ADDRESS BY MINISTER INDRANEE RAJAH, PRESIDENT, SINDA, AT THE 32ND SINDA ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING, ON TUESDAY, 17 MAY 2022

Dear Members and Friends of SINDA,

Introduction

1. Welcome to today’s AGM and thank you for making the time to attend. All of us are really happy to be able to see each other in person after two long years.

2. Much has happened since the last AGM. While 2020 was the year of the Circuit Breaker and dealing with the original virus, 2021 saw us battling the Delta variant which hit very shortly after the last AGM in fact, followed by the Omicron variant outbreak at the beginning of this year.

3. As the pandemic’s effects were felt by the community, SINDA swung into action and continued to offer assistance and programmes to meet the increased needs of affected families. Partnering with the community and the government, SINDA provided financial, social and educational support to see them through the pandemic.

Increased and Impactful Support

4. In 2021, SINDA served 21,613 individuals. There was a 7% increase in the number of students aided.

5. We disbursed $4.4 million in direct Covid-19 financial aid in 2021. Based on changing needs on the ground, there were 18 enhanced or newly introduced programmes and services to meet these last year. Over the last two years, we disbursed a total of $9.9 million worth of Covid-19 assistance.

6. Let me elaborate on some of these initiatives.

Education

7. Even as we gave Covid-related assistance, we pressed on in parallel with our primary mission of upliftment by continuing our academic and development programmes. Safe distancing measures meant fewer face-to-face interactions but SINDA found innovative and meaningful ways to connect with and support our students and youth, including using virtual and hybrid formats.

8. Close to 1,900 students continued to receive enhanced bursaries and allowances totalling almost $2.2 million, so that financial hardship was not an obstacle to their education. An additional 1,700 students received IT devices, to equip them for home-based learning.

9. We also extended Back-To-School-Festival vouchers and kits to 4,200 less-privileged students – an increase of 20% from 3,500 students in 2020. This increase was made possible by collaborating closely with schools to identify 700 new students who were not previously within SINDA’s fold.

Social Assistance

10. Our FSC and other units provided financial and social services to vulnerable individuals and families. We also helped to deliver Government assistance to those in need or connect them with Government or other relevant assistance.

11. The number of individuals and families seeking pandemic-related assistance dipped overall in 2021 compared to 2020, indicating that more were on the road to recovery. However, our assistance outreach was still 37% more than pre-pandemic times.

12. 440 disadvantaged families will continue to receive SINDA Care Packages, which provide several tranches of financial support. 2,250 families received Celebrate! Festive Gift Vouchers so that they can celebrate festival seasons with peace of mind.

13. Almost $300,000 was disbursed through specific Assistance Funds, such as the Beacon Fund and the Women Empowerment Fund, to provide targeted financial aid to different segments of the community.

New Programmes & Initiatives

14. New initiatives were also introduced to strengthen our support to the community. Members will be familiar with our ‘Hello Baby’ programme which aims to help Indian parents give a good educational start to their babies right from the outset. We have now introduced the ‘Hello Toddler’ initiative for children aged 2 to 3, to help Indian parents continue the developmental journey during the pre-school stage. These children receive bundles to promote their cognitive skills and to encourage stronger bonds between parents and children.

15. We also introduced ‘Elder Care Services’ to look after the basic needs of the elderly and ensure their overall care and well-being.

16. Our latest and newest initiative is the SINDA Indian Women’s Development initiative, appropriately called ‘Let Her Shine!’. This is in line with the overall push to aid women’s development in Singapore. This particular programme is aimed at helping young Indian girls and women build confidence and gain life skills that will stand them in good stead throughout life. We will be rolling out a series of programmes and workshops to equip and empower our young women along the paths of aspiration, leadership and wellness. We will also encourage them to take up STEM ─ Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics subjects ─ an area which could do with more women and in which there are many opportunities for good careers.

17. The central idea behind all these new initiatives is holistic support to enable our fundamental mission of development and upliftment of the Indian community. While SINDA’s main focus is on the core work of education, such complementary and developmental social-economic programmes provide holistic support to our students, families, and beneficiaries so that they can maximise and reap the full benefits of the educational and developmental programmes.

A Collective and Caring Spirit

18. My address today would not be complete if I do not mention those who have partnered us on our journey through the last two years. Throughout this whole period, we have been very heartened by the support given to us by many organisations and individuals. We collaborated with over 900 organisations, schools, grassroots bodies, businesses, IBR members, volunteers, and others, in bringing our programmes and services to those in need.

19. This collective action was powerful because it allowed us to extend our reach and our impact. As a result, we were able to help many more than we would otherwise have been able to do, if we had relied only on our own information and resources.

Facing the Future Together

20. Looking ahead, we will be focusing on helping the community to transition to a Singapore where Covid-19 is endemic, and on helping vulnerable individuals and families stabilise, improve their situations and emerge stronger.

21. With the easing of safe management measures, we at SINDA, have been able to resume our programmes and are catching up on lost time.

22. We are also mindful that the ground situation may evolve (cost of living, for example will be an issue for many of our target groups) and that families may require additional or different interventions to adequately address their needs. Hence, we will continue to evaluate our strategies to ensure that they are relevant, responsive and timely. SINDA stands ready to either help directly or by connecting them with relevant agencies which can provide the right assistance.

23. At the end of the day, we want our community as a whole to be empowered, self-reliant and successful. With your support and that of our community partners, I am confident we can achieve this.

24. Thank you all very much.