CELEBRATING OUR HOME FOR TOTAL DEFENCE

What is home to you? That is the golden question for this year's Total Defence (TD) campaign. Themed Home - Keeping it together, the campaign calls on Singaporeans to take stock of what home means to them.

Apart from the anchor Home music video, Singapore's private companies and charities have been roped into this year's campaign to help drive participation. "As the organiser, we can't possibly reach out to each and every Singaporean on our own. We need everyone to take part in it for it to be meaningful," said Colonel (COL) Lim Kok Siong, Director Nexus, at the TD media event on 11 Jan held at the Pinnacle@Duxton.

For example, POSBank has organised a competition for primary school students to encourage them to think of ways to contribute to Economic Defence - one of the five pillars of TD - by creating a symbol linked to Singapore which is most valuable to them. They will do this using the 1,000 coin boxes provided by POSB. The bank will also be a presenting partner of the Home music video on free-to-air television.

Also from the private sector, Sakae Holdings, which owns the Sakae chain of Japanese restaurants, will show its support for the campaign by donating a bento meal for every 10 origami frogs that customers drop off at their outlets. These meal boxes will be sent to three beneficiaries such as the MINDS Fernvale Gardens School. There is no minimum purchase to participate and each table at Sakae outlets will be provided with two pieces of origami paper. Only frogs made from these official materials will count towards the donated meals.

"This is a meaningful campaign and we are honoured to be a part of it. The private sector has a lot to give back to Singapore and we hope that Singaporeans will step up to contribute to TD in their own ways," said Mr Douglas Foo, Founder and chief executive of Sakae Sushi which is owned by Sakae Holdings.

The Community Chest (ComChest) will raise funds for the benefit of two of its programmes targeted at the elderly and families, riding on the TD campaign. ComChest will receive a dollar for each successful download of the Home music video. The monies will come from private foundations and organisations.

"Through this, we hope to help those who have played a part in building our country but may not be doing well now, as well as families which may face challenges making ends meet," said Ms Jennie Chua, the chairman of ComChest.

"We hope to raise $250,000. So please download the music video. It's just one click, very easy!" laughed Ms Chua, who added that the official target is $200,000.

Singaporeans abroad will also hear of this year's TD campaign, with the help of the Overseas Singaporean Unit. The unit will publicise the Make your own Home Video contest to Overseas Singaporeans committees. The contest is part of the programmes organised around TD 2011 which encourages Singaporeans to participate by making their own versions of the Home music video.

On TD Day which is commemorated on 15 Feb each year, Singaporeans will finally be able to catch the star-studded remake of the popular Singapore song Home. This latest version of the song, originally written by Mr Dick Lee and sung by Ms Kit Chan, will see 39 Singaporean artistes spanning five decades each singing a part of the song.

The artistes include old favourites such as "papa rock" Ramli Sarip and Vernon Cornelius from the 60s and 70s to present-day songbirds such as Stefanie Sun, Taufik Batisah and Lin Junjie. Also participating in the project are evergreen acts such as jazz great Jeremy Monteiro and Jacintha Abisheganaden, who is also known as one of Singapore's first divas.

Expect to see the Singapore River - the historical lifeline of the country - as never before in the Home music video.

In all, the peripheral programmes surrounding this year's TD campaign will involve 10 organisations spanning the public and private sectors such as the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts and NTUC FairPrice.

For more information on the activities surrounding this year's TD campaign, check the official site www.thisishome.sg. TD campaigns are organised by Nexus, the central coordinating agency for National Education, and is a part of the Ministry of Defence.