Speech by Mr Chan Chun Sing, Minister for Education, at the Lutheran Community Care Services (LCCS) Gala Dinner

1.A very good evening to all the family and friends of LCCS, Bishop and the leadership of LCCS. Thank you for inviting me for dinner tonight.

2.Many years ago, I was serving in then-MSF, the Ministry of Social and Family Development. We were in-charge of taking care of all the less advantaged and the downtrodden, to help those who in need of help. There were a few things always on our mind.

1. First, our definition of success. How do we define success for the work that we have done? We can think of success as how many people we have helped. But in MSF, and in all social service agencies, we were very clear that our mark of success is not how many people we can help or we have helped. Our real mark of success is how many people we do not need to help, going forward. This is why the work that is done by LCCS is so important.
2. LCCS is not a firefighting department who is here to extinguish problems that arise. The most important part of LCCS' work, in trying to break the cycle of hurt towards hope, is to have fewer people that we need to help in the next generation. Our real mark of success is never measured by how many people we help here and now, as we will only know maybe a generation later, whether those whom we have helped are able to stand tall, stand proud, and perhaps help someone else in need. That will be our true measure of success.

3.I would like to commend the work done by LCCS, because just like many other social service agencies, it is never easy. For every person whom we are able to help, there will be many more whom we would like to help, but perhaps could not reach them in time. But we should all stay encouraged. Just as the story of the starfish reminds us, when we walk on the shores, there will be many starfish that might be stranded. We might not be able to save everyone, but every starfish sent back to the sea is one starfish saved. One life at a time - and we will hopefully become a better world.

4.For every seed that we plant in this generation, maybe it will germinate to produce more and better seeds in the next generation. If we are able to break the vicious cycle of hurt, we can perhaps look forward to a better and brighter Singapore.

5.This is why we hope that you will continue to support the work of LCCS, and for us to become a much more heartwarming society, where we do not define our success just by our material wealth, but by how well we are able to care for the lost, and the less advantaged.

6.On that note, thank you all for your support to make Singapore a better and more heartwarming society. Thank you for your support for LCCS.