Every Mother’s Day, we recognise women’s incredible strength and resilience. This year, we highlight the story of two mothers who share extraordinary zeal for their children.

Mothers are benevolent. They will do what they must to secure a better life for their kids, even enduring hardship, abuse and uncertainty.

English Club students – Anna & Kim

Anna says, “As mothers, we’re not afraid of most things, but we worry about things that will affect our family and children.”

Anna is a YWCA Empowering Mums programme graduate and is currently enrolled in YWCA’s English Club; a free English course based on the International English Language Testing (IELTS) standards. Her classmate, Kim, is also a student in our English Club.

The Vietnamese-born mothers learn the basics of English and practice speaking on Thursdays with volunteers. English Club is a 10-week course uniquely catered to mothers to equip them with English language skills to improve their integration into the local community and access to employment opportunities. It is also where mothers can find a community to belong to and a support network among friends with similar backgrounds.

Contents

• Courage To Press On
• Resilience To Define Their Lives
• Hoping For Brighter Future
• Celebrate Mothers
• Bringing A Community Together

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Courage To Press On

It is no easy choice for women to leave a familiar life and marry someone in a foreign land. Worse yet, for a marriage that may become sour, leaving women to fend for themselves.

But for Anna and Kim, their situation is far from foreign – they suffer due to familial violence or marital neglect. Anna eventually moved on from her marriage to escape the violence and shifted to a transitional shelter with her kids, which they shared with strangers.

The mothers’ courage to press on is commendable. Even more so when they courageously do what is best for their little ones, often forgoing their own needs and insecurities. “I have no more tears to cry. I just want what’s best for my kids,” says Anna.

Anna after an English Club class

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Resilience To Define Their Lives

While these mothers may not be able to control their environments, they have the resilience to bounce back from adverse circumstances and work towards a better life.

Kim and an English Club volunteer

Right now, Anna and Kim’s priority is to improve their command of the English language. However, they must juggle several things, including caring for their household single-handedly, managing work that can often have infrequent or meagre incomes, and taking care of their mental well-being. Juggling these things is a delicate balance for them, where a single inconvenience can disrupt their study of English.

These are everyday stresses among women facing transition.

Their children are also nearing a foundational stage of their lives at age 7 – widely regarded for how children will communicate and interact with the world by processing how they’re being responded to.

Therefore, knowing how to communicate in Singapore’s most common language of business—English—is of utmost importance to the mothers and their children.

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Hoping For Brighter Future

Despite the odds Anna and Kim face, they’re determined to press on. Anna believes it will help her improve her job prospects.

Anna & Kim practicing English with a volunteer

Her tenacity to learn shines through her eagerness for the next level of English Club. This path of improvement could open more doorways for her to become better at her job and thus a better life for her kids. Anna also dreams of learning more about different coffee types worldwide and eventually starting her own shop one day.

Kim hopes to use her newfound language skills to better communicate with her family and enable her kids to excel in their young lives.

What a love that mothers have for their children!

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Celebrate Mothers

This Mother’s Day, we celebrate mothers in the community who dare change the status quo, mothers who define their lives by their resilience, and mothers who hope for a brighter future for their children and themselves.

We at YWCA note your courage, resilience and hope.

Thank you, mothers, for being the pillar of love in your family and children’s lives. You are not forgotten!

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Bringing A Community Together

At YWCA, we serve women, children, and the elderly through community services so that they can lead empowered lives.

However, it is no small task to bring about change, but every small step makes this a reality.

Only through community and the coming together of many hands have we been able to do what we have done for close to 150 years.

While we already see a community of like-minded women joining hands as volunteers, staff, partners, and beneficiaries for the common cause of empowering women, you can still play a part.

Join us as a volunteer, donor or collaborator today!

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