SPEECH BY MS INDRANEE RAJAH, MINISTER, PRIME MINISTER’S OFFICE, SECOND MINISTER FOR FINANCE AND NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND PRESIDENT, SINDA, AT THE ‘LET HER SHINE!’ FIRST YEAR ANNIVERSARY, ON SATURDAY, 13 MAY 2023 AT YWCA FORT CANNING

1. A very good evening everyone. It is amazing to see all of you here today and to have such a great support from not just the women but also the men. It is great to have everyone on board in support of the ‘Let Her Shine!’ initiative.

One Year of Let Her Shine!

2. The reason why we are here is to commemorate one year since the launch of ‘Let Her Shine!’, or LHS. We started this initiative because we believe in our Indian women, we believe in our young Indian girls. And we believe in not just what you are but in what you can become. And that’s what ‘Let Her Shine!’ is all about. It’s so that you can realise your full potential, and it’s also about women helping other women and young girls.

3. All of us started out at some stage of this journey; like all the young girls here today, sometimes uncertain, sometimes unsure, sometimes having to overcome obstacles and not knowing which way to go. So, we’ve been on that journey, and being able to share with younger girls embarking on that journey is incredibly important as well.

4. We want to make sure that this programme is meaningful, and we want to nurture trailblazers. We want confident, fearless women with a relentless drive to excel. We also want you to be happy and confident in yourselves.

5. So, one year on, how many girls have we been able to help? Well, we have contributed to the development of over 500 young women and girls, giving them the opportunity to grow, to excel and to become the best possible versions of themselves. And how have we done this? We’ve done this through programmes and initiatives that have been focused on development; it is about building self-confidence; it’s about building resilience; it’s about helping our young girls to learn new skills, and helping them to think about their own personal development. It’s also about encouraging a growth mindset in our young women, because you actually never stop learning.

6. In school, in order to go from primary to secondary, you go from one level to another. And yes, you do expect to learn more progressively, as you go along. But when you leave school, and you’re caught up in work, you forget that there’s actually a lot more to learn, in many different areas. It’s not a straightforward, structured curriculum like it was in school. You will have to learn all sorts of new things that you never had to deal with before:
   1. You have to learn how to network;
   2. You have to learn how to deal with receiving inappropriate remarks;
   3. You might have to deal with sexual harassment,
   4. You will have to learn of the process of adulting, such as planning for your property or financial security.

These are things that you must start learn at an early stage and know that they are things that you need to grasp, and be able to get a good handle on.

7. So, alongside confidence-building, we’ve also put greater emphasis on promoting STEM-related (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) pathways, because we really don’t think that STEM is just a male-oriented subject. We think that the girls are equally talented. It’s just a question of mindset. It’s a question of how you see yourself, of whether you can see potential careers there. It’s also a question of whether you’ve got the aptitude for it and somebody has encouraged you along the way to develop that aptitude and make it grow. So, we want to bring young girls on learning journeys. We want to help them get to state-of-the-art laboratories. We want to expose them to coding and robotics, because we want you to know that the STEM landscape is fully accessible to you and we will enable you to get onto that path, if that is what you would like to do.

8. But of course, the goal behind all of this is empowerment. We want to inspire all young women to believe that no dream is too big; that there are opportunities for you in every industry, and most importantly, for you to believe in yourselves to know that you can access these opportunities and do well.

9. So, have we been successful? I would say unequivocally, yes! While the LHS journey is only one-year-old, we do think that we are in the right direction. For example, 90% of participants who took part in LHS programmes, in this one year, have said that they feel more confident in themselves and their abilities. They’re also more aware that there are women leaders in society who have forged a name for themselves in their respective industries. And, we now have women leaders that we can look to as role models.

10. We will never be able to learn everything beforehand. But what’s important is that you must believe that you can learn what you need to know when the time comes for you to. That is what we’re trying to help you to get under your belt – to help you know that it’s alright not to know everything, but when the time comes and when the need arises, we’ll be able to find a way to find out what we need to know.

Mentorship and MOU Signing

11. So, with that thought in mind, we looked into the future and asked ourselves, what do our girls need? And we felt that what would be important would be for them to not only to see role models, but to have opportunities to learn from these role models. We want to tap on the experience and expertise of women who have charted success in their own fields, and therefore, we wanted to start a mentorship programme for our young women. Mentorship, so that you can have women mentors, who can give you guidance and support on your journey, based on their journeys of success. So that they can share with you what they had to learn along the way, and hopefully save you from some of the teething problems and some of the pains that they had to undergo themselves.

12. So, it’s my pleasure to announce today the ‘Let Her Shine!’ mentorship programme for women, by women, to nurture the growth of the next generation of women leaders. SINDA has seen success in our past mentorship programmes and initiatives; we’ve seen the benefits of mentorship that have been viewed by our youth. And so, by having a young, female-centric mentorship programme, we think that this will benefit our young women enormously. We think that there’s no limit to what you can achieve, and we want to help you to accomplish your ambitions.

13. To the mentors, I want to say a big thank you for your dedication, willingness to step up and to give time to this, because it’s really an important cause. What they are giving to us is a wealth of knowledge and experience, and talent and dedication. They have broken boundaries, and they have forged paths for themselves. Their lasting contribution and legacy, is being able to guide the next generation of women, to not just similar, but even greater heights. So, I’m very heartened by this passion to give back to society. Once again, a big thank you to all of our mentors who have stepped up for this programme.

14. Alongside the launch of this mentorship, SINDA will ink a Memorandum of Understanding today with SG Her Empowerment, or SHE for short, an organisation focused on the empowerment of women. Through this partnership, SINDA participants will have greater opportunities to take part in SHE’s programmes. Thank you SHE!

15. While SINDA takes the lead in the Indian community’s betterment, it is through partnerships such as these, with both individuals and organisations, that we can make a greater and more meaningful difference. These efforts will continue to ensure that our community and all women remain supported in their own journeys of growth.

Conclusion

16. I would like to end by encouraging all of our young women here today – we’re letting you know that we’re here for you; that this programme was developed especially for you, because we believe in you and we think that you’re going to accomplish great things. What we want to do is equip you, to give you the best possible chance to succeed.

17. You’re not going to succeed and hit every goal immediately. There are going to be obstacles, there are going to be bumps along the way, and that’s fine. That happens to everybody. What we want you to know is that when you hit those bumps, you have a support group, you have people and resources that you can call on, so that you are not alone in this journey. We’re going to help you get right to the top and break through the glass ceilings and other artificial ceilings.
18. So, with that, let me close by once again, thanking not just the LHS team, but also the SINDA staff, who have worked very hard on this. The team has been extremely passionate! I’ve never seen them so excited on any of our programmes as I have for LHS and I can understand why, because I think they can see that this is a great cause and they’ve put in a lot of heart and soul into it. So, thank you to everybody who has supported the ‘Let Her Shine!’ initiative.

19. Thank you.