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Outstanding young S'poreans honoured at youth award ceremony
By Chio Su-Mei
Channel NewsAsia
6 July 2008

SINGAPORE: Three individuals and two teams received this year's Singapore Youth Award from Deputy Prime Minister Professor S Jayakumar at the Istana on Sunday.

Instituted in 1975, the annual award honours Singaporeans under the age of 35 who have contributed positively to society.

Since winning the 'Singapore Idol' four years ago, Taufik Batisah had won a slew of entertainment awards, including the title of Singapore's Favourite Male Artiste at the 2006 MTV Asia Award.

Taufik, who is the ambassador for various charity causes, wants to inspire youths to pursue their dreams.

He said: "Hopefully with this award, I can inject a certain kind of vibe, a certain kind of attitude that you can do anything if you believe in yourself, and never give up easily. Keep telling yourself that if you work hard enough for what you believe in, and what you really want, nobody can tell you otherwise."

The Citibank-YMCA Youth for Causes programme was also up for honours.

Since 2003, the programme has encouraged social entrepreneurship among youths by providing seed money and resources so that they can creatively raise funds for their chosen charities.

To date, the programme has yielded S$2.16 million from a seed funding of S$600,000 and has benefited over 150 charities.

Channel NewsAsia's presenter Steven Chia is a volunteer with the group.

"We're going to come up with a new area where we can help projects that we've done well in the past to come back again, to start something newer, bigger," said Chia.

Other award recipients were Dr Ng How Yong, who was honoured for his research into alternative energy and recycled water, and Dr Tan Min-Han whose sterling bedside manners has also won him the National Cancer Centre's Excellent Service Award in 2006.

Dr Ng was awarded the Singapore Young Scientist Award in 2007 and the Young Professionals Award in 2006, while Dr Tan was conferred the prestigious American Society of Clinical Oncology Merit Award in 2005 and 2006 for his breakthrough work in cancer research.

Puppet theatre company, The Finger Players, was also honoured on Sunday for its 'Pay It Forward' programme which teaches volunteers to perform at welfare homes. Through this programme, the company has reached out to over 2,800 beneficiaries.

Recipients of the Singapore Youth Award Medals of Commendation were restaurateur Douglas Foo and scientist Dr Patrick Tan.

The former was recognised for his commitment to community and charity projects, while the latter was honoured for his research in cancer genomics and infectious diseases.