Literacy Initiative For Equity - LIFE SG 3.12

Introduction

Literacy Initiative For Equity (LIFE) is a newly established voluntary, non-religious, non-governmental, and non-profit organisation that started from a research study that has led to the discovery of “pockets of society” who are left behind in a fast paced country; A country that is also ranked as one of the top ten most expensive countries to live in. An estimated 8000 children are born into poverty in Singapore each year.

Our programme is supported by Majulah Community and funded by MENDAKI.

Objectives

LIFE aims to support underprivileged children by equipping them with tools and a fair opportunity at achieving success. We also hope to help ensure that their current circumstances would not impede their future prospects.

Our Vision (Branding): Educating the community through love – one child at a time

Our main objective is to help improve the literacy level of our target beneficiaries who may have been denied access to privileges, such as enrichment activities, due to their circumstances. Through our proposed programmes, we not only aim to assist them in preparation for their next big step of their compulsory education, which is primary school, we also hope to inculcate the love of seeking knowledge in the children, and impart useful skills that will help them in their journey through life.

Background of Target Beneficiaries

LIFE-TIM aims to help underprivileged Singaporean children under the age of seven from all races and/or religions. The parents of these children are usually unemployed, incarcerated or low income. Some of these children may not have parents and are living with their guardians. Some of these children may be in foster care. The children and their families/guardians are typically housed in studio or 1 bedroom rental flats.

What sets us Apart from Established Organisations?

We are reaching out to pockets of society that established organisations may have missed out. We are concentrating on underprivileged pre-school children as we believe it is imperative to start at the earliest possible age - prevention is better than cure, and cognitive development is most pertinent before 7. Through our extensive network and intensive groundwork, we have learnt more about the needs of these families. We discovered that most of their children of all ages, have lower literacy levels than expected for children of their age group. Therefore, we have recently accepted lower primary school children into our programme.

Our dynamic and holistic programme includes a variety of activities such as speech and drama, arts and design, sport activities, teambuilding activities, and learning journeys. The aim of these activities is to ensure that the children have a positive attitude towards education, help them learn ways to channel negative emotions and energy in a healthy and fun manner, and most importantly, have healthy fun!

Our activities have been carefully thought out to complement whatever they may have learned in kindergarten. We believe that by focusing on the children’s essential needs and engaging these needs through healthy and fun activities, it would further develop their cognitive abilities and social skills. We hope through this movement, we can help the children, who are usually left behind, to achieve a fair chance at success, believe in their abilities, and have confidence to take on the world.

Aside from providing programmes for the children, we work together with the parents/guardians and get them involved with the children’s progress. After a few months, a caring community with the adults and children were created. We observed compassion and care from the adults, not only towards their own children, but others in the programme as well. We are now one big family who look out for each other.