Yahoo! Newsroom/Jonathan Kiew - Jonathan Kiew, 27, has come a long way since his wayward teenage days. For the past 7 years, he has been working at a drop-in centre for youths.
At age 15, Jonathan Kiew got involved in every parent’s worst nightmare: he joined a gang. His life was then all about drugs, promiscuity and peddling bootleg movies.
Yet the now 27-year-old young man who sat down for an hour-long interview with Yahoo! Singapore was well-spoken, affable and humorous. He asked this reporter for her preferred beverage. But when the standard bottled water was requested, he counter-offered a packet of winter-melon tea, a local favorite.
“Just in case you change your mind,” he said with a grin, the interviewee-equivalent of holding open a door for the ladies.
Decked in a T-shirt and sports shorts, Kiew had the vibe of a Physical Education teacher. He was radiating energy as he gave a tour of his workplace -- the Youth Guidance Outreach Services centre at Woodlands Street 81.
While the interior of the centre is warm and homey, complete with pool tables, board games and even, a drum set, the exterior can be a little intimidating.
Doorways are watched by close-circuit televisions and a metal gate that requires someone to beep you in and out.
There have been incidents of theft, with a memorable one starring a boy who managed to steal the hard-drive of one of the computers at the centre. They only realised it later when for days, the computer would not boot up properly. Kiew finally managed to get the truth out of the boy he suspected was behind the theft.
“I know how to talk to the other kids, how to call the suspect’s bluff, and in general I know how to handle them because I was one of them,” he said.
Yet the now 27-year-old young man who sat down for an hour-long interview with Yahoo! Singapore was well-spoken, affable and humorous. He asked this reporter for her preferred beverage. But when the standard bottled water was requested, he counter-offered a packet of winter-melon tea, a local favorite.
“Just in case you change your mind,” he said with a grin, the interviewee-equivalent of holding open a door for the ladies.
Decked in a T-shirt and sports shorts, Kiew had the vibe of a Physical Education teacher. He was radiating energy as he gave a tour of his workplace -- the Youth Guidance Outreach Services centre at Woodlands Street 81.
While the interior of the centre is warm and homey, complete with pool tables, board games and even, a drum set, the exterior can be a little intimidating.
Doorways are watched by close-circuit televisions and a metal gate that requires someone to beep you in and out.
There have been incidents of theft, with a memorable one starring a boy who managed to steal the hard-drive of one of the computers at the centre. They only realised it later when for days, the computer would not boot up properly. Kiew finally managed to get the truth out of the boy he suspected was behind the theft.
“I know how to talk to the other kids, how to call the suspect’s bluff, and in general I know how to handle them because I was one of them,” he said.
THEN
Perhaps he would still be one of them, if not for 41-year-old Wilson Tan, his mentor, who steered Kiew’s life from street-gang member to social worker.
Hailing from a dual-income-parent family meant Jonathan was a latch-key kid during his teenage years. His father was in the shipping industry and would be home only a couple of times a year, while his mother, an accountant, clocked long hours.
It was sheer boredom, plus the need for attention and a sense of belonging, that attracted his teenage self to a group of gangsters in his neighbourhood.
For a few years, Kiew regularly skipped school, stayed away from home and roamed the streets selling illegal copies of VCDs. He even took ‘special orders’ from regulars who requested certain films, burning and selling them for a few dollars a piece.
“I wasn’t as hardcore as some of the other members, but it was enough for my mother to worry and for the school to think of kicking me out,” he recounted.
Jonathan, Wilson and other colleagues at the centre they work at captured in a moment of celebration
SECOND ACT
Enter Tan, 14 years his senior, a social worker who attended the same church as Jonathan’s mother. The worried Mrs Kiew had asked Tan who left his job as an aerospace aircraft technician to work with troubled youths, to try to connect with Jonathan and convince him to stay in school.
Knowing Kiew’s love of sports, and that he had a sense of youthful arrogance in him, Tan challenged Kiew to a one-on-one soccer game. The hook: Tan would have three favours to collect, or he would buy the whole church youth group, about 100 hungry teenagers, pizza.
“I thought, why not? I looked at Wilson and saw this man in his late-20s and I was so sure I would beat him,” Kiew confessed.
The score: 5-1 to Tan. It turned out to be the only game Tan won against Jonathan in their 12 years worth of matches so far.
A fair sport, Kiew adhered to the premise of their bet. He started going for youth programmes at the centre Wilson was working at -- it would later become his workplace -- and his attendance at church picked up.
For about four years, Tan and Kiew fostered their mentor-mentee relationship. Kiew graduated from secondary school, then Institute of Technical Education.
Enter Tan, 14 years his senior, a social worker who attended the same church as Jonathan’s mother. The worried Mrs Kiew had asked Tan who left his job as an aerospace aircraft technician to work with troubled youths, to try to connect with Jonathan and convince him to stay in school.
Knowing Kiew’s love of sports, and that he had a sense of youthful arrogance in him, Tan challenged Kiew to a one-on-one soccer game. The hook: Tan would have three favours to collect, or he would buy the whole church youth group, about 100 hungry teenagers, pizza.
“I thought, why not? I looked at Wilson and saw this man in his late-20s and I was so sure I would beat him,” Kiew confessed.
The score: 5-1 to Tan. It turned out to be the only game Tan won against Jonathan in their 12 years worth of matches so far.
A fair sport, Kiew adhered to the premise of their bet. He started going for youth programmes at the centre Wilson was working at -- it would later become his workplace -- and his attendance at church picked up.
For about four years, Tan and Kiew fostered their mentor-mentee relationship. Kiew graduated from secondary school, then Institute of Technical Education.
LOST
Soon, it was time for enlistment, and the years in the army proved to be a challenge for them both. Contact ceased -- Kiew switched phone numbers, making it difficult for Tan to contact him, and rejoined his clique of gang-member friends.
“It’s easy to become wayward while serving National Service, because you’re cooped up most of the week, and when you’re out you want to go out and have fun, not go to a youth centre or stay home,” he explained.
As his operationally ready date (ORD) drew close, Kiew started “freaking out about what I was going to do”, he said.
“I wanted a job I felt for, and would give me the time and energy to spend on my family should I start one down the road,” he said.
Not knowing what to do, he turned to Tan.
“I gave him a call out of the blue,” Kiew said, describing the apprehension he felt. “Anyone would be angry with someone who crawled back asking for help after being missing-in-action for so long, but Wilson just took me under his wing again without any questions.”
“It’s easy to become wayward while serving National Service, because you’re cooped up most of the week, and when you’re out you want to go out and have fun, not go to a youth centre or stay home,” he explained.
As his operationally ready date (ORD) drew close, Kiew started “freaking out about what I was going to do”, he said.
“I wanted a job I felt for, and would give me the time and energy to spend on my family should I start one down the road,” he said.
Not knowing what to do, he turned to Tan.
“I gave him a call out of the blue,” Kiew said, describing the apprehension he felt. “Anyone would be angry with someone who crawled back asking for help after being missing-in-action for so long, but Wilson just took me under his wing again without any questions.”
Jonathan is stationed at the drop-in centre at Woodlands Street 81, one of the 48 drop-in centres scattered is …
TODAY
Kiew took up the responsibilities of planning activities for the centre’s afternoon drop-in programme at Tan’s offer, and befriended the teenagers as Tan did with him. He is stationed at one of the 48 centres scattered islandwide.
These centres are run by the People’s Association, Singapore’s Children’s Society, as well as various family service centers and youth organisations. The drop-in points act as a safe place for teenagers to hang out after school, where they can be mentored by an adult, get to know other teenagers, as well as pick up hobbies or enjoy recreational activities.
The six-month trial period lengthened into a year, then two. “It’s already been seven years,” he said.
“I’m happy for Jonathan. All the years of working with him has paid off, and now he too is contributing to helping others,” Tan said.
Today, Kiew has a long-term girlfriend who also works in the sector. His parents approve of his job despite their initial misgivings about prospects and pay. He is friends with his co-workers. Life is a far cry from his teenage days and he is happy with it being this way.
“I am so thankful that I lost that one soccer match against Wilson because I got so much more. He still hasn’t collected that third favour, so I guess I owe him one. I owe him what I have today,” Kiew said.
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