New initiative to look out for Marsiling’s underprivileged
Marsiling Cares to support underprivileged residents in the estate
An initiative launched yesterday will provide Marsiling's underprivileged residents with even more support, by stringing together a series of new and existing programmes in the estate.
Marsiling Cares aims to foster a neighbourly community in the area.
Led by Marsiling grassroots volunteers and community partners, the programmes include tutorial classes for less privileged children in English and mathematics, and the setting up of a social service hub to help vulnerable families.
The initiative was launched by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who was joined by Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC grassroots organisations' advisers Lawrence Wong, Zaqy Mohamad, Ong Teng Koon and Alex Yam at an event at Marsiling Park.
Mr Zaqy, who is also Minister of State for National Development and Manpower, said: "Marsiling Cares strings together many of our help initiatives, so that we can leverage on our resident outreach and make available to them a range of initiatives depending on what they need."
Marsiling will be among the estates where the first four Community Link hubs will be set up over the next two years, as announced by Minister for Social and Family Development Desmond Lee in Parliament last Tuesday.
The other estates are Boon Lay, Jalan Kukoh and Kembangan-Chai Chee. These locations were chosen as they have a sizeable number of families with children living in rental flats.
Community Link, which aims to provide customised support for vulnerable families, will include spaces for the community, including businesses and residents themselves, to run programmes or deliver services to help those in need.
A local work group will pinpoint the needs of the Marsiling community and plan for services at the programme space.
Among the other programmes under the initiative is the Marsiling Progress Class, where about 40 volunteers, including school teachers from the estate, offer tutorial classes for underprivileged children at Marsiling Community Club every Sunday.
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