SINGAPORE – He had led a charmed life but felt the need for something deeper – purpose.

In a first-person account on Pioneer, a magazine focused on the Singapore Armed Forces, Mr Nadim van der Ros – who married Singaporean singer-songwriter Stefanie Sun in 2011 – shares his 13-year volunteering journey.

Born in Jakarta, Mr van der Ros said he was immediately placed for adoption and received generous financial support from an unknown benefactor. It is not clear why Mr van der Ros was placed for adoption.

Within a year, he was adopted by a Dutch couple and moved to Singapore where he lived for about two years, the beginning of his affinity with the country.

The family later moved to England, and Mr van der Ros attended prestigious schools.

Privilege, he said, handed him opportunities such as an internship and a full-time job in Hong Kong, where he met his wife Sun, now 45.

However, Mr van der Ros, 46, was not content to simply lead a comfortable life.

“I wanted to express my gratitude for the community around me and the privileges I’d enjoyed, by serving others,” he said.

In 2010, he gave up his successful career as a senior marketing executive in Singapore and founded a consulting firm to help social organisations with brand strategy. The social enterprise held monthly events showcasing social initiatives in Singapore.

His volunteering efforts soon grew from fund-raising to hands-on contributions such as serving as a first aider with the Singapore Red Cross Society, and leading missions to Batam, Indonesia, with housing charity Habitat for Humanity to build houses for low-income families.

News of the arrest in 2016 of six Indonesian terrorists in Batam who were planning to launch rockets at Marina Bay was a sobering moment for Mr van der Ros.

He said the incident was a stark reminder of the importance of building stronger, safer communities through compassion and strength.

“From Batam, one can see the lights of Marina Bay Sands, a symbol of our prosperity. It’s not hard to understand the resentment that can build when people struggle to keep the rain out of their homes while witnessing our luxurious indulgences,” he said.

He added that the incident reinforced his belief that humanitarian work is vital in keeping Singapore secure and that the nation’s safety requires not just a compassionate heart but also strength and decisive action.

Recognising that his volunteering could directly affect the safety and security of his home, Mr van der Ros eventually joined the Singapore Armed Forces Volunteer Corps (SAFVC) in 2021 and currently serves as an Auxiliary Security Trooper.

The SAFVC is a uniformed volunteer scheme which provides Singaporeans and permanent residents with the opportunity to contribute to national defence.

“By volunteering as a soldier, I’ve also grown as a humanitarian volunteer,” Mr van der Ros said.

He recounts a mission in August with the Singapore Red Cross to Sri Lanka, where he visited four schools.

The team distributed food, installed water filters, and provided training in basic first aid and humanitarian principles.

Mr van der Ros was also entrusted with teaching the students good oral hygiene, proper handwashing techniques, mosquito control and physical movement.

He said that while military and humanitarian work have different missions, the two spaces often intersect and share common skills and disciplines, such as on-the-spot adaptability.

For example, lesson plans created in the Singapore Red Cross’ offices had to be modified to accommodate the situation on the ground as there were no standard classrooms in the Sri Lankan schools.

A touching moment during the trip was when the team visited the Sri Lanka Singapore Friendship College, a girls’ school that the Singapore Red Cross helped establish after the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami.

Known as the country’s worst natural disaster, the tsunami left 31,000 people in Sri Lanka dead and almost a million displaced.

The team’s arrival was greeted with a warm welcome from the school’s marching band, which played Singapore’s national anthem and raised the Republic’s flag beside Sri Lanka’s flag during the flag-raising ceremony.

Many of the volunteers were almost moved to tears, said Mr van der Ros.

Struck by the school’s act of gratitude, he said this cemented his belief that Singapore is worth protecting, whether as a volunteer soldier or by helping neighbouring communities through humanitarian efforts.

He said: “Volunteering isn’t just an act, it’s a calling. It’s a life filled with purpose and contribution.

“In every small gesture, in every meaningful endeavour, we have the chance to make a difference. Let’s not merely make it an act, let’s make it mean something.”