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Growing up with less: A documentary
done by students from the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information
hopes to give viewers a glimpse of the children's lives in some of Singapore's
poorest estates (Photo: Xu Yuan Duan)
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“There's a
world outside your window and it's a world of dreaded fear. Where the only
water flowing, Is a bitter sting of tears”
Taken from
the song “Do they know it’s Christmas”, it was a song that was written to
showcase and a call to the world to aid poverty stricken countries in the 1980s
to the early 2000s. Having had lived in a comfortable environment growing up,
it is hard to ever imagine that poverty would ever occur or rise
in Singapore. Hence this explains my disbelief when I came across this article
“Singapore poverty in the spotlight” written by Tom Benner for
Aljazeera.
It is hard
to imagine that Singapore could have poverty. However based on the data from Singstats –a national
statistical system –some 105,000 households in Singapore and some 114,000 individual
residents earn less than $805 a month –despite the fact that the country’s
average per capital income is $52,305.
Though
Singapore has no official measure of poverty, an average household spends
$1,250 a month for a four person household on basic needs – food, clothing and
shelter (this is based on a 2 year old survey held by the Department of
Statistics). How is this affordable for a family who earns less than $805 a
month?
However it
is not only monetary matters that deem poverty in Singapore.
A documentary done
by a student lead organization called Growing up with less, explores the hidden side of the country where the government-built
apartment complexes are littered with trash and used sanitary napkins. The
documentary also focuses on the plight of children from low-income families
where parents struggle to make ends meet, leaving their children unsupervised
often hungry for food and affection and also vulnerable to bad influence. This was done as a final year project by
students of Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, Nanyang
Technological University.
Hence, as the season of giving is approaching,
just stop for a minute and think. There are families here who are not as
fortunate as us to celebrate a joyous occasion like Christmas. A parent may not
be able to afford to buy a present for their kid or bring the kids out for a
simple Christmas dinner.
So take
some action, give back to society. You could donate clothes that you cannot
wear or toys that you have outgrown of to The Salvation Army . You could also donate some money as you shop
for your presents this Christmas as The Salvation Army would be ringing their
bells at different shopping districts.
Also, do
visit One Singapore as they are an organization based in Singapore
that helps and envisions a world where no one lives in poverty –be it overseas
or here at home and if you are interested to volunteer you can visit www.nvpc.org.sg for more information.
So bring a
smile to another’s face –donate and share things with the less fortunate and
spread the joy of giving. Let them know that its Christmas time.
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