Lifeblood to many families: Lending a Helping Hand
A light in another's darkness.
A FAMILY IN NEED: Singapore Red Cross (SRC) ensures that vulnerable families are given help to sustain their everyday lives. The Family LiveAid Programme serves as a lending hand within the community. (PHOTO: SINGAPORE RED CROSS)
Debunking one of its famous myths, Singapore Red Cross (SRC)[1] is not all about giving blood, but lending a helping hand to those going through darker times.
According to a report done by CNA, many low-income families are already struggling to make ends meet amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, as they had to bear the grunt of the effects of Phase 1 and Phase 2. Lesser resources for low-income families to tap on, mainly due to panic buying during the announcement of border closures, as well as implementation of circuit breaker measures.
More about Family Life Aid Programme
How can you help?
Every bit of help counts towards families like these who need as much help as they can get. Here are some ways for us to donate.
Donate regularly to help support the beneficiary families:
- $20 feeds a family of four for 2 days; $50 feeds a family of four for 5 days; $90 feeds a family of four for 10 days; $250 feeds a family of four for 1 month.
Volunteer in two different ways:
- Befriend, collect and deliver food vouchers and nutritious food to a family monthly, for six months. Volunteers will collect and deliver food vouchers, as well as befriend underprivileged families. - Provide weekly tuition in English, Mathematics, Science for children aged nine to 12, for at least one year. This provides the vulnerable children with the opportunity to advance in life with quality tuition based on a structured curriculum. - Provide home-based storytelling for children aged four to eight years old for at least one year. This enhances the children’s confidence in the English language during their formative years.
Fundraise to help sustain and expand the Family LifeAid programme so that we can serve more people. For more information on donation, do check our SRC’s Cross Talks podcast episode 2[2] !
COMMUNITY PHILANTHROPIST: A female volunteer from the Singapore Red Cross offers hand sanitiser services to a young boy from a low-income family. The Singapore Red Cross usually engages with low-income families on a usual basis through their FamilyLifeAid Programme[3] , focusing on helping the less-fortunate children in Singapore. (PHOTO: JASLYNN WONG AND JESSE BAY)
Conclusion
Moving forward, we hope that more youths today will be involved in philanthropy- especially helping families in need. This is a pressing issue that requires a community.
Anyone can volunteer. It doesn’t matter what your skills, experience or background are, or how much time you can give. Some volunteer work can even be done from home, at your own pace!
With initiatives such as the Family LifeAid, people can be involved in volunteerism.
Play your part today by helping those in need! You can listen more about what SRC has done to help the community through our latest podcast ‘Cross Talks’[4] where Serene Tan, assistant head of Community Resilience department of Singapore Red Cross shares more about Family Life programme[5] and how us as individuals can give back.
Start small by making a donation now.
*Lines underlined in blue symbolise hyperlinks to the podcast.
Relevant research:
- The FamilyLifeAid programme first started out as FoodAid, giving out meal vouchers for families to purchase groceries.
- The FamilyLifeAid programme helps SRC to support those who have fallen through the cracks of social services such as single-parent families, working poor families, families with persons with disabilities etc.
- FamilyLifeAid aims to build social, emotional & financial resilience of vulnerable families in SG through holistic networks of programmes - emphasising on rendering assistance for children
- Many low-income families are already struggling to make ends meet amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, as they had to bear the grunt of the effects of Phase 1 and Phase 2 - according to a report done by CNA. Lesser resources for low-income families to tap on, mainly due to panic buying during the announcement of border closures, as well as implementation of circuit breaker measures.
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