The hard truth about raising a family in SG...

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YES, WE WANT KIDS, BUT ...
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SINGAPORE - Young Singaporean couples want to have children - but they are apprehensive about taking the first step towards parenthood or delaying it for practical reasons.

Most want to focus on careers and being together, while some want more family support. The cost of having babies is also an issue.

These were the key findings of a survey of 50 young Singaporeans at focus group discussions conducted by voluntary welfare organisation, I Love Children (ILC) last year.

ILC president Joni Ong was not surprised.

"The results show that, as expected, establishing their career, waiting for their finances to be built up, even trying to find more time for couplehood - those were some of the reasons that came up."

So, why have the survey? "The whole idea is it is going to serve as an impetus for us to have a quantitative study, some time towards the end of this year, where we're going to survey 1,000 young people on how we can help them," Mrs Ong explained.

Even before that, the VWO is coming up with its Maybe Baby campaign in April, where it wants those between 21 and 39 to start talking about parenthood.

"We want them to come forth and share with us their issues, whether it be work-life balance, whether it be career establishing, and things like that.

"We want to have a forum to discuss such things so there'll be seminars, there'll be life talk shows, there'll be expert advice panelists," said Mrs Ong.

The campaign follows the Prime Minister's recent call to couples to have more babies.

Singapore's resident total fertility rate slid to 1.23 last year - the lowest level ever. This means the country was short of at least 10,000 babies.

To help couples get over their parenting fears, an ILC bus highlighting the joys of parenthood will make its way around Singapore to the heartland shopping malls as well as the community centres from next month onwards.

The revamped three-year-old ILC bus made its debut with 70 young couples and Minister of State for Community Development, Youth and Sports over at the Chingay Parade on Saturday.

A one-stop Web portal will also be launched in May to share parenting tips and the kinds of financial assistance available.

From TODAY, Monday, 22-Feb-2010
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CDCs see 40% increase in households seeking help

By Hoe Yeen Nie, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 29 June 2009 2001 hrs

Teo Ser Luck (file pic)

SINGAPORE: Singapore's Community Development Councils (CDCs) have seen a 40 per cent increase in the number of people seeking help as a result of the current economic downturn.

As Singapore's five mayors begin a new term, their focus will be on helping the needy.

In these tough times, mayors said "business" has gone up.

In the first quarter of this year, the number of families seeking help went up by 40 percent, while those looking for work doubled.

Between January and March 2009, the five CDCs received 5,540 applications for social assistance, compared to 3,934 a year ago.

The number of people seeking help in finding jobs went up from 5,844 in the first quarter of 2008 to 11,790 in the first quarter of this year.

Community Development Councils (CDCs) were first created in 1997 to bring back a sense of community spirit among residents. Since then they've taken on additional functions, including the delivery of a wide range of social services, such as financial assistance schemes and help in finding a job.

Speaking at the swearing-in ceremony for the five mayors on Monday, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, said: “The CDCs play a crucial role because they're close to the ground and therefore more attuned to ground needs and the constraints and circumstances in your areas.

“You can deliver assistance to where it's most needed, where it's most deserved, and you can help Singaporeans get back on their feet and be more self-reliant."

New mayor Teo Ser Luck, who takes over from Zainul Abidin Rasheed, said his first task is to examine how resources are managed.

Mr Teo is also the Senior Parliamentary Secretary for the Community Development, Youth and Sports, and Transport ministries.

He said: "We have plenty of programmes and I'm not sure if every single one is effective. And the other thing is I'm not sure if it's well-served for the residents. We need to look through all the programmes and see which ones meet the targets and which don't so that funds are better allocated."

Mr Zainul steps down as mayor after 10 years.

But the rest of the mayoral line-up remains unchanged - Dr Amy Khor at South West district; Dr Teo Ho Pin at North West district; Mr Zainudin Nordin at Central district and Mr Matthias Yao at South East district.

The mayors also plan to better coordinate efforts between grassroots organisations so that help can be better delivered. - CNA/vm

From ChannelNewsAsia.com; see the source article here.

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