Football bears special significance to four engineers from DSTA and a group of beneficiaries from Beyond Social Services (BSS), because the quartet spends most of their Monday evenings with the beneficiaries playing the game.
The four, consisting of Senior Engineer Sim Kian Wee from Naval Systems Programme Centre (PC), Senior Engineer Gerald Hui from Networked Systems PC, Engineer Desmond Tan from Land Systems PC, and Senior Engineer Jeremy Lim, a seconded staff, ensures that at least two of them make their way to Leng Kee Community Club for this weekly session.
A typical session involves the engineers gathering the active kids for a warm up, before organising them into smaller groups. They could then play against each other, where each group would be led by at least one of the engineers.
The youth are mostly aged 14 years old and below. "With such a demographic, these kids are very vulnerable to negative peer influences. By coming here every week, we are able to keep them off the streets and engage them in a healthy activity," explained Gerald.