DPM Tharman Shanmugaratnam at the Singapore Youth Award & Youth Corps Leaders Commencement

SMS Sim Ann, NYC Chairman Edward D’Silva, Members of the NYC, and all the youth and their family members and mentors who are here today,

Thank you for inviting me. It’s been a wonderful show of spirit, and conviction. I was impressed by Afzal’s speech and the written notes that we just saw from individuals who have benefited from the work of our youth leaders - each of them was heartfelt and meaningful.

What was common amongst the team efforts as well as the outstanding individuals whom we are recognising today was a few things.

First, what was clearly common was their conviction, as Charlotte wrote in her letter to Shayna Ng. Whatever these youth leaders have been doing, doing what goes well beyond the normal, has been driven by their convictions.

The second thing that was common was their ability to inspire others. All of this was about volunteers. But it’s usually a few individuals who start up something and inspire the rest to join in. It’s about convictions and also that ability to inspire others.

The third thing that was common, as I ran through projects and looked at what our youth leaders have been doing is that they are creating bridges between people – they are giving opportunities for people to have relationships with each other. And that too is really important for us.

If you look around the world today, there is a real problem in many places in the world – the youth are getting disengaged. And because they are getting disengaged, there is a loss of relationships in society, and there is a loss of trust - including a loss of trust in the ability to make things better.

So we really have to avoid that. We have to build and keep up engagements and relationships at every stage of life - when we are young, middle-aged and when we get older. And build relationships between the young and old as well. Because it’s actual relationships in everyday life that lead to trust, and it is trust that makes us look forward as a society. If we didn’t trust each other, it’s very hard to look forward. And that is why volunteerism is very important and especially our efforts to help people build relationships, which is what a lot of these projects are about.

Volunteerism is on the rise. It’s coming up well among our youth. If you look over the last 10 years, it has gone up a fair bit. But there is still a lot more scope for volunteerism, and especially the more sustained and cause-driven volunteerism, besides the ad-hoc efforts although every effort is good. We need more of what we have just been seeing, more cause-driven volunteerism and sustained volunteerism. That makes the biggest impact and also changes individuals in the deepest way.

Youth Corps Singapore (YCS) has been progressing well. As you know, and this was mentioned earlier, it’s a platform that was created just a few years ago to help youth to contribute to society. Each in their own projects, but when you add it all up together it really makes a national impact. 10. It has grown significantly - since 2014, over 11,000 youth have been empowered by this platform to serve the community in various ways.

Another 900 youths have embarked on the Leaders Programme, which is more intensive - it deepens their understanding of national issues, and help them equip themselves with additional skills so that they can initiate projects that make a difference to society.

I’ll give you one example of the team efforts, one of the many interesting and useful efforts. It involved a group of youth who call themselves Team ELF - ELF stands for Elderly Fitness - working with the elderly residents of Cheng-San Seletar. They spent 6 months developing and implementing this programme. It involved a 10-week exercise programme to bring the seniors out of their homes and to build up friendships and relationships. They made do with whatever they could find in the community. They used chairs from the nearby coffee shops to run the programme, and conducted the exercises in common spaces in the neighbourhood. They made do with whatever they could find. There was nothing special about the resources they had. But they made an impact. They got the seniors out. And it’s continuing beyond the 6 months, because some of the youth continue to engage with the seniors on a weekly basis.

We are also recognising five extraordinary young Singaporeans today through our nation’s highest accolade for youth - the Singapore Youth Award (SYA). They are each inspiring individuals. Each have achieved and are still pursuing excellence in own fields, but more importantly they are each bringing others forward with them and taking Singapore forward that way.

They are doing this in varied fields - you know them, but I’ll mention each of them briefly to illustrate how varied their fields are:

- Cai Yinzhou, the young social entrepreneur who galvanised volunteers to help the vulnerable including among migrant workers and the low-income elderly. He has also done a project in Dakota Crescent to help the seniors in Dakota Crescent, which is going to be redeveloped, help them to preserve their memories and share them;
- Mohammad Noramin – a very interesting person - choreographer, scholar and conservationist of traditional Malay dance;
- Mohamed Shabir, well-known for his role in producing the emblematic Tamil song (Singai Naadu) at the 2015 National Day Parade. He’s made it in ‘Kollywood’ and is now doing music for a fourth feature film in India. And he is helping others to develop an interest in music and culture;
- Shayna Ng, well-known as twice Sportswoman of the Year, the first Singaporean to win a gold at the World Women’s Bowling Championship, but importantly also active in helping her fellow sportspersons, helping the disabled and motivating young people to achieve their potential; and,
- Dr Isaac Liu, a medical scientist in an uncommon specialisation, paediatric nephrology. He’s one of our young leaders in the field - kidney treatment for young children, and is passionate about this. Apart from his professional duties, he also spends time in helping the kids have active lives and doing what he can to reduce their suffering and pain.

So each of them different, but each tenacious in pursuing their passions and truly wanting to do good for society.

Conclusion

With us today as well, are many others who have encouraged and supported our youth leaders – parents and friends, the SYA community including mentors and partners. You too are leading the way. You too are leading the way for a better Singapore.

To the Singapore Youth Award 2017 recipients and Youth Corps leaders, congratulations once again to all of you. We all want to do more of what Afzal was talking about - taking chances, following your heart and making a difference to society. We can each do it. And we are all inspired by people who do it in exceptional ways.