[Photo: Ms Atirah (left) mentors Poomesha Neelameham, 10, under a scheme that pairs girls with women who can be role models. This is one of the ways she gives back to the community.]

By Zakir Hussain

MS NURUL Atirah Mahmuddin became a youth volunteer at her local Nanyang Community Club (CC) five years ago, as a way to pay back her constituency, which had given her bursaries during her secondary school years.

Later this month, the 22-year-old National University of Singapore psychology undergraduate will help explain local culture and practices to new residents in her constituency, which covers part of Jurong West.

Her MP, Mr Alvin Yeo, wants to engage youth like her to contribute to their community in the Nanyang ward, which is part of Hong Kah GRC. Nanyang Technological University (NTU) is sited in his ward.

About 17,600 people aged between 15 and 34 live in the division, making up 30 per cent of its residents.

Mr Yeo recently mooted a Youth Ambassador programme to get this group to engage new citizens and permanent residents, and to share with them information on Singapore culture.

He noted that his ward sees a fair number of new residents, as it is close to NTU and home prices are lower, being far from the city.

'Hopefully this will get young people to also take a renewed interest in their community and country,' he added.

Mr Yeo spoke to reporters at Nanyang CC yesterday ahead of a ministerial community visit to the division by Education Minister Ng Eng Hen on May 24.

Such visits, which take place on Sunday mornings and include a dialogue with residents, are held monthly to let ministers get a better sense of ground concerns beyond their own constituencies.

The downturn is a top concern for many residents in Nanyang.

Mr Yeo noted that the number of people coming to his weekly Meet-the-People sessions has surged from 40 to 60 of late.

The amount of ComCare funds disbursed to needy residents has also doubled, from $12,000 in the last quarter of last year to $25,000 in the first three months of this year.

To help laid-off residents, the CC will hold sessions to guide them on finding jobs and getting through interviews. It is also planning a job fair.

Crucially, needy students will be helped to level up so they get better opportunities in life, said Mr Yeo.

Around $100,000 will go to them through various schemes run by the local citizens consultative committee (CCC) this year, as in recent years.

One is the Nanyang CCC-PAP Community Foundation university scholarship, which is worth $1,000. Some 20 awards a year are given to students entering the three local universities.

The award carries an obligation to do 20 hours of community service, but half the recipients do much more, said Mr Yeo. They include Ms Atirah, who is also active in the CC's women's executive committee.

A second scheme is Nanyang CCC's student pocket money fund, which gives $5,000 a year to each of the six primary and secondary schools in the area to help their needy students. Around 500 bursaries are also given out to needy students every year.

When Mr Ng visits the ward on May 24, he will launch a new website meant to give residents another channel by which to contact their MP and find out more about helping their community.

This article was first published in The Straits Times.