Dear Friends About a year ago, we connected with a 16-year-old we shall call Sheryl. She was pregnant with her first child and she struck us a young woman who was scared but also very excited to be a mother. After she delivered, a medical social worker contacted us expressing concern that Sheryl lacked family support and was fending for herself and her baby. When we checked in with Sheryl, she was extremely reluctant to be linked to social services or welfare. We suspected that she feared being reprimanded by authority figures, but she insisted that she was well and …
Another Week Beyond – 1916
Dear Friends For the past 3 years, Richard Wee and his friends have been running FUNFIT, a fitness programme in our neighbourhoods. Once a week, children, youth and their caregivers would gather at an open space to run, skip, jump and simply move vigorously for 60 minutes. Richard has introduced the programme at 5 different localities and currently, 3 are alive and kicking. Last Friday, these 3 groups came together at an open space within the Henderson neighbourhood for the FUNFIT Challenge. This inter-community event is rotated among the neighbourhoods every 4 months and the healthy rivalry has surfaced …
Another Week Beyond – 1915
Dear Friends Another 25 children joined the Community Tabung, our monthly savings programme as we held the first session in their neighbourhood this week. Currently there are 177 children aged 12 years old and below who deposit their monthly savings into a common pool where the entire amount is doubled by a donor and then split equally to all who contributed. The individual amounts are then matched dollar to dollar by the government when deposited into their Child Development Account. The Child Development Account is a valuable resource for our families. The 10 parents who were present told us that …
Another Week Beyond – 1914
Dear Friends Last year, attendance for a reading programme targeting 4 to 9-year olds was dwindling. There was always a bunch of dedicated volunteers waiting in our air-conditioned classroom but only a handful of children would show. Those who came always had a fun-filled learning experience and they left for home with a sense of achievement. However, not everyone came back the following week and so at the end of the year, we decided to stop the programme and redeployed the volunteers. Many children that we are in touch with could do with some help strengthening their ability to read. …
Another Week Beyond – 1913
Dear Friends International Women’s Day falls on 8 March every year but despite missing the date, some of our interns felt strongly that it was important to recognize the contributions of women in the neighbourhood that they were working in. So, in the same vein, they organized “Happy Women’s Day” to honour the achievements of the many women they had met which they felt were often overlooked. For instance, when a 58-year-old grandmother who raises her grandchild singlehandedly was asked to share a personal strength or an achievement the past year, she was silent because she felt that she could …
Another Week Beyond – 1912
Dear Friends In our endeavour to help youth develop into contributing members of our society, we provide opportunities. The opportunity to be forgiven and to put things right if one runs afoul of authority or the law; the opportunity to make headway in education and employment, the opportunity to experience family stability and the opportunity for social capital or friendships that bridge them to experiences and networks that enhance their personal or professional development. Over 3 weekends last month, 10 youth participated in the Future Ready Sailor Programme(FRS) of the Singapore Sailing Federation (SSF). They were introduced to sailing as …
Another Week Beyond – 1911
Dear Friends Perhaps it was the name of the event as 15 boys showed up when we would have been happy with 8 to 10. “Bros and Burgers,” was a boys’ night we held this week for an honest and open conversation about relationships, sex, pornography, gender roles, peer pressure and teenage pregnancy. Two weeks ago, there was a girls’ night in similar vein and such work is not just about healthy youth development but is part of a holistic attempt at supporting communities to reflect on family planning and the role of the family in guiding its young and …
Another Week Beyond – 1910
Dear Friends, Not too long ago, I was meeting a potential volunteer and the way she explained her motivation for wanting to support our work left me pondering after I left the meeting. “When you have been poor, it stays with you,” was a statement that hit me weightily. I could understand the words, but I doubt that I will ever be able to fully understand how a generosity of the heart emerges from hardship. I guess hardship affects us differently. For some who have overcome it, they find it difficult to understand why others cannot do so and for …
Another Week Beyond – 1909
Dear Friends, With the support of an experienced facilitator who engages rural Indonesian communities on the issue of family planning, we organised a series of conversations which involved parents, youths and some volunteers who support them. This was not just about contraception but about the longer-term care of children, gender norms and roles as well as parents’ ability to guide their children on matters related to sexuality. “When you were born, you were naked.” Parents could not help smiling when this statement of fact was suggested as a conversation starter about puberty with their children. They were then advised to …
Another Week Beyond – 1908
Dear Friends, It was a training week for our colleagues as they deepened their understanding and sharpened their practice of Family Group Conferencing which includes Community Conferencing (AWB – 1836). This is a certification programme in partnership with the Potsdam University of Applied Sciences and supported by Daybreak Family Group Conferences and Eigen Kracht Centrale, the key conference coordinating agencies in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands respectively. As part of their training, participants had to organise a family event and reflect if elements of their experience could be transferred to the workplace. One participant organised a dinner for his …