Area of Focus: Education/Eldercare/Environment
Partnership agency: Ngee Ann Polytechnic
Conceptualised & Initiated by Lien Foundation
Seeding innovations, new mindsets and knowledge - three initiatives to ignite social change and development were planted through the newly created Lien Foundation-Ngee Ann Polytechnic Social, Environmental & Educational Development (LF-NP SEED) Capital programme.
In this endeavour, Ngee Ann Polytechnic students and lecturers are rolling up their sleeves to tackle social and environmental problems, as well as sow goodwill beyond Singapore’s shores.
Water management is an environmental issue that strikes close to home, and this takes centrestage in one of the three initiatives. An annual national competition called the Singapore Junior Water Prize has been created for young Singaporeans from 15 and 20 years old to spark innovation and raise their awareness of water and environmental issues.
It challenges the youth to come up with solutions to enhance the quality of life through improvement of water quality, water resource management, or water and wastewater treatment. The winning team will have the chance to vie for the Stockholm Junior Water Prize competition, a prestigious award given out at the World Water Week in Stockholm, Sweden.
For any development strategy to be all enduring, education plays a central role. That was the idea behind the initiative to assist three educational institutions in ASEAN by sharing Ngee Ann Polytechnic’s ‘software’ with them.
Ngee Ann Polytechnic will provide advisory and consultancy services to educational institutions in neighbouring countries. The first beneficiary of this initiative under the LF-NP SEED Capital programme will be the new Sekayu Polytechnic in Musi Banyuasin, a rural district in South Sumatra. Ngee Ann Polytechnic will train the Indonesian lecturers in pedagogy and provide curriculum advice in accountancy and information technology. Both institutions will also establish an exchange programme for its staff and students.
Apart from cross-cultural exposure, the LF-NP SEED Capital programme will provide students of Ngee Polytechnic another conduit to enhance their learning process. Students from the School of Film & Media Studies will adopt a social cause in tandem with the mission of the Lien Foundation.
For a start, the students will work on a death and hospice campaign that the Foundation is spearheading. Themes for future projects may include water and sanitation. These projects provide the students a chance to make a difference to society during their course of study.
With strong ties that stretch back to its founding years, the Foundation and Ngee Ann Polytechnic have collectively gathered great momentum in their efforts to make a meaningful difference to society.
The LF-NP SEED programme will spur on their common goal to seed and germinate action to ignite social change and development for a better world, extending the late Dr. Lien’s vision, spirit and legacy to the young and across borders.
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