, aged 10 when he role-played as a chronic smoking parent. In this un-rehearsed smoking father role, he committed to stop smoking upon hearing that people will stop blaming him for his smoking. Instead, together, the smoker and non-smoker start protecting the future generation from smoking through the TFG ideology.
TFG was invited by Yuan Ching Secondary School to present to their students on 2 August 2017. We shared the rationale and progress of this social movement, with a special emphasis that a core element is not to target smokers who are unfortunately addicted before they are well informed. Compounded by the vulnerable phase of their adolescence where psychosocial maturity lags behind intellectual maturity, they are induced to experiment by ill-intended, social networks, visuals of smokers relishing their cigarettes and insidiously drawn by an extremely addictive chemical.
We were invited to Raffles Girls’ Primary School on the 10th April to share the pride of the Tobacco Free Generation. A total of 1200 students attended this assembly session. Through role-playing, we were heartened that these primary school girls clearly identified that those contented-looking smokers outside malls, were actually suffering from withdrawal symptoms, minutes before lighting up. A Primary 5 girl also bravely volunteered on a separate role-playing to bring home the message that we are not antagonistic to a smoker as many, were unknowingly addicted when they were young.
We were hosted by Springdale Primary School on April 3 in the continual journey to teach primary school students about nicotine addiction. About 440 students today learnt not just harms of smoking but understand that those seemingly, contented smokers, puffing away their cigarettes, outside shopping malls were troubled by withdrawal symptoms minutes before. These smokers, unfortunately have lost their freedom to nicotine addiction. We also taught students not to be antagonistic to smokers as many were addicted when young.
“The presentation takes on an unique approach to bring across the message of staying clear from tobacco. It strives to instill, within the pupils, a sense of ownership and pride to be the Millennia Generation to stay smoke-free.”
Feedback from a teacher @ one of the schools where TFG was presented.
We are pleased to have been invited by Yio Chu Kang Primary School on 27 Feb 2017 to present the TFG programme. It was heartwarming to inculcate the 1100 students from Primary 1 to 6 with keys messages like replacement smokers, the pride of the 21st Century cohort to care for themselves and not to lay blame on current smokers. Thank you leaders of YCK Primary for the support.We are proud to have contributed to the nurturing of your Youth of Character.
TFG led a delegation of students from Raffles Institution Singapore to Balanga City, Philippines in September 2016. The program is a collaboration between TFG, Raffles Institution and the City of Balanga. RI students interacted with City of Balanga officials to learn more about the administration of a small city in the Philippines, especially in the area of implementation of a community healthcare initiative like tobacco free generation. The students also interacted with student leaders from leading schools in Balanga, exchanging ideas and working on a common themed project. Students were also given the opportunity to participate and lead in presentations to local schools, experiencing first hand community programs.
TFG express our thanks and gratitude to the various parties for making this trip a success, in particular Raffles Institution Singapore, officials from City of Balanga & Bataan National High School, Philippines.
TFG congratulates the Millenia Kids Programme and partners Sengkang Healthcare, Health Promotion Board and Sports SG for winning an award at the Singapore Healthcare Management 2016 for promoting healthy lifestyle program in the community. This partnership showed that TFG can be structured into the preventive health education of schools and win award as we have done across 2013-2014 at Sengkang, Singapore. Sustainability will come when adult leaders in charge of programmes have the foresight to structure it permanently. From here, we worked with the visionary teachers of Raffles Institution, Singapore to incorporate TFG into the GapSemester programme since 2016.
Tobacco Free Generation has been an active member of Millennia Kids Program since it started 2013. The program partners – Sengkang Health, Sports SG, Health Promotion Board & TFG each hosts their own programs for the residents of North East Singapore. Ranging from health screening services to educational seminars to sports safety advisory, each partner bring their own expertise to encourage residents to pursue a healthy lifestyle. Each year, the group hosts Millennia Kids Challenge day carnival, bringing young and old in the community together for a day of fun.
