SINGAPORE – When the Covid-19 pandemic put a stop to face-to-face community programmes, groups working to help low-income families with children took their programmes online.

For example, community partners in Kembangan-Chai Chee, such as Filos Community Services, non-profit organisation Engineering Good and United Overseas Bank, secured IT devices to help children in these families do their home-based learning.

Minister for Social and Family Development Desmond Lee highlighted these efforts in a Facebook post on Wednesday morning (July 8).

He said: “In difficult times like these, strong community networks are critical in providing low-income and vulnerable families the support they need.

“We are grateful for the existing support and will continue to explore new partnerships and new ways to creatively engage and work with these families, so that they and their children can better achieve their aspirations.”

Kembangan-Chai Chee is one of four estates under the Community Link (ComLink) national initiative, which provides proactive and integrated support to an estimated 1,000 low-income families with children living in one- or two-room rental flats.

Besides government agencies, other community groups such as social service agencies, grassroots and volunteer groups work together to help families in these estates.

The other ComLink estates are Boon Lay, Jalan Kukoh and Marsiling.

The ComLink estates provide programmes in areas such as reading and numeracy for young children, tuition classes for schoolgoing children, life skills for parents, as well as skills upgrading and job matching services.

In his Facebook post, Mr Lee said over four weekends last month, the Social Service Office @ Bedok and the youth alumni from the South East Community Development Council’s My First Break basic business programme conducted virtual arts and crafts programmes for 15 families living in Kembangan-Chai Chee.

In the coming weeks, the Social Service Office @ Bedok and its community partners, such as the School of Concepts and Saturday Kids, have also lined up a series of online programmes such as English classes, storytelling and coding lessons for more than 50 children.

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