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by Christopher Wong
Following the success of the first orientation held last year, the second Gold Award Orientation was recently held at ITE Simei on the 27th September 2008.
The day kicked off with the screening of a GAHA video to more than 100 youths from the latest cohord of Gold Award recipients.
James Soh, the Executive Director of NYAA shared with the youths how the GAHA has contributed significantly to numerous projects and acitivities both locally and internationally and have touched the lives of a diverse group of needy people, young and old. And for each event, GAHA members have came forward to lead, to serve and contribute in diverse ways. Many youths found the presentation engaging and inspiring.
Terrence Chia, the Chairman of GAHA highlighted the objectives, the mission of GAHA and take GAHA as a platform to continue serving beyond Gold. In his presentation, he also introduced the GAHA Exco with special mentions to their involvement.
As soon as the presentation were concluded, the youths broke up into smaller groups with their respective facilitators and after spending some time interacting, the groups were tasked to put their ideas and creativity together to construct their team newspaper tower. Many interesting structures were presented with ideas drawn from Eiffel Tower, The Leaning Tower of Pisa and tripod stand (re-engineered with 4 legs instead of 3). As high as the ceiling goes, Group 10 was the winning team after gaining the judges’ unanimous vote.
The afternoon ended with a group debrief and contacts were exchanged. Through this orientation, GAHA members - new and existing have came to know one another better and forge closer working relationship going forward.
October 5th, 2008
Dear Vintages of GAHA,
How time flies. We are already into the second half of the year! There have been a whirlwind of activities on all fronts: regular health walks for the elderly, mentoring of youths at the Boys’ Home; exchanges with countries like Hong Kong and Russia; conferences at the regional, ASEAN, Commonwealth and UN level; talks and programmes for youths in schools; environmental forums; photography events and more. And for each event, GAHA members have came forward to lead, to serve and contribute in diverse ways. For instance, GAHA was involved in the inaugural ASEAN+3 Youth Festival – key members of the Organising Committee, delegates, liaison officers, facilitators and volunteers were from GAHA. And in the pipeline, we have more exciting programmes lined up including plans in support of the 2010 Youth Olympic Games!
GAHA members also shared their rich and varied experiences with other young people. GAHA members were invited to speak at various events this year including the Asian Young Leaders Forum in Jurong Junior College (Mar 2008), the North Vista Secondary School Prefects’ Investiture Ceremony (Apr 2008), MOE’s CIP seminar (Jun 2008), the Nanyang Girls’ High School Affective Education Seminar (Jun 2008), the Student Network Forum (Jul 2008 - as a panellist together with Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports) and more. As GAHA grows, so will the invitations and opportunities to share. If any of you receive invitations to speak in your capacity as a GAHA member, do keep us posted at info[a.t]nyaagaha.org so that we can coordinate our responses collectively as GAHA.
But all volunteering and no food make GAHA a stick in the mud. There were informal meet-ups with many of you over coffee and tea to chat and find out more about your interests and passions. We hope to continue with more of such social interactions to bring GAHA members closer together. Let us know at info[a.t]nyaagaha.org if you are interested in joining the fun or even helping to organise!
Cliff Koh
Deputy Chairman (2007/09)
GAHA @ NYAA
September 4th, 2008
On Saturday 19 July 2008, the NYAA Gold Award Holders’ Alumni, Malay Youth Literary Association (4PM) and Ngee Ann Polytechnic - Entrepreneurs_Connect @NP organized the inaugural Youth Entrepreneurship Forum 2008 with the support from National Youth Achievement Award Council.Almost 200 students from various youth organisations and tertiary institutions attened the engaging forum. The theme of the forum was “Entrepreneurship : Prospects and Challenges, From Ideas to Business”. Mr Hawazi Daipi, Senior Parliamentary Secretary of Ministry of Manpower and Ministry of Health was invited as the Guest of Honour to grace the occasion.
July 21st, 2008
You may have seen pictures of glaciers melting, experienced spells of dry heat due to extreme weather patterns, or even read about the vulnerability of whale sharks in the marine ecology. You know that the climate is changing. The earth is warming up, and there is overwhelming scientific consensus that it is happening, and human-induced.
But have you ever wondered how climate change will affect Singapore, your community and yourself? What future do you want to have? What are the plans that you as a youth leader would like to see implemented to prepare and protect Singapore against the threats of Climate Change? What will convince you to join in the environmental cause?
The National Youth Environment Conference 2008 is held to address these serious issues and your concerns. This inaugural event is jointly organised by the National Youth Achievement Award (NYAA) Council, National Youth Achievement Award Gold Award Holders’ Alumnus (NYAA GAHA) and the Singapore Science Centre with the support of the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources (MEWR) and National Environment Agency (NEA).
The theme for this first National Youth Environment Conference 2008 is “Cut to the Chase! Combat Climate Change!” It aims to activate Singaporean youths (you!) to recognise the potential and talent within themselves to mitigate the threats of climate change.
At the coming event, youths will share their views and recommendations on areas related to Energy Efficiency, Renewable Energy, Water Issues, Waste Management and Biodiversity. Their contributions will be surfaced and discussed during a dialogue session with a panel consisting of Minister Yaacob Ibrahim, the Minister of the Environment and Water Resources; Mr Lee Yuan Hee, CEO of NEA; and Ms Regina Oon, a youth environmental enthusiast. Conversely, they will share their experiences and insights on the environment from the perspectives of the ministry, statutory board, and youth respectively.
The National Youth Environment Conference 2008 is an excellent platform for youth leaders to exchange their views, reflect together and, above all, provide the opportunity for youth leaders to physically manifest their plans, carry them out and deliver a long lasting benefit to the environment.
Whether you are passionate about the environment, social change, ethics or that you believe that youths have a stake in deciding what kind of environment we want to live in, come share your thoughts at the inaugural National Youth Environment Conference 2008!
All youths between the ages of 17-35 years old and are passionate about making a difference are strongly encouraged to join in this meaningful event. Details of the event are as follows:
Date: 26 July 2008, Saturday
Time: 9.30am – 5.30pm
Venue: The Singapore Science Centre
To register for the event, kindly reply to Jason Pan at bestboynewb[ a.t] gmail.com by Friday, 18th July ‘08.
We hope to hear from you soon!
July 10th, 2008
The YOG (Youth Olympic Games) 2010 Open Space Forum was co-organised by the National Youth Achievement Award Gold Award Holders’ Alumni (NYAA GAHA) and the PAYM Youth Groups in Tampines GRC on the 12 Jan 2008 in support of Singapore’s bid for the Youth Olympic Games in 2010. The theme of the forum was ‘Ignite the flame! Creating the spirit of our Youth Olympic Games: Issues and Opportunities’. The Guest-of-Honour was Mr Mah Bow Tan, Minister for National Development, Member of Parliament for Tampines GRC, Adviser to Tampines GROs and Chairman of the NYAA Advisory Board.
Nearly 300 energetic youths signed up for the Forum, which was held at the Plaza at the National Library. Representing various tertiary institutions, sports groups, youth sector organisations and international schools, this Open Space Forum brought together a wide range of experiences and ideas complementing the bid for the 2010 Youth Olympic Games.
After brief introductions by the co-organisers, the youths had the privilege of listening to Mr Lee Wung Yew, a competitive trap shooter who represented Singapore twice in the Olympic Games in Atlanta and Athens and will compete at the upcoming 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, share his Olympic experience and the importance of sportsmanship and hospitality at such international events. Then, the participants launched into action and began the Open Space Process.
Starting with no agenda, the youths themselves proposed agenda items, discussed the key issues and recommended action-plans during a series of breakout sessions throughout the day. The youths then drafted their own proposals and implementation plans, and displayed them in the Plaza be read and scrutinized by their fellow young people. Voting was then done to allow the participants to indicate the proposals they most felt resonance with. The most popular topics among the youths were how playing host to the YOG would benefit Singapore and how the country could create a lasting impression in the hospitality sector.
The three groups whose proposals garnered the most votes presented their discussions and plans to a panel consisting of Mr Mah Bow Tan, Minister for National Development, Member of Parliament for Tampines GRC, Adviser to Tampines GROs and Chairman of the NYAA Advisory Board, Mr Teo Ser Luck, Parliamentary Secretary for Community Development, Youth and Sports, Chairman of the National Youth Council and Adviser to the People’s Association Youth Movement Central Youth Council, and Mr Ng Ser Miang, Vice-President of the Singapore National Olympic Council and Executive Board Member of the International Olympic Committee. The panellists were touched by the fervour and zeal of these youths, and heartened that the forum had inculcated the positive values of the Olympic spirit in young people. Ending off the forum on a high note, Minister Mah thanked the participants, supporters and organisers and reaffirmed that events like the YOG 2010 would “show the world… what we are capable of”
A compilation of all the proposals has been produced and circulated to the participants for them to turn their ideas into reality.
February 22nd, 2008
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