SHARE-ING WITH THOSE IN NEED

The school has not one, but two pools, complete with a water feature. It has 341 students, with a student-teacher ratio of almost three to one. This is the Asian Women's Welfare (AWWA) School for children with special needs.

AWWA is one of 21 special schools in Singapore, and one of the 69 charities supported by Community Chest (ComChest), the National Council of Social Service's (NCSS's) fund-raising arm.

On 24 Mar, more than 20 personnel from the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) spent an afternoon at the AWWA School, to have a better understanding of what ComChest does for its beneficiaries.

An early supporter of ComChest, the SAF has raised $1.5 million through the SHARE programme since 1984. A key fund-raising effort of ComChest, the SHARE programme provides a regular source of funds through company-endorsed donations of employees by monthly payroll deductions.

Said regular contributor, Second Warrant Officer (2WO) Senthilkumar s/o Krishnasamy from the Air Power Generation Command: "I didn't know very much about SHARE or where my money was going to, but after today, I will give more because I think it is a meaningful programme."

Walking through the corridors decorated with the students' brightly coloured artwork, the visitors caught glimpses of children learning simple tasks like walking independently and talking comprehensibly.

The school is equipped with facilities ranging from swimming pools for hydrotherapy to treadmills for developing motor skills.

The visit left a deep impression on the SAF personnel. From a father's perspective, 2WO Senthilkumar was moved by the experience. "It's overwhelming... my children, they can do a lot of things, compared with these children, things we take for granted.

It was also the first visit to a beneficiary of the SHARE programme, for Lieutenant-Colonel (LTC) Loh Hock Leong, whose unit in the Joint Communications and Information Systems Department received the Platinum SHARE Award for two consecutive years, for achieving a more than 95 per cent participation rate.

LTC Loh had already started thinking about how he would encourage more colleagues to contribute to the SHARE programme. He said: "I would like to invite the ComChest staff to my unit, if possible, to create awareness among all personnel about the programme."

Last year, ComChest gave out 215 of 376 awards to SAF units and Ministry of Defence departments. Besides the SHARE programme, the SAF also raises funds through signature charity events such as the Army Half Marathon for the President's Challenge, of which ComChest is a beneficiary.