Singtel Touching Lives Fund committed to help the community

Singapore, 26 January 2010 – Singapore Telecommunications Limited (Singtel) today announced that it has raised $2.2 million for the Singtel Touching Lives Fund, thanks to the generous support and contribution from its business partners, employees and members of the public. 

Besides giving its corporate contribution to the Singtel Touching Lives Fund, Singtel has fully underwritten the fund-raising costs for the programme. This practice, which has been put in place since the philanthropy programme was launched in 2002, has ensured that every dollar of the donations raised will go towards the work of the charities supported by the Singtel Touching Lives Fund.

The $2.2 million raised will go towards the five charities to implement specialised education and support programmes for children and young people:

·         Association for Persons with Special Needs (APSN) Tanglin School

·         Asian Women’s Welfare Association (AWWA) Early Years Centre – Early Intervention Programme for Infants and Young Children

·         Movement for the Intellectually Disabled of Singapore (MINDS) Lee Kong Chian Gardens School

·         Singapore Cancer Society – Help the Children and Youth Programme

·         Students Care Service

Ms Jeann Low, Chairman of the Singtel Touching Lives Fund and Singtel’s Group Chief Financial Officer, said: “Singtel Touching Lives Fund is a cornerstone of our community outreach effort.

“The Fund’s success is also attributed to the generosity, strong support and collective efforts of our business partners, staff and members of the public. We are very grateful to them for supporting our programme and the beneficiary charities.” 

Fund-raising activities for Singtel Touching Lives Fund 2009 included a Charity Golf game where Singtel’s business partners raised about $660,000 as well as a Fold-A-Heart campaign, which Singtel donated $1 for every folded heart sent in by the public.

In a donation drive involving its staff, Singtel also matched outright donations to the Fund dollar-for-dollar.

Since its launch in 2002, the Singtel Touching Lives Fund has raised more than $17 million for the charities that it supported. 

About Singtel Touching Lives Fund

The Singtel Touching Lives Fund is Singtel’s annual corporate philanthropy programme to help the less privileged children and young people in Singapore.  It was launched in 2002 to consolidate the Group’s community support activities.  The Fund has since raised more than S$17 million for 22 charities under the auspices of the National Council of Social Service.  

Beneficiaries of Singtel Touching Lives Fund 2009

APSN Tanglin School

The special school provides special education for children with mild intellectual disability, aged 14-16 years old. The aim of the special education programme is to enable the children to have the necessary skills, attitude and personality to lead normal independent lives in adulthood.

Website: www.apsn.org.sg

AWWA Early Years Centre - EIPIC

The AWWA Early Years Centre offers early intervention programmes and individual therapy consultations for infants and children under 5 with special needs.

The Centre, run by the Asian Women’s Welfare Association (AWWA), aims to maximise the developmental growth of these children by providing them with a holistic and individual developmental programme and to minimise the risks of secondary disabilities through support and training for the children and their families.

The programmes are designed to help the children by nurturing their language and communications abilities, social and behavioural skills, perception and cognition and motor skills.

Website: www.awwa.org.sg

MINDS Lee Kong Chian Gardens School

MINDS Lee Kong Chian Gardens School serves children aged 5 to 18 years old with intellectual disabilities.

The School provides critical services and specialised programmes for children with disabilities. It aims to develop each child to its fullest potential with the long-term objective of enhancing the child’s prospects of integrating into mainstream society.

The School provides special education as follows:

o        Junior Programme for 7 to 12 years old. The programme expands on the skills taught in pre-school programme to equip students with basic foundation in independence and employment skills.

o        Senior Programme for 13 to 18 years old. The programme focuses on employment and vocational skills to prepare the students.

o        Special programme for 5 to 18 years old, catering to the educational needs of the low ability students.

Website: www.minds.org.sg/schools

Singapore Cancer Society (SCS)

Established in 1964, the Singapore Cancer Society is a self-funding voluntary health organisation. It provides:

o        Financial assistance to needy cancer stricken patients and their families

o        Support for cancer survivors

o        Rehabilitation care for patients receiving treatment

o        Home medical care for terminally ill cancer patients

The money raised from Singtel Touching Lives Fund for the Singtel-Singapore Cancer Society 2009 Race Against Cancer will be used to kickstart the Society’s new “SCS Help the Children and Youth” programme. The programme seeks to help children and youths who are cancer patients or whose parents or siblings are stricken with cancer. 

Website: www.singaporecancersociety.org.sg

Students Care Service

School Social Work operated by Students Care Service (SCS) helps youths who are susceptible to negative influences, or who come from dysfunctional families. This programme reaches out to youths aged 5 to 18 years and provides support and mentoring against negative peer influence, with the aim to maintain them in the education system.

An integral part of the Students Care Service is the SCS Educational Psychology Service. This Service is an educational and intellectual assessment and remedial teaching to help students with educational difficulties to function optimally. Students who are not identified early for help often continue to fail to learn. This coupled with the automatic promotion system in school can easily result in upper primary students functioning at lower primary skills level.

A team of trained Social Workers, Educational Psychologists, Learning Support Specialists and Project Executives/ Programme Coordinators provides professional help to students through family casework, counselling, groupwork, educational assistance and special learning support.

Students Care Service operates from three centres in Clementi, Yishun and Hougang.

Website: www.students.org.sg