» Address by Ms Indranee Rajah, President, SINDA, at the 31st SINDA Annual General Meeting, on Monday, 17 May 2021

Dear Members and Friends,

It’s great to see all of you again even though it’s not in person. This is the second year in a row that we’re meeting virtually and I thank all of you for taking the time to join us.

2020 was an extraordinary year, by all accounts. You have all experience it. We battled a global health crisis, weathered an economic storm and helped our community through many additional challenges.

All segments of community felt the effects – businesses, workers, families and students. There was an increase in emotional stresses and mental health issues. We had to make many adjustments to our daily lives – working from home, home-based learning and switching from physical interactions to virtual ones

Providing Covid-19 Support

Against the backdrop of this pandemic, SINDA played a critical role in ensuring that help reached those in need within our community.

We provided financial and other support to low-income and vulnerable Indian families. We used our operating funds, as well as the increased funds provided by the government to the Self-Help Groups, to provide additional assistance packages to families and individuals financially affected by Covid-19.

All age groups benefited from these initiatives, including students, working adults, parents, families, and seniors, with 7,615 individuals receiving $5.5 million in direct Covid-19 financial aid.

We enhanced and broadened existing schemes, and introduced new ones to address needs that surfaces as a result of the crisis. Keeping restrictions in mind, we also proactively reached out to the ground to identify those at risk and equipped students and families with means and resources to cope.

Impactful Reach & Engagement

You will see from our Annual Report that we served 23,392 individuals in 2020 through our programmes and services, with a significant group receiving financial and social assistance. In addition, we were also able to:

1. Strengthen the mental well-being and resilience in our families, youths and students through workshops;

1. We also made a switch of our tutorials, programmes and events to virtual platforms, so that we could continue our engagement and enrichment for the community;

1. We distributed digital devices to students who were in urgent need for their Home-Based Learning; and this is something we will revisit again now that we are back to Home-Based Learning.

1. We also rallied and empowered our youths, partners and volunteers to lead their own initiatives, with SINDA being a connector and an enabler.

All of these efforts were done, not just by SINDA alone, but hand-in-hand with our partners in our community.

Ensuring Continued Resilience

The next task, – after having helped the families through last year – is to look at the current situation, to see what needs there are as a result of the recent tightened measures and also continue to build resilience among the Indian community. SINDA’s assistance for the community will continue this year, for our beneficiaries as well as the families in our community.

We have put aside $5.1m this year in providing such, targeted at all levels of the community. We will design the schemes to ensure that support is available to those who need it.

To help employees, particularly those who have lost jobs, we put in place a support framework to facilitate job placements and deepen career-coaching for unemployed individuals. Our community job ambassadors will also identify and channel individuals to appropriate avenues for employment support.

In addition to this Covid-19 relief, our programmes continue to run in addressing our community’s other needs. We will develop more upstream programmes so that we can intervene earlier to help children and families get on the right path early.

Vote of Thanks to Outgoing Members & Remembering Mr Bala

In making these various programmes and aid available to the community, my heartfelt appreciation to the SINDA management and team, for working amid the challenging landscape. Those of you who were aware of what they did last year, they really went over and above the call of duty to reach the community and those in need.

I also want to thank the Board of Trustees for their continued guidance and the Executive Committee – which has been my pleasure to work with for all the valuable work they have done. The current EXCO ends its term with this AGM. There will be an election to elect 5 EXCO members other than the Key Appointment Holders – KAHs are appointed by the Board of trustees. The Key Appointment Holders will be announced later under agenda item 5. There will be some outgoing members from our current EXCO and I really would like to acknowledge them for their selfless service. Those stepping down will be:

1. Current Vice-President, Mr KV Rao will be stepping down. He will be appointed to the Board of Trustees as a term trustee. I really want to thank Mr KV, for all your inputs and corporate guidance. KV you have been a wonderful partner to work with.

1. Our current treasurer, Mr Subramaniam Iyer. Mr Subra has given sterling service. He’s been with SINDA for 12 years and he has left us much stronger in terms of financial governance and procedures. Thank you very much, Mr Subra.

1. From our EXCO, Mr Joshua Kuma has been an amazing example of enthusiasm and someone who never fails to rise to the occasion when asked to do anything. His particular passion has been on SkillsFuture and jobs which he has really carried out with great enthusiasm. Thank you so much, Joshua.

1. Mr Chandra Mohan lent us his legal expertise, helped us with many of the issues that we needed to sort out and contributed greatly. Thank you, Chandra Mohan.

1. Mr Sarbjit Singh is one of those who always gives very short but very insightful comments. He has always been relevant and always helpful. Thank you very much, Sarbjit.

1. And also Mr Darryl David. Darryl helped us greatly with communications and our engagement with the community. Thank you very much, Darryl.

Through EXCO and by chairing SINDA’s sub-committees and resource panels over the years, all of you have contributed and have been instrumental in guiding SINDA in achieving our mission.

I also take this time to honour the memory of somebody that you will all be familiar with. One of our previous members, Mr M Bala Subramanion, who passed away in February this year. He was an inspiration to us all and we are very grateful to have known him.

We always looked forward to his cheery and motivating words at the end of each AGM and despite hitting a century, he made it a point to still attend SINDA’s AGMs. We will miss him very much and it is only apt that we continue to honour his legacy, in service to Singaporeans and the community.

A Stronger Nation, Together

I want to conclude by saying that the pandemic has demonstrated the importance of community and collective efforts, and the difference that SINDA can make.

I was very heartened by how our community came together to help. In view with the tightened measures, it looks like we will still have our work cut out for us. So there is much to be done, not just in terms of the pandemic, but also in terms of rallying the community, and also integrate with the other races and the rest of Singapore.

We will continue to build strong partnerships and continue to work hard at this to bring the Indian community forward