Every week or so, a group of volunteers has been visiting female inmates with young children to record them reading storybooks.
They will also visit the children to play the audio recordings, so that the children hear their mothers’ voices as the books are read to them.
The effort by non-profit group New Life Stories aims to encourage the mothers to stay engaged with their children, and give these children a better shot at life, said Ms Saleemah Ismail, who helped to start the group in 2013.
She shared her experience at a session organised by the Community Leaders Forum at Wisma Geylang Serai on Tuesday night (23 April).
“We remember the values that come with stories,” she said. She noted that by reading to the children, their reading level and self confidence could not only be increased, these children can also be given a similar starting line (to others).
At the session was Minister-in-charge of Muslim Affairs Masagos Zulkifli, who chairs self-help group Mendaki and is also Environment and Water Resources Minister.
He said it is important to have ground-up initiatives and passionate, like-minded people working together on key community issues.
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Source: The Straits Times, 27 April 2019