OBS Spotlight: Lim Teck Koon

Lim Teck Koon, 19, had the opportunity to participate in the unique Outward Bound Singapore (OBS) 21-Day Leadership & Service Challenge.

Did you know the 21-day Outward Bound programme is internationally recognized by educators in the global outdoor sector?

As a volunteer kayak coach, he’s perfectly at ease in the outdoors. When his teacher from ITE College West nominated him for the OBS Leadership and Service Award (OBS LSA), he seized the chance.

The OBS LSA celebrates the outstanding achievements of youths aged 17 to 35 in the areas of leadership and community and develops their potential through an intensive personal development programme set in the outdoors

In the programme, Teck Koon discovered that not everyone adapted as well to the outdoors and was spurred to actively guide his peers through the various obstacles. He recounted a particular situation that occurred while the LSA participants were scaling the Inverse Tower, a 18m-high height activity station in OBS, which left a deep impression.




“My buddy was afraid of heights, thus she needed to trust me, and I needed to give her the trust that I could bring her up. I realised that bringing people up with me was more fulfilling than going up on my own.”

The programme is based on a multi-element and multi-expedition concept, youths embark on extended expeditions that brings them to the unfamiliar, helping them stretch beyond their comfort zone where they can explore, venture and learn.

Dawn Koh, the lecturer who nominated him, observed the transformation in Teck Koon when he returned to school.

 Did you know graduates of the LSA programme usually became more resilient through realising their hidden potential?

“He has changed from being individualistic to a team player, and started to realise his impact on the people around him. I hope he will become a leader to lead others through service; a servant leader.”


Interested already? The 2015 intake will embark on their 21-day OBS programme from 1 to 21 December 2015. Email Elgene_Fong@nyc.gov.sg with your details to apply for the OBS LSA now!

Youth Corps Singapore Spotlight: Team Aurora

Over the past 6 months, Cohort 1’s Team Aurora, in collaboration with Trybe, has been working with mentally-ill patients from Sunlove Home. Some of these patients have been living in Sunlove Home for over a decade, and their relationships with their families are less than ideal.



Through engaging them in simple activities such as games, art, and reaching out to their families, the team aims to improve the relationships between these mentally-ill patients and their families. On a few occasions, Team Aurora has also taken the patients out of Sunlove Home for outings, so that they get a chance to reconnect with the society they have been detached from. Subsequently, the Aspirants started reaching out to and engaging the family members of the clients to address the barriers to reconciliation.


In their final stage of project implementation, the team has organised an event on 28 Dec 2014 with the objective of bringing together the patients and their family members through facilitate positive interactions and provide opportunities for the family members to better understand and empathise with the psychiatric patients.  The lessons learned from the project will be documented to facilitate engagement of the family members of other psychiatric patients.