Dear Friends, Our Digital and Family Competence Enabling Team (AWB – 2033 & AWB – 2037) finished their 3-month stint and we were speaking with the 4 women involved to better appreciate their experience. This was their first experience with white collar work and were entrusted with coordinating applications for digital and financial assistance after some basic training in the use of spreadsheets. All 4 women are recipients of such assistance themselves, have heavy care-giving responsibilities and were only able to take on this task because they had the flexibility to organize their own work hours. These women were proud that they met …
Another Week Beyond – 2047
Dear Friends An 11-year-old girl waited her turn timidly in the safe-distancing queue and when we asked if she was alone, she said. “Yes, mummy does not like these things.” Nonetheless, we ushered her into our premises to receive her food, goodie bag and a note of encouragement acknowledging her efforts at school. Around this time every year, we hold a Celebration of Learning to affirm our young people’s learning efforts. So, from 10 am to 6 pm last Sunday, young people and their families arrived at their assigned time slot and we were so glad that even without the music, a …
Another Week Beyond – 2046
Dear Friends, 5 years ago, Rani and her friend Manimala organized a Deepavali Celebration in their neighbourhood. They cooked up a biryani feast and kept their guests entertained with various party activities. It was a significant achievement that they were very proud of because they pulled it off without having deep pockets. All they had was a desire to celebrate the Festival of Lights with neighbours from different religious and cultural backgrounds. “There were regular Hari Raya and Chinese New Year Celebrations in our community so we thought the neighbours should also experience the joy of Deepavali,” they said beaming …
Another Week Beyond – 2045
“We are not interested. My mother won’t be able to use the internet and there’s no point applying for her.” Our young volunteer was told in a rather curt voice. Although a little stunned and unsure if she would be disrespectfully overstaying her welcome, she continued to explain the government’s digital access scheme to the older woman whom we shall call Rose. Our young volunteers have now knocked on 116 doors and spoken to 90 older persons encouraging them to utilize the free Wi-Fi connection we have installed near their homes. We have also assisted 22 of them to use their phone …
Another Week Beyond – 2044
Dear Friends, We got the meeting going by asking those present to say something about themselves, inviting them to share an achievement, or a strength. One shared that when she lost a kidney through illness, just staying alive felt like an achievement but it also gave her pause for what was important. She stopped working and started looking after her grandchildren because doing so would mean “being useful” to 7 young lives and 2 mothers struggling to put food on the table. Another recalled the success she enjoyed in “patching-up” discarded jeans and reselling them to foreign workers. We also heard how …