Safe Place’s confinement meal tie-up a hit with single mums
Collaboration with Tian Wei Signature helps pregnancy care centre provide proper nutrition for beneficiaries
When she found out she was pregnant last July, she was at a loss over what to do next.
The unmarried 25-year-old Singaporean, who wanted to be known only as Miss Chong, had been chased out of her family home by her parents just a week before she discovered she was expecting.
She had previously been living with her then boyfriend, who is the biological father of her child.
She told The New Paper: "Our relationship was unstable and I knew I couldn't depend on him. After he kicked me out, I bounced around different friends' homes."
At her wits' end, Miss Chong eventually contacted Safe Place last August for help.
She first heard of the place in February last year during her first pregnancy. She did not reach out to it then and chose to get an abortion instead.
SUPPORT
Started in 2018, Safe Place is an initiative of Lakeside Family Services that aims to empower women and families with unsupported pregnancies by providing services such as residential respite and counselling.
Miss Chong was linked up with a social worker and given temporary housing during her pregnancy, until she reconciled with her parents five months later and moved back home.
Her baby girl is seven weeks old.
Fully funded and supported by donors and volunteers, Safe Place often relies on collaborations with maternity brands to provide better support for its beneficiaries. It has helped more than 200 women.
Safe Place is collaborating with local confinement food catering service Tian Wei Signature to provide better post-partum nutrition.
Ms Jennifer Heng, director of Safe Place, said: "Part of our holistic care is to ensure good nutrition. Whenever we cater confinement food for our mums, we would receive consistently good feedback about Tian Wei's meals, so we reached out and asked if they would consider supporting us."
Tian Wei Signature is running an online donation drive until June 15 as part of this initiative.
For every person who shares the brand's official campaign post on Facebook or Instagram, it will donate $5 to Safe Place in the form of confinement meals.
NUTRITION
A spokesman for Tian Wei Signature said: "Last year, we served over 5,000 mothers, which is an increase of almost 30 per cent compared with the previous year.
"This tells us just how much new mothers see good nutrition as an essential part of their postpartum recovery, and we want to provide it as our support to the strong and determined mothers at Safe Place."
As a recipient of the confinement meals, Miss Chong, who is currently unemployed, is grateful for this partnership.
She said: "Most of us (here) are on our own, so it is hard for us to do proper confinement. The food really helps a lot to nourish our bodies."
Ms Heng added: "Collaborations with brands such as Tian Wei not only meet the needs of women in this critical point of their lives but are also a powerful demonstration that it takes a village to raise a child.
"Regardless of whether you are part of an organisation or an individual, you can still contribute towards supporting someone in need."
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