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READING FOR CHILD
AND YOUTH CARE WORKERS
From Singapura Hello from Singapura, the lion city of Southeast Asia,
setting for the 16th Asia-Pacific Social Work Education
Conference at the start of August and my last stop before heading home
after four weeks in Malaysia! Some may recall in last year's Postcard from Singapore
that a major social policy concern here is the declining birth rate, the
scarcity of children and the value of child and youth care. With that in
mind, I signed up for the agency visits option on the Friday afternoon
of the conference. This involved a most interesting afternoon spent with
a Japanese Professor and his professional colleague working in Korea and
some National University of Singapore students from the social work
programme being hosted by the staff and children at Chen Su Lan
Methodist Children's Home,
http://www.vivamusic.com/csl.
Entrance to Chen Su Lan Children's Home The value and valuing of Singapore children was clearly
evident as our group of Social Work educators were hosted and shown
around Chen Su Lan Children's Home. The Home was established in 1968 at
Changi by a man, born of a Christian family in Foochow, China who went
on to graduate from King Edward College of Medicine and dedicated his
life to caring for poor and needy children. The Children's Home was
relocated to its present facilities at Serangoon Gardens in 1984 on land
leased by the Government of Singapore. The Chen Su Lan Children's Home provides care and
shelter to children aged 4 to 12 who come from single-parent, low-income
families, or whose parents are in custodial institutions. They also
provide child care services for children aged 3-6 for working parents
and disadvantaged families, and also provide after-school care for
children aged 7-12 years. The theme of Old MacDonald's Farm was one of
several themes built into the complex offering urban children
opportunities to be around chickens and farm birds. The children attend
schools in the vicinity and learn to care for and share with one
another. As with all Singapore schools, children attend either early or
late session of school. Early school means starting class as 7:30 am and
getting out at 12:30 pm while late school means starting at 1 pm and
finishing at 6 pm.
Friday Afternoon Study Groups with Staff and Volunteers Most child and youth care workers in the West may find
this a different sort of arrangement for time-tabling the school day.
It's more common in the West, for example, to have a set school day and
enough school classrooms to meet the needs of the children in the
population. Throughout Southeast Asia where there has been, and
continuous to be a dramatic commitment towards increasing literacy rates
across sizeable populations. With scarce resources to build schools, the
answer was an arrangement making better use of school buildings and
facilities for a wider number of pupils during the course of any day.
Extra tuition is offered on Saturday mornings! If anyone were interested in a 6 to 12-month volunteer
experience working in Singapore at the Chen Su Lan Children's Home, let
me know and I would make genuine referrals or donations to the Director,
See Choon Wai, and Social Worker, Ler Sze Yuan.
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