Cho Ming Xiu

I was once on a regular path to a degree, which would have given me a comfortable career. The difference was, I had no passion for it. That path didn’t resonate with me.

After much deliberation, I mustered the confidence to quit school and start my life from ground zero. I started getting involved in the community, volunteering as a tutor and mentor to young probationers at a Boys Home. Witnessing the boys rise up to life challenges and eventually finding a renewed purpose motivated me to pursue a career in rehabilitative youth work. The sense of fulfilment is remarkable.

Subsequently, I signed up for the Youth Corp Leaders Programme in 2016 and started volunteering with the Institute of Mental Health (IMH). It was then that the subject of mental health issues became very real to me. I looked around me and realised that many of my peers studying in tertiary institutions were silently struggling with mental health issues as they feared the stigma of seeking help. 

This led me to the idea of empowering my peers so that they could provide a non-judgemental listening ear and a supportive community for recovery and change. In 2017, I founded Campus PSY (Peer Support Youth). Through the programme, we trained 50 Campus PSY Ambassadors to serve as peer helpers to the youths-in-distress in our tertiary institutions.

Our Campus PSY Ambassadors also volunteer regularly with young patients in IMH. Through our engagements, some of these patients have found their purpose in life and even decided to join us as Campus PSY volunteers to serve and care for the mental health community. It gives me immense joy to see this happen, and this joy keeps me going.

The path I have chosen has definitely not been easy, and it’s evident from the reactions of my friends and family who could not understand why I would spend so much time on community work instead of investing my time on my studies or a job that could earn more. But the gratification I get from giving back to the community and making a difference in someone’s life—it’s priceless.