– Charlie “Tremendous” Jones, author and motivational speaker
There are many issues that the community is facing. And only when we take the effort to find out more and keep ourselves up-to-date, can we be part of the solution and change can happen, to truly build a community that cares.
Gainfully employed, thanks to scheme
Despite his autism and mild intellectual disability, Mr Ivan Ng, 20, is a part-time administrative assistant at National University Hospital (NUH), who tracks down patient files quickly and handles about 100 of them in half a day. Ivan joined the school-to-work...
More help for the disabled and their caregivers
A school-to-work transition programme – now open to students with mild intellectual disabilities and autism – will be extended to those with moderate intellectual and multiple disabilities. A centre will also be set up for caregivers of people with disabilities, to...
App allows students to reduce university’s power bills
Come March 2017, an app called Powerzee, will allow students to give feedback on how hot or cold a room is. This data will then be used to readjust the air-conditioning system in real-time, thus reducing unnecessary energy consumption. This project is part of a push...
On a mission to help Singapore’s elderly
YEAP MEDICAL SUPPLIES - For Yeap Medical Supplies (YMS) Pte Ltd, business and charity work are not mutually exclusive. The distributor of medical devices in Singapore has managed to meld both worlds in the course of its work. Set up in 2000, YMS focuses on the needs...
A fresh look at homelessness
The concept of a home for a displaced person may vary. For some, it is not about “owning” a place of having a roof over their heads for the night. Instead, it is about having a place where they feel safe, in control and surrounded by people they get along with....
Schooling family named ST Singaporean of the Year 2016
The Schooling family has been named The Straits Times Singaporean of the Year 2016. Colin, May and Joseph Schooling - aged 69, 61 and 21 respectively - beat 11 other contenders to the award, which is in its second run. Their win was decided after a public vote and...
Chinese New Year treat for domestic helpers
Approximately 300 domestic helpers from Indonesia, the Philippines, India, Myanmar and Sri Lanka ushered in the Chinese New Year at an event organised by the Foreign Domestic Worker Association for Social Support and Training (Fast) at its clubhouse in Jalan Bukit...
Building bridges with sign language
Sign language differs between countries, and the language used here is the Singapore Sign Language (SgSL) which has developed over the past 60 years as a result of working with people who are deaf and of different backgrounds. In SgSL, there are signs for local food,...
Discipline the goal of his football training
An events and conference organiser by day, Mr Irza Fauzan Suprapto becomes a football coach on Thursday nights at a street soccer court. The players in his team are aged seven to 16, who comes mostly from lower-income families, living in HDB blocks and nearby estates....
Fresh ideas on dealing with ageing population
While Singaporeans are living longer, they are also having fewer children, who are the traditional caregivers. This puts many elderlies at risk of neglect. During their scenario-planning exercise, the Institute of Policy Studies focused on strategies surrounding...
New ideas for the old
A group of innovative Temasek Polytechnic final-year engineering students has developed ideas that are targeted at the elderly who have mobility problems. They took existing products and made small improvements to it, so that everyday devices used by the elderly...
Rescuing food waste to feed needy
There are about 1.3 billion tonnes of food waste the world generates each year. the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations affirms that food waste in Europe alone could feed approximately 200 million people. For the past decade, 86-year-old Dino...
Only one agenda in climate change and sustainable development
With 2016 devoted largely to getting the Paris Agreement ratified and entering into force, attention is now turning to its implementation, alongside the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Established to service the international climate negotiating process,...
China is shaping up to be a world leader on climate change
Xi Jinping, the first Chinese president to attend the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting. His appearance came at an important moment for China, as it increasingly takes on a global leadership role, including and critically on climate change. In his speech,...
Singapore: Throw-Away Nation
The disposable age along with increasing affluence, is resulting in a rising tide of waste generated in Singapore. Since domestic helper Cherryann-Lynn Santos, 36, started working for a family in Singapore nine years ago, she has been "shopping" at the dumpster at her...
Climate action must be part of national plans
Climate-related disasters are on an alarming trajectory. The 2010s may well go down as the decade when the trendline of these events headed aggressively north after a noticeable rise in their intensity and frequency since the 1970s. The underlying link to all this is...
Living their passion for their causes
The Singaporean of the Year award is back for the second time and more than 3,600 votes have been cast as of last Friday morning for the 12 candidates shortlisted for the award . Supported by UBS Singapore, the award seeks to recognise Singaporeans who have put the...
More donations received during 2016 festive season
Despite the gloomy economic outlook, Giving.sg reported raising $5.5 million in the first three weeks of December, up from $5.1 million the previous year in 2015. Giving.sg is Singapore’s largest online donation portal, managed by National Volunteer and Philanthropy...
ST Singaporean of the Year 2016: Meet the first batch of nominees
A man who donated part of his liver to a stranger, two Paralympians who scored a historic win in Rio, and three doctors who discovered a Zika outbreak in their community are among the first five groups of candidates shortlisted for The Straits Times Singaporean of the...
OPC banks on supplying world’s priciest wood
The Middle Easterners use it for perfumes, and the Chinese prize it for its health qualities. Demand from these two sectors and others is driving the already huge market for agarwood - the world's most expensive wood, which has long been used for holistic health and...
