Every
one of these are true stories of CCSS beneficiaries.
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CCSS
made my day!
Mdm N, in her mid-30s, has 4 children of her own. Her husband has just
been sentenced to 10 years in prison for drug abuse. To add to her
already heavy burden, Mdm N’s brother is also a drug addict and has
disappeared, leaving his 2 children to her care. Managing a brood of 6
school-going children, and putting food on the table for all of them,
is no easy feat. In fact, the children cycle 20 minutes to school and
only the eldest child has pocket money for recess.
We were glad that we made their day…
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CareHut:
A Small Hut that makes a Big Difference!
A boy so hungry, he ate a dead fish from the school aquarium.
A girl so neglected, she was too weak to go to school.
An eight-year-old girl nearly molested while walking home on her own.
Stories
of children in a Third World country? Unfortunately, these are
real-life happenings in Singapore. These are children
whom CCSS aims to help through CareHuts, its after-school
student care programme…
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more
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All
Cut Up
I’ve been cutting myself for nearly two years now. Nope, my parents do
not know about it. Even if they knew, I don’t think they’ll care. My
friends? Yeah, they know, the close ones. In fact, whenever one of us
feels down, the rest of us will show our support by cutting ourselves
together. My parents never told me not to hurt myself. How can they?
They have been hurting me all my life. I'm convinced they hate me. I
don't know why they would want to give birth to me in the first place.
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Restoring
a Broken Dream
When I first met Susan (33 years old), she had just been released from
prison for her eighth account of drug abuse and theft. Her life was in
pieces. She was a mother of seven children and was three months
pregnant with the eighth. They share five different fathers who had
left Susan after she got pregnant. Two of her children had been
fostered out as she was deemed unsuitable to be their caregiver due to
her imprisonment. Despite her pregnancy, she smoked, drank, and lied so
that she could get agencies to put her on their financial assistance
schemes…
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All
I Want for Christmas is my Daddy
My
mum and I stood in a corner of the visiting area at Selarang Park Drug
Rehabilitation Centre. Holding on to a slip of paper with a queue
number on it, we waited for our number to be called. Visiting Dad is a
monthly affair which I view with a mixture of anticipation and
trepidation. While I was glad to see him, I always hated how it
reminded me of the quandary our family was in. Dad had been detained
for close to three years. His imprisonment left us with a deep sense of
helplessness and at a complete loss…
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The Accidental
Volunteer
“How are you today, old man?” This is the way I greet the old man who
sits at table number seven every Saturday morning. And this marks the
beginning of another interesting conversation. Whether it’s about the
absurd rise in oil prices or about Jay Chou’s muffled singing, the old
man and I can chat about everything under the sky…
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