Area of Focus: Education
Partnership agencies: YWMA and YWCA
Conceptualised & Initiated by Lien Foundation
Different races, common vision.
The Lien Foundation brought together the Persatuan Pemudi Islam Singapura (PPIS or the Young Muslim Women’s Association) and the Young Women Christian Association (YWCA) in an initiative to enhance preschool education.
Bridging cultural or religious divide, the two organizations came together to build a joint training and exchange programme in early childhood education to better equip preschool teachers. Both organizations have an established presence and record in this area. Together, they have 16 preschool centres across Singapore and over 1100 students.
In Singapore, preschool education is not compulsory and is mostly privately run. Schools with religious affiliation receive little funding support from the government. It is often an uphill task to provide on-going training for early childhood educators due to lack of funds as well as shortage of qualified teachers.
However, the Foundation has upended this problem by combining the strengths and passion of the women at PPIS and YWCA. Both organizations are innovators in their teaching curriculum. In 2006, the YWCA launched the inaugural "Yes U can!” learning programme for learning-impaired children with the support of the Lien Foundation. More recently this year, the PPIS scored a first by creating a road safety park for preschoolers to boost experiential learning. In addition, they created with the help of the Foundation, a special fund for preschoolers from families in need. Besides providing financial aid, the LIFE (Low Income Families Empowerment) fund served to impart parenting skills to parents of these needy children and strengthen these families. The fund also leveraged upon a current government scheme so that these needy families can gain greater access to the available aid.
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The Foundation took hold of the common ground between YWCA and PPIS to empower them to achieve their shared goal i.e. to advance early education. The aim was to equip and train the teachers well, so that they can educate and nurture the children to their fullest potential.
The women were brought together to collaborate, exchange and learn from each other. For the first time, the teachers at both organizations worked together to design joint training sessions and workshops. The first training seminar threw open the doors of communication between both groups. Teachers of different faiths and races from the two organizations compared notes, shared common problems and traded tips. The success of the seminar left many teachers looking forward to the next joint session. Close to 100 teachers from both YWCA and PPIS benefited from the seminar.
The training partnership between YWCA and PPIS has extended to an exchange programme which attaches teachers from the respective organizations to their counterpart for a period of time to observe, learn and share the teaching experience. This also marks another first in the training experience of both organizations.
Furthermore, the joint learning experience is not limited to just the teachers. In an inaugural move, about 100 YWCA and PPIS children took part in joint activities such as visiting old folks’ homes together during the Ramadan and combined festive celebrations.
The Foundation’s bid to strengthen early childhood education will continue to take shape as more joint training seminars are being conducted as the two organizations gain from each other’s experiences and mutual goals.
The Foundation’s unusual but successful coupling of two organizations from different faith affiliations is a positive indication of the strong and passionate drive of Singapore women to improve the quality of early childhood teaching. This augurs well for the community, as history tells us that women are a formidable force in charting social progress and change for the society.
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