There are many meaningful organizations in Singapore that went unnoticed by many, especially after the golden tap scandal.
We will cover some of the meaningful organizations from the many who shared with us that they would donate to.
HealthServe
The vision of HealthServe (founded in 2006) is to build a society where every migrant worker lives a life of dignity.
As a registered clinic, HealthServe’s Geylang Clinic supported and took the load off public hospitals.
They received over $250,000 in the Migrant Health Fund due to the 2020 pandemic to provide relief and support to the wellbeing of low wage or disadvantaged migrants in Singapore and their families.
Free Food For All
As its name said, Free Food For All serves many communities such as
- Homeless individuals or individuals in interim housing
- Low Income Families
- Aged and Differently Abled Communities
- Anyone finding themselves under economic stress
- Injured migrant workers
Their vision are
- To be the preferred food aid charity in Singapore
- To inculcate the community of minimizing food insecurity and food waste
Food Bank Singapore
Food Bank Singapore was founded in 2012 and aimed to end hunger by 2025.
From 2014, The Food Bank Singapore has leaped from salvaging 2 tons to 550 tons of food a year by relying on supporters and volunteers.
With more than 10% of people in Singapore still facing food insecurity issues, they are embarking on bigger projects to extend and better our outreach to serve the community.
They collaborated with The Lien Centre for Social Innovation (Singapore Management University) to undertake a first-of-its-kind in depth food insecurity research project.
Below are some of the reasons why food insecurity occurs in a 1st world country Singapore:
- Elderly with a lack of savings to support themselves and lack of family/family support
- Single-parent families (including those single due to incarceration)
- Illness or job loss of main breadwinner
- Low-paid employment
- Poor job prospects due to ex-convict status Issues with personal financial management
- Unable to work due to looking after young children
- Large family size
They are also working with food pantry vending machines and virtual food banking to increase the efficiency.
Hagar SG
The vision of Hagar is to build communities free and healed from the trauma of human trafficking, slavery and abuse.
In Singapore, there are many migrant workers who came in hope of better opportunities but might be tricked by their agents. Without their passport, they end up being exploited into working unwillingly in certain industries.
To date, Hagar have helped more than 19,000 people. They also elevate the capabilities and awareness of local communities to respond to slavery and abuse.
In 2016, they trained 8,645 community members on topics like domestic abuse and trafficking awareness and work in over 10 countries worldwide and provide direct services to some of the most vulnerable women and children in Cambodia, Vietnam, Singapore and Afghanistan.
AWARE
The vision of AWARE is to build a society where there is true gender equality – where women and men are valued as individuals free to make informed and responsible choices about their lives.
One interesting project was the Support, Housing and Enablement (S.H.E.) Project is a research-based service that provides stable and decent housing and transformational support program for low-income families headed by single mothers.
AWARE’s 2016 study “Single Parents’ Access to Public Housing: Findings from AWARE’s Research Project” indicated that low-income, single-mother families who sought HDB sale and rental flats faced a range of problems: unrealistic income ceilings, long debarment periods and lack of transparency and clarity in policies.
Willing Hearts
Willing Hearts operates a soup kitchen that prepares, cooks and distributes about 6,500 daily meals to over 40 locations island wide, 365 days a year. Beneficiaries include the elderly, the disabled, low income families, children from single parent families or otherwise poverty stricken families, and migrant workers in Singapore.
In addition, Willing Hearts extends the following services to its beneficiaries:
- Dental Care
- Traditional Chinese Medicine Treatments
- Optical Care
- Bereavement Services
Gentle Paws
Causes for Animals
Singapore Association for Mental Health
The missions of SAMH are
- improve the lives of persons with mental illness and provide support for their families
- To promote acceptance and respect for persons with mental illness
- To improve the mental resilience of our community
We Care
We Care treats addictions including drugs, alcohol, and compulsive behaviors like problem gambling, overeating, problematic internet use & excessive gaming and shoplifting.
They offer evidence-based counselling and therapy group work. They also a community-based drop-in center where a safe, supportive and non-judgmental environment is provided for individuals to stabilize and work on their recovery.
Society for the Physically Disabled (SPD)
Founded in 1964 by a group of Rotarians, SPD was known as Society for Aid to the Paralyzed (SAP). In the earlier years, SAP provided employment opportunities at its sheltered workshop to people with disabilities who had difficulties seeking open employment.
They was renamed Society for the Physically Disabled (SPD) in May1998 and subsequently to just SPD in July 2014 to reflect their work of serving people beyond physical disabilities.
If you are a business, do look at its Open Door Program to create a win-win situation to redesign the workplace suitable for all, including people with disabilities, while getting a 90% grant.
Daughters of Tomorrow
The mission is to facilitate livelihood opportunities for underprivileged women and support them in achieving financial independence and enable social mobility for their families. They will train and place women into jobs like childcare and eldercare and other facilities to let them gain livelihood.
https://daughtersoftomorrow.org/about-us/what-we-do/
Ocean Conservancy
The mission of Ocean Conservancy is working with you to protect the ocean from today’s greatest global challenges. Together, they create science-based solutions for a healthy ocean and the wildlife and communities that depend on it. #OceanOptimism
Some of the initiatives are Trash Free Sea, Protect Florida, Government Relations, Confronting Climate Change, Protecting Artic.
https://oceanconservancy.org/programs/
Blessings in a Bag
Their mission is having a safe and trusted community space where children from Singapore’s most vulnerable areas can be themselves, learn new skills and grow into confident, compassionate and kind young people.
They had 2 campaigns in 2020 involving Blackbook Travel with the dollar-for-coin campaign and Amazon.SG with the Amazon X Retail for Good Wishlist.
http://www.blessingsinabag.co/
Makan For Hope
Makanforhope is designed to bring together intellectually curious, like-minded folks to learn from the host and to provide the opportunity for our guests to network or help someone out through their own experience or tapping into their network. #weareinittogether
Makanforhope is an in-person initiative that continues from Mentorforhope, a mentoring and charity fundraising campaign supported by many venture capital firms in ASEAN and tech industry leaders, as well as Temasek Foundation (through oscar@sg grant) last year. Our host is typically a serial entrepreneur, investor or expert. At each "makan" session, the host will be joined by seven other guests, tech founders and individuals passionate about the tech space for coffee.