NYAA GAHA mentorship with Singapore Boys’ Home - Update
August 16th, 2009
Contributed by: Kenneth Wong
With the successful run of the pilot project in 2008, NYAA GAHA and the Singapore Boys’ Home decided to continue the Mentoring Project and allow more boys to benefit from it. For the 2nd run of the NYAA GAHA - Singapore Boys’ Home Mentoring Project, nine GAHA members were selected to be part of the team to mentor fourteen boys selected to participate in this programme. Kenneth Wong took over the role of the Project Coordinator role, and Choo Pui Shan will assist him.
The programme’s goal is to develop these fourteen boys over the next 8 months by guiding them to achieve the NYAA Bronze Award. The team hopes that the young participants will gain the confidence needed to develop themselves further and be inspired to achieve their aspirations and ultimately to also make a difference to others in the coming years.
On 18 July 2009, the first session of the mentoring programme was held at the Singapore Boys’ Home from 9am till 11am. Kenneth introduced to the boys the NYAA, GAHA and the programme. He also shared with them the various activities that the boys could participate in. These activities included Community Service, Skill Development, Adventurous Journey and Physical Recreation. A simple voting was conducted to allow the boys to choose the activities that they would like to embark on for the new mentoring programme.
To gel the boys and the mentors together and to get to know each other better, ice-breaking games were played.
Below are some thoughts from the mentors:
“Seeing the boys enjoying themselves and having fun with the mentors (at) just the first session makes me want to help them even more and showing them that there are people who still care for them”, said Melissa Ho.
Ng Jia Wei shared, “The NYAA Boys’ Home Project is my first assignment in GAHA and there is much anticipation and excitement in me right now. I am glad to have like-minded and enthusiastic pals with me on board this project. I hope the outcome of it is not just presenting the boys with the NYAA Bronze Award, but experiences and life lessons gained that will transform them into better citizens of our nation.”
From the enthusiastic responses received, there was no doubt that the boys looked forward to the start of the activities, as well as the next mentoring session which was scheduled in mid-August 2009.
Entry Filed under: At-Risk Youth
Trackback this post