USING STORIES TO TEACH KIDS ABOUT WORLD
Kit Ong’s online platform helps parents convey difficult subjects to children
ALUCKY cat that saves a school from a mass shooter and street sentinels banding together to save a lost “boy” to return him to an old folks’ home.
These may not be your average feel-good stories, but for former creative director Kit Ong, 51, these tales were the perfect medium to convey the harsh realities of the world to children.
For instance, Newwland is a story of a magical island that suddenly surfaces in the South China Sea.
Wars were fought by those claiming to gain ownership of Newwland and many were left wounded and dead before the United Nations intervened and bequeathed the island to children.
Over the next few years, children living there documented the wondrous and resource-rich island as a bastion for the poor, refugees and the sick.
However, the island’s story, which comes to life through the art and illustrations of mother-and-daughter team Chau Lai and Minh Lam, comes to a tragic end when the island is swallowed by the sea and disappears.
The tale was inspired by the South China Sea territorial disputes, which peaked in 2014 and there were protests in Vietnam, Ong said.
It was also the beginning of his venture into creating an online storytelling platform, ubxed.com.
“I was working for a creative agency (in Ho Chi Minh) at that time. There were protests in the streets and my daughter Mira was only 11 then. We had friends who came over and told Reza (my wife) and me to be on guard, and Mira overheard this.
“There were all these cultural undertones and she was exposed to the news from school.
“So we talked about how nature and its resources had to be respected and shared, instead of fighting or claiming ownership over them.”
Ong said Newwland signified the importance of parents finding ways to relay the horrors of the world to children.
This prompted Ong to develop ubxed.com as a manual of sorts for parents and schools to convey difficult subjects to children, including sexual abuse and violence.
The platform, which feeds his creative instincts, is also a roundabout way of speaking to a growing Mira, who is now 18 and due for university.
“We can’t close their eyes and ears in today’s world. Even if they don’t read about it online, children will somehow hear about it, or worse, come face to face with these situations without being prepared.”
Ong is looking to broker collaborations with investors for the platform as the Klang-born social entrepreneur plans to add 20 new stories this year and the expansion of earlier ones.