Volunteer youth corps to help ‘change S’pore’

SINGAPORE — With many young Singaporeans participating in community projects here and abroad, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said yesterday the Government will set up a volunteer youth corps to tap their idealism, energy and passion to “change Singapore and the world for the better”.

The youth corps will help by directing resources to young Singaporeans — especially students in the vocational and tertiary institutes — in the form of funding for projects, time off for full-time community service, as well as grants to continue serving the community after graduation, he said. Mentors will also be on hand to guide and advise these volunteers.

The initiative will match youths with “critical community needs” and help them “make a difference to our nation”, said Mr Lee.

Project NEPAL (Never Ending Passion and Love), which was started last year by Singapore Polytechnic students, was one of the examples that Mr Lee cited of young Singaporeans who were “doing good work”.

Some 30 students, alumni and lecturers visited Shree Janakalyan Lower Secondary School in Nagarkot village in Nepal in the project’s first expedition in March last year. They conducted science practical lessons, organised sports and art and craft lessons, and constructed a classroom and a rainwater harvesting system for the school.

The fifth and sixth trips under the project, which is part of the Youth Expedition Project under the National Youth Council, will take place next month and plans are already in place for a seventh trip next year.