Another Week Beyond – 2339

Comms Team Another Week Beyond, Community, Employment

Dear Friends, Marlina, who has been living in a public rental neighbourhood for more than 12 years has recently joined us as a colleague responsible for coordinating programmes where she lives. She told me that securing a full-time job with employment benefits was not something she thought was possible after being a full-time caregiver for many years. Blessed with an outgoing personality, she succeeded in securing contract work, but she revealed that the job seeking process has always shaken her self-confidence.  “I completely understand when other mothers in the neighbourhood are unable to secure work. Interviews can really be intimidating,” …

Another Week Beyond – 2126

Comms Team Another Week Beyond, Employment, sew can we

Dear friends, 2 weeks ago, 2 women from Sew Can We, our income generation project got together on a zoom call to get a sense of what it means to govern themselves as a sociocratic circle. Introducing the concept, principles, and tools of sociocracy was a Community Fellow from the National University of Singapore and also present were 2 staff members from The Institute of Policy Studies. 4 of us working together with these women were also listening in and we could not help feeling very proud how seriously these women took the session. In a sociocracy, every voice of those present …

Another Week Beyond – 2123

Comms Team Another Week Beyond, Employment, Women

Dear friends, We were invited to be on a panel at an inaugural conference by PRISM, the social enterprise club of Saint Joseph’s Institution.  In light of the current climate, the conference on 1 June was moved online and attended by about 200 students from different schools. For the past 6 years or so, we have been facilitating income-generation projects for women who were unable to hold full-time jobs mainly because of care-giving responsibilities at home. Baking has been the main activity and last year sewing took centre-stage when safety measures disallowed it. The sewing of reusable face masks proved viable and …

Another Week Beyond – 2118

Comms Team Another Week Beyond, Employment, health

Dear friends, We have been speaking to residents in two different neighbourhoods to better understand how they are caring for their health. This effort is done with a view of encouraging residents to act on improving their neighbourhood’s collective health outcomes. A Singhealth study  has shown that public rental housing was an independent risk factor for all-cause mortality and we are in touch with health care providers to explore how we may eliminate gaps in health outcomes between different social groups. One’s social and financial circumstances are closely linked with one’s health. The father we were engaging told us that he needed …

Another Week Beyond – 2115

Comms Team Another Week Beyond, community, COVID-19, Employment

Dear friends, We marked one year since our circuit-breaker on 7 April 2019   and working from home is no longer our default practice. 75% of our workforce is now allowed backed into their offices and while COVID-19 is still a serious threat, we must count ourselves fortunate relative to others elsewhere.    Hannah (not her real name), tells us that she has always been an anxious person and even more so after becoming a single mom when her marriage ended. This time last year, she was overwhelmed by fear. Her ex-husband stopped sending alimony and she was afraid that her children would …

Another Week Beyond – 2048

Comms Team Another Week Beyond, digital literacy, Employment

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 – 2044

Comms Team Another Week Beyond, community spirit, Employment

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 …

Another Week Beyond – 2037

Comms Team Another Week Beyond, digital literacy, digital literacy, Employment

Dear Friends; After helping to  process one cycle of financial assistance,  the women on our  Digital and Family Competence Enabling Team (AWB- 2033) told us that they really valued the flexible work hours that enabled them to attend to their children and household matters. Working from home on a computer was an entirely new experience that they savoured. The efforts of these women have helped us reach more families whose household income have been badly reduced by COVID-19.  As on today, we have committed $2.6 million to 1571 families and by end of this month, we would have disbursed $2.1 million. These …

Another Week Beyond – 2035

Comms Team Another Week Beyond, Education, Employment, Employment, youth

Dear Friends, Jobs and the ability to draw an income weigh heavily on the minds of many and it is no different for the young people we engage.  After speaking to more than 50 youth between 16 to 25 years old, we discovered that most wanted to explore different career paths which they were interested in. However, they felt that they could not afford to do so as contributing to the household budget was priority.  They were also rather clueless how they could explore their interests and would tend to gratefully take on whatever comes their way.   Their sense of practicality is …

Another Week Beyond – 2034

Comms Team Another Week Beyond, community, Community, Employment, Employment, volunteer

Dear Friends, When the Rotary Club of Marina City wanted to provide a meal for 160 residents of a public rental neighborhood, we suggested that they engage 4 mothers who have acquired their food handling certification from the Singapore Food Agency. We have been supporting mothers to acquire this certification with a view that they may eventually start a micro-business catering for house parties and small events. There are no parties or events at the moment and this opportunity seemed like a nice little project to take on.  The cook received an allowance of $12 for every hour’s work while …