“My siblings and I enjoyed ourselves at the party! The activities were fun, and we got to interact with other people…” – Darren, Meals-On-Wheels Young Beneficiary
YWCA Fort Canning’s Peace Room was no ordinary space last December as it was decorated with balloons in the form of spaceships, planets and a galaxy of stars, all set for the Year End Party. The event brought together both young and old beneficiaries from our community service programmes as they gathered for a day of fun in an astronomical wonderland. The room buzzed with excitement as the guests snapped some photos with the astronaut mascot and eagerly waited for the event to begin.
Happy kids posing with the astronaut mascot
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A Sense of Community
The event brought together a diverse group – children and elderly beneficiaries from our various community service programmes. Activities ranged from brain teasers to crafting delicious miniature cakes in a workshop conducted by Butter Studio. There was something for everyone and it was an opportunity for both the young and old beneficiaries to connect and share memories.
Children participating in a Freeze game
A volunteer from Ralph Lauren teaching the children how to pipe their cakes
A Happy Child Posing with His Finished Cake!
Learning how to pipe their cakes at the Butter Studio workshop
Our Ralph Lauren volunteers exemplified community spirit, as they actively served lunch to our guests, engaged them in the activities and created a culture where helping each other out became the norm. “My siblings and I enjoyed ourselves at the party! The activities were fun, and we got to interact with other people,” shared Darren, a young beneficiary.
Recognising Achievements and Milestones
The event was a blast, filled with laughter and games, but the showstopper was the heartwarming moment when the children were celebrated for their accomplishments throughout the year. They were given awards presented by our board member, Ms Lynette Piong, and our committee member, Mrs Jennifer Ng.
Ms Lynette Piong, our Board Member, presenting a bursary award.
Mrs Jennifer Ng, our Committee Member, presenting an award.
The awards were not the focal point – at least. It was recognising the children’s unique qualities and capabilities and empowering them to reach their full potential. That was the highlight of the event.
Making a Difference
The most precious gift of the day was the radiant smiles on the faces that our volunteers put on the faces of our beneficiaries. Every child left the party with a schoolbag and some presents sponsored by Ralph Lauren. “Hooray! A new school bag for Primary 1 in 2024!”, exclaimed Andrew (not his real name). The joy on the faces of the children was truly heartwarming and it was clear that they had a wonderful time.
Happy children with their new gifts!
Our Meals on Wheels Elderly Members Posing with an Astronaut Mascot
The event was a great success thanks to the efforts of our volunteers and community service programme staff who worked tirelessly to make it happen.
Ms Anne Chew, our Community Service Programmes Senior Manager, giving a token of appreciation to a Ralph Lauren representative.
A big Thank You to Ralph Lauren, Butter Studio and all our other volunteers who contributed to the success of this event. Your efforts are truly appreciated.
You can make a difference too! Contact us now to learn about volunteering opportunities and be part of our #ServingHope movement.
From Zoom sessions with our beneficiaries to the unprecedented success of the YWCA Charity Carnival, here’s a look back at our year in 2022!
Thank you very much to all of our Volunteers, Corporate Partners and Guests for making a difference to our Beneficiaries with your support!
When Sophia Cooke, a British missionary, founded the Young Women’s Christian Association of Singapore (YWCA) in 1875, she created a ripple which continues to grow and touch the lives of women in Singapore today. Sharing the vision of the original namesake movement from England, the Association’s mission was to advance the development of women in mind, body, and spirit.
As Singapore became more industrialised and women became more educated, more women began entering the workforce. The YWCA saw that much of a woman’s needs revolve around their families, and in particular, their children. The Association then pioneered the first-of-its-kind childcare services in the country to help working mothers integrate back into the workforce.
Therein began a new era of outreach for the YWCA. The ripple continued.
YWCA believes that all children, regardless of their financial standing and backgrounds should have the opportunity and resources to realise their full potential.
Creating access to quality childcare and early childhood education
YWCA pioneered the childcare concept with a humble mission- to help alleviate women’s caregiving responsibilities and provided them with peace of mind at work, while their children received an education. Since 1960, YWCA’s childcare centres have not only focused on providing affordable and reliable service for mothers, but they have gone the extra mile to ensure that the education children receive at the centres are effective and of good standard.
Today, these childcare centres, which have been rebranded to YWCA Preschool, still stays true to its original purpose. As an appointed Partner-Operator by the Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA), YWCA Preschool has improved access to funding, thus enabling it to keep school fees to the minimum so that most families in Singapore will be able to afford them.
Despite the minimal school fees, YWCA Preschool ensures that its teacher-to-student ratio is kept low so that there could be high quality interactions between teachers and students. A low ratio not only allows teachers more time to focus on each student but also reduces a pressing issue in the teaching profession today- burnout.
I firmly believe that children thrive in a caring environment. This is why I always watch the tone of voice I use with them. I also make special effort to nurture their self-esteem by creating opportunities for them to try new things and discover their strengths so that they may gain confidence in their potential.
– Senior Teacher Mrs Sive, YWCA Preschool @ Bedok
In addition, YWCA Preschool’s proprietary curriculum, StoryJoy™, is regularly refreshed to ensure that children receive a quality education that is holistic, relevant, and effective. StoryJoy™ provides an integrated learning approach using storybooks to make lessons lively, engaging, and relatable. Using the Ministry of Education’s (MOE) Nurturing Early Learners (NEL) framework as a guide, the curriculum focuses on 6 learning areas; Language and Literacy, Social and Emotional Development, Motor Skills Development, Discovery of the World, Numeracy, and Aesthetics and Creative Expression.
YWCA Preschool today
Enhancing inclusion and educational support for children
In 2004, YWCA saw that children with mild learning difficulties could benefit from a mainstream education if they had access to professional care and support in the learning environment. Thus, an early intervention department, the Educational Support Unit (ESU), then the first of its kind, was established to address the need for such services.
ESU has since evolved into today’s Inclusive Preschool Programme (IPP). In this programme, children are provided 1-to-1 intervention sessions and in-class support by a qualified team of transdisciplinary Learning Support Educators to ensure that they assimilate well into the natural learning environment. The educators also use effective and proven methods from psychology and therapy to provide early intervention to a wide range of learning difficulties.
Integrating children with mild learning difficulties into the mainstream learning environment not only helps them achieve their full potential but will also help them feel more accepted in their communities. Meanwhile, children who are not in the programme learn to be accepting of differences and diversity, and benefit from the virtues of compassion and inclusion.
Addressing physiological needs
YWCA believes that no one, especially children, should have to go to bed hungry.
In 2006, YWCA launched the Meals-on-Wheels (MOW) programme for children from low-income families to provide them with free nutritious dinners from Monday to Friday. These meals ensure that children have the nutrients they need for healthy growth in their formative years and their families do not have to worry about putting food on the table for them. Today, Meals-on-Wheels for Children has continued to serve more than 120 children a year.
Meals-on-Wheels for Children
Additionally, YWCA is one of the few social service agencies in Singapore that provide special items like children’s milk powder and diapers to low-income families through our Sustenance for Families programme. This programme helps alleviate financial burdens by providing families with basic sustenance and care needs.
Diapers and milk powder for disadvantaged children
Empowering disadvantaged children with holistic after school care programmes
YWCA believes that all children, regardless of their financial standing and backgrounds should have the opportunity and resources to realise their full potential.
Through our Meals-on-Wheels (MOW) outreach, YWCA found that many of our MOW beneficiaries were latch-key children who were left unattended at home as their parents worked to make ends meet. During these important formative years, they often did not have the supervision nor the access to resources that could make a difference to their growth and long-term success.
Thus, in 2016, YWCA set up the Kids’ Weekday Care (KWC) programme to address the need for a holistic after school care programme. Running every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, the thrice weekly programme covers two-way transport from school, halal lunch and a structured care schedule at a highly subsidised rate.
Beyond an after school care service, the KWC also provides socioemotional, moral, and academic support to beneficiary children by creating a rewarding and conducive environment to develop their character, discover their self-worth and unique potential, and strive for excellence. It gives them access to activities that include tutoring, mentorship, enrichment, workshops, outings and group work. It also allows mentors the opportunity to identify and address bullying issues and serves as a safe space for children to share, find social support, and have someone to intervene.
Through this programme, YWCA has provided outreach to more than 120 children over the last 5 years, with faithful support from our volunteers and corporate partners.
Kids’ Weekday Care Children
Supporting children and youths through life-giving workshops
Since 2012, YWCA’s Workz-on-Wheels (WoW) has been working closely with our community partners and institutions to provide outreach to disadvantaged children and at-risk youths from age 5 to 19 by equipping them with essential life skills to manage their own cognitive and socio-emotional needs for life adjustments.
With support from our volunteers and corporate partners, WoW workshops are carefully tailored to fit each group’s needs. Topics include Anger Management, Stress Management, and Emotional Health, Resiliency, among others. Each session is fun and engaging and provides a safe space for open sharing.
To ensure the effectiveness of the programme, each session of WoW encompasses a feedback system to enable facilitators to update our partners about each participant’s progress. The open communication channels have also been proven helpful in identifying alarming issues such as abuse and self-harm and creates the opportunity for early intervention.
Our Workz-on-Wheels participants
Salihah Amirudeen, Vice-chairman of Tiong Bahru Youth Network, one of YWCA’s close community partners, shared his thoughts on a recent programme run,” The trainer was approachable and understanding and was able to handle a group of 25 children in calmness. We have received numerous positive feedbacks from the 25 children stating that they like the workshop and they find it useful to their day-to-day situations. Most of them shared that they are able to handle stressful situations in life after the workshop.”
To date, the WoW programme has impacted over 1000 children and youths.
Join us in supporting our causes
The success of our programmes is highly dependent on the faithful support and contributions from our volunteers and donors. To find out how you can join us in these meaningful and rewarding causes, click here for individual volunteer opportunities, or here to donate.
To enquire about corporate partnerships, get in touch with us at ywcavolunteer@ywca.org.sg.
YWCA’s biggest annual children’s event – our Kids Christmas Party, was recently held on 02 December 2017. Over 50 child beneficiaries of our Meals-On-Wheels (Children), Kids’ Weekday Care and Sustenance programmes had a fun-filled and memorable time with the exciting line-up of activities planned for them.
To celebrate their achievements and growth in 2017, as well as to empower our children for the upcoming new year, we chose the theme, “Superheroes” for this year’s party. Programmes for the day included a mass wristband craft-making session, quiz and comic card segment which our children greatly enjoyed. Everyone participated in the activities with much eagerness and energy. Other fringe activities such as the photo and body paint booth were also available on-site.
YWCA’s President, Ms. Mavis Tsoi graced the event and gave out the YWCA Bursary Awards (Distinction & Merit) and Kids’ Weekday Care Awards to respective award recipients during the bursary awards presentation. We are proud of and would like to congratulate all the children for a job well done!
To spice up our traditional giveaway of Christmas wishlist gifts during the Kids Christmas Party, a special “Villain vs Captain America” appearance was arranged. With the help of “Captain America”, the children enthusiastically defeated the villain and received their Christmas presents just before the party ended.
A big thank you to everyone who has joined us for the party and special thanks to all our generous sponsors and donors who have made the event possible for our beneficiaries. We hope to see you again next year!
For more photos of the event and updates on YWCA’s upcoming activities, head on over to our Facebook page!