YSA_NEWSLETTER__FEB_2018

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2 Khwaish | February 2018 Young Sikh Association (Singapore) Panel of Advisors Dr Mohamad Maliki Osman Senior Minister of State for Foreign Affairs & Defence, and Mayor of South East District Mr Davinder Singh Chief Executive Officer Drew and Napier LLC Mr Inderjit Singh Founder and Chief Executive Officer Infiniti Solutions, and Executive Chairman, Tri-Star Electronics HE Mr Karan Singh Thakral Executive Director, Thakral Group of Companies, and Singapore’s Non-Resident Ambassador to Denmark Professor Tan Tai Yong President, Yale-NUS College Young Sikh Association (Singapore) Executive Committee 2017-18 Mr Malminderjit Singh President Mr Sarabjeet Singh Vice President (Community Relations) Mr Kulwant Singh Vice President (Corporate Relations) Ms Balveen Kaur Vice President (Administration) Mr Rashminder Singh Secretary Mr Ravinderpal Singh Assistant Secretary Ms Sukhjeevanth Kaur Treasurer Ms Amarpreet Kaur Assistant Treasurer Ms Perinder Kaur Communications Ms Harsimar Kaur Editor, Khwaish Ms Rashvinpal Kaur Dhaliwal Deputy Editor, Khwaish Ms Alisha Gill Thought Leadership and Interfaith Work Ms Rasveen Kaur Thought Leadership Mr Amritpal Singh Professional and Intellectual Development Mr Jeevan Singh Sandhu Professional and Intellectual Development Mr Nirmal Singh Sports Mr Kuldip Singh Culture Mr R Logapreyan Community Service Ms Sheena Gill Community Service Ms Sukvinderpal Kaur Interfaith Work Ms Sithara Doriasamy Conferences and Seminars Ms Harjean Kaur Conferences and Seminars, and Special Projects Ms Vithya Subramaniam Culture and Heritage editor’s note The new year typically marks a chance for renewal, and 2018 is no exception. With a new year come new adventures! In his note in this issue of the newsletter, YSA’s President, Mr Malminderjit Singh, outlines some key initiatives that YSA has planned for the year, including our regular events as well as some exciting new projects. May I just add, at this juncture, that it gives me great pride to be a part of an organisation like YSA, which is forward-looking and innovative, and one that comes up with relevant and exciting activities for our members and the community at large! Our cover story for this issue is on the Sikh Voices conference that took place in November 2017, which focused on the future of the Sikh community and Singapore. The one-day event was organised by our Second Young Leaders Programme (YLP) participants and saw Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Communications and Information, and Ministry of Health, Mr Chee Hong Tat, gracing the occasion as our Guest-of-Honour. The event included three engaging panel sessions, a mini-hackathon group exercise and the launch of YSA’s Sikh Voices book, which features a collection of essays from three generation of Sikhs in Singapore. Do pick up your complimentary copy of the book from any gurdwara in Singapore, if you haven’t already done so! In our usual fashion of highlighting motivational stories, in this issue, we took to the track to interview Mr Paviter Singh, an inspiring ultramarathon runner while also sharing about the most recent edition of the Sikh Graduates Tea Reception 2017 – an annual affair that has seen participation from a steady flow of Sikh graduates from tertiary institutions. In her opening address at the event, Minister for Culture, Community and Youth, Ms Grace Fu, praised the Sikh community for being the only community to honour its graduates in this manner and called on the community to find meaningful ways to engage the youth. Another annual event highlighted in this issue is the Project Khwaish XVII expedition to Punjab. Learn more about the team effort from various parties that were involved in putting together a community service project of this nature! This issue of the newsletter also highlights the new partnership inked between YSA and the People’s Association Youth Movement to collaborate on youth initiatives. Besides the event coverage, we are pleased to bring to you two personal reflections in this issue from two young and dynamic YSA members. Ms Vithya Subramaniam, YSA’s Executive Committee member, shares with us how she embarked on a personal quest to delve deeper into the Sikh community, its history and heritage, and has, since, built a career based on her initial curiosity. Ms Sonya Kaur Gill, a recent graduate of our 2 nd YLP and participant of the Khwaish expedition project in 2017, shares with us her journey with YSA in the past year, and how the organisation played an unexpectedly large role in shaping her year. Every story in this issue speaks of inspiration and opportunity, and I am excited to share them with you. If you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. Have a fabulous 2018! Ms Harsimar Kaur advertise with us follow us Get more mileage for your products and services! We reach out to thousands through our newsletter (in hard copy and on YSA’s website). If bleeding (taking up full area with background), add in 3mm bleed. For advertisement and enquiries, please contact: Ms Harsimar Kaur - Editor, Khwaish Mobile: 9382 7448 | Email: simar28@hotmail.com We offer highly competitive advertising rates. Per Issue: Quarter page (W) 105mm x (H) 148mm: S$300 Half page (W) 210mm x (H) 148mm: S$550 Full page (W) 210mm x (H) 296mm: S$1,500 Back page (W) 210mm x (H) 296mm: S$3,000 Editorial Information Khwaish is a newsletter of Young Sikh Association (Singapore). Please feel free to forward your comments and feedback to: Ms Harsimar Kaur - Khwaish Editor, Young Sikh Association (Singapore) A: 8 Jalan Bukit Merah, Singapore 169543 | E: simarkwatra@gmail.com No part of this newsletter should be published without the consent of the Editor, Khwaish.
Khwaish | February 2018 3 FROM THE PRESIDENT’S DESK Happy New Year everyone! And, just like that, we are into 2018! Before you think, here goes another cliché “the year just flew by” gripe, I will spare you such whining. If anything, 2017 was a really busy year for us at YSA and we are glad to have had a breather at the end of it. However, this break is a short one, as we have an equally, if not more, active year ahead of us. For starters, the first quarter of the year will see our regular slate of events – Project Khwaish XVII Certificate Presentation Ceremony and the Racial Harmony Football Tournament – taking place. Besides that, in the first half of the year, we will hold our Annual General Meeting, with the Khwaish Lecture soon after. The latter typically features an eminent speaker discussing a current topic. Following on from last year’s trend though, we are also hoping to continue our innovative approach of introducing new programmes and activities. Last year, we made a fledgling effort to celebrate the Global Sikh Women’s Day on 7 March 2017 by running a social media campaign termed #IAmKaur, where Sikh women from across Singapore posted on social media what it meant for them to be a Kaur. This year, we intend to build on that by having a more elaborate campaign to celebrate the Global Sikh Women’s Day. Do stay tuned to our social media platforms for more details on this campaign! In 2017, YSA also participated in and supported the inaugural ASEAN Sikh Economic and Entrepreneurship Summit (ASEES) organised by a group of young Malaysian Sikhs. This year, we are poised to intensify our role in this regional summit as it makes its way to Singapore, with YSA being the lead organiser. This ties in nicely with our dual objectives of professional development as well as thought leadership. On the professional development front, YSA has been getting its feet wet and we took small, albeit progressive, steps towards deepening our contribution on this front in 2017 as we developed a framework to engage and bring together Sikh professionals. Starting with a group of Sikh doctors and another of Sikh lawyers, YSA is exploring ways to meaningfully engage industry professionals in different sectors so as to establish, among other things, support systems for younger Sikhs existing in or entering these industries. On the thought leadership front, YSA’s experience with the Sikh Voices franchise in 2017 was a reasonable attempt at creating platforms to stimulate discussions and conversations on strategic concerns facing the community. The Sikh Voices book, for instance – which you will read more about in this issue of the newsletter – helped create a conversation on what the Sikh community needs to look for in leaders in the future. The Sikh Voices conference raised pertinent points on key challenges facing the community and helped to catalyse some responses to these issues. The experience of deepening our foothold in professional development and thought leadership will, thus, be useful preparation for YSA’s work with ASEES this year, which will unmistakably be a mammoth exercise. The spirit of collaboration, a key feature of YSA’s ethos, will continue to guide our way forward in 2018 as we look to work and develop partnerships with groups and organisations in and outside the Sikh community. In this regard, I am pleased to share an encouraging collaboration that has been brewing in the Sikh community, which YSA is also involved in. Towards the end of 2017, YSA, Sikh Sewaks Singapore, Naam Ras Kirtan Darbar and the Khalsa Dharmak Sabha Youth Wing came together to explore ways in which we could collaborate. The four youth-oriented groups also decided that they would hold such informal meetings periodically over the course of the year for better coordination and alignment of our activities, plans and leveraging on mutual resources and strengths. This is a tremendous and encouraging progression in the community and bodes well for its future. One of the areas that these youth groups will be coming together to collaborate on is to celebrate the 550 th birthday celebrations of Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji in 2019, which would be ideally be a pan-community effort. At the most recent meeting of the Coordinating Council of Sikh Institutions, the organisations decided that the youth groups will develop and lead these celebrations next year – a great effort in empowering our young in community leadership. With such bold and encouraging signs, the year could not have gotten off to a better start! Here’s wishing everyone a prosperous, healthy and blissful 2018! Mr Malminderjit Singh
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