It was life in the United States that opened Singaporean Nilofar Iyer’s eyes to the needs of the underprivileged.
While in Pennsylvania with her husband in 2014, the housewife was struck by the poverty and juvenile delinquency in some neighbourhoods.
“It bothered me that nobody seemed to be doing anything about it, and I couldn’t do much since I am not a citizen and was not going to be there for a long time,” said Mrs Iyer.
When she returned to Singapore a year later, she was determined to seek out and help underprivileged families.
The volunteer docent with the National Museum of Singapore and recruited like-minded friends to set up non-profit organisation Helping and Empowering Our Neighbours in 2018.
The group focuses on families and partners larger social service organisations like Beyond Social Services and the Asian Women’s Welfare Association (AWWA) to plan and carry out ad hoc activities, such as museum visits, cooking classes and beach cleanups, for their beneficiaries.
The team is also constantly looking for other ways to help the underprivileged, and it has reached out to the Ministry of Social and Family Development to help fund and provide special food vouchers to the homeless, she added.
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Source: The Straits Times, 18 December 2019