National Youth Achievement Award (NYAA) 2022: Giving Beyond

National Youth Achievement Award (NYAA) 2022: Giving Beyond

SINGAPORE, 23 NOVEMBER 2022 – 81 inmates completed the NYAA programme this year, showing their commitment to serve the community and strive for personal development while serving their sentence.

The participants received their awards at the NYAA ceremony today. Dr Mohamad Maliki Osman, Minister, Prime Minister’s Office, Second Minister for Education and Second Minister for Foreign Affairs, was the Guest-of-Honour for this year’s ceremony, held at Institution Tanah Merah 1.

In his speech, Dr Mohamad Maliki Osman commended the awardees for their perseverance and highlighted the importance and relevance of NYAA. He said: “As part of the transformational environment in SPS to facilitate positive change, the NYAA programme provides participants with the opportunity to discover qualities and values that are meaningful to themselves, in their journey of change. To the participants, I hope you will leverage this experience and continue to become better versions of yourselves and contribute meaningfully to your loved ones and society.”

This year’s NYAA theme, ‘Giving Beyond’, encourages participants to think about different ways to give back to society despite their circumstances. With the support of prison staff, community partners and inmates’ family members, participants discovered what ‘giving beyond’ meant to them and furthered their commitment to change. Participants completed several meaningful projects such as recording audio books with the Singapore Association of the Visually Handicapped and providing these audio books to the visually impaired beneficiaries. Other participants collaborated with Under Armour, who graciously donated a backpack for every 10km run by the participants. In total, the participants completed 810km of running. With that, a total of 81 new backpacks were donated to the Moral Welfare Home and Jenaris Home @ Pelangi Village.

“It was very encouraging to see the excitement and enthusiasm shown by the NYAA participants as they innovatively fulfilled their hours within the prison walls overcoming security constraints,” said SUPT Wong Jin Wen, Chairperson of the NYAA Ceremony 2022 organising committee. “I am truly inspired by their journey to better themselves. I hope that what they take away from the programme will remain with them and help them stay crime and drug-free as they journey back into society.”

This year’s testimonial was given by, ‘Marc’, a gold award recipient. In 2021, he was offered the opportunity to pursue a Diploma in International Supply Chain Management, offered by Ngee Ann Polytechnic at Prison School. ‘Marc’ completed his diploma with an excellent GPA of 3.8/4 in August 2022. After his release, he hopes to find full-time employment while concurrently undergoing his tertiary education in a related course at a local university. Under the NYAA programme, he had participated in the run, where a backpack sponsored by Under Amour was donated to needy individuals, for every 10km ran. In conjunction with National Parks Board’s Gardening with Edibles initiative to achieve the City in Nature vision, ‘Marc’ also cultivated edible plants and these plants were donated to Thye Hwa Kwan. “I’m extremely humbled to be receiving the NYAA Gold Award. The values (resilience, determination and social responsibility through service) that I have gained will undoubtedly continue to serve me well beyond my incarceration. To me, life is a journey, and that journey is more important than just about reaching the destination. Just because someone stumbles and loses their way, doesn’t mean they’re lost forever,” said ‘Marc’.

The NYAA programme was first introduced in prison in 2000 for inmates aged between 16 and 30 years. More than 2,000 inmates have since completed the programme.