Ground Up Initiative

Ground Up Initiative (GUI) may cease to exist if we are unable to sustain our finances. We seek your help and support at this crucial point in time. Once again, GUI faces an uncertain future as our land lease ends in less than 11 months. We need YOUR support to make sure that this Kampung can continue to exist. Ground-Up Initiative has existed for 11 years in Singapore, and for a good reason. We want to connect urban dwellers to nature through direct participation on the land, especially in an affluent nation like Singapore where it is easy to take for granted the wealth that we have. Our founder and Kampung Chief, Tay Lai Hock saw the potential of having a bigger piece of land in bringing together people from all walks of life and social enterprises to build a sustainable model of a ground-up community. With this vision, the GUI community fought hard to negotiate for a bigger piece of land from the authorities when Bottle Tree Park’s land lease ended. On 1st September 2014, we were finally granted 2.6ha of land to actualise this vision. Unfortunately, before he could finish turning GUI around to fulfill this vision, Lai Hock passed away unexpectedly in August 2018. A new leadership team has formed and despite complex obstacles ahead of us, we wish to carry out the work he envisioned, not only to fulfill his legacy, but our collective desire to see a more sustainable future for Singapore. This is an opportunity of a lifetime for anyone who believes in giving our next generation a sustainable future. We want to put in our best effort to show that a model like Kampung Kampus can work in an urban context to build stronger connections and a more resilient people to weather the challenges of the 21st century. Our TOL (Temporary Occupation License) expires next year on 17 April 2020, and we also found out recently that our rental fee may be set to increase.