$71,000 in Bursaries to Benefit 39 Students Living with HIV/AIDS in Singapore through World Vision Singapore’s One Life Fund
Singapore – On August 14, 39 children and youth in Singapore who are affected or infected by HIV will be receiving bursaries for school. Ranging from kindergarten to ITE, these children come from low-income families where either or both the parents have HIV/AIDS. In partnership with Patient Care Centre, a hospital-based community project setup by Tan Tock Seng Hospital’s Communicable Disease Centre, World Vision Singapore launched the One Life Fund on World AIDS Day last year, to support these children through school. World Vision believes that education is the passport out of poverty and strives for every child to have “life in all its fullness.” The One Life Fund will cater to students from all grade levels ranging from primary school to undergraduate level education.
$71,000 in bursary awards from World Vision’s One Life Fund has been set aside to support the 39 successful applicants through the level of education they are currently in. Case in point, a secondary one student whose application was approved, will not just receive an annual award for this year, but will continue to receive it each school year until he or she finishes secondary school.
Madam Chua, 42 is a housewife married a local driver who is HIV positive. Her husband earns around $1,200 in net income each month, barely enough to support a family with two children in secondary school. Every month food for the family, PUB bills, her husband’s medication and her children’s pocket money adds up to $1100. This does not include other financial obligations. They are in heavy debt, with a HDB mortgage of $830 per month and children’s school fees that have not been paid in full since their children were in early primary school.
With no financial assistance of any sort, their children’s school fees are left unpaid and new school bags and shoes are but a wish. Many times, their children have requested for tuition for math and science, subjects they are weak in. Madam Chua can only say, “We have no money to send you,” and hope her children will understand.
Now that her children are recipients of World Vision’s One Life Fund, Madam Chua confidently says, “The first thing I will do with the bursary is to pay off our debt with MOE... My children can also start going for tuition for math and science. For the new school term, I want to buy them two sets of new uniforms each, a new school bag and school shoes. I will also buy them mock exam papers. Stationary is expensive now a days, but we can afford to buy them a few more ball pens in case the old ones run out (of ink).”
Ho Lai Peng, principal medical social worker at Tan Tock Seng Hospital’s Communicable Disease Centre tells us, “Off hand, I personally know of 80-100 children who are potential beneficiaries of this bursary. This bursary fund is critical in ensuring the centre’s patients’ children continue being in school. At the same time, the patients will not have to worry over choosing their (Anti-Retroviral) treatment versus their children’s schooling. The One Life Fund will enable children to have a better quality of life with the money going to educational purposes such as sending them for tuition (especially when the parents are not literate), and the parents may have some money left for the family to go to the zoo etc.”
World Vision Singapore aims to raise $100,000 each year to benefit children and youth in Singapore living with HIV/AIDS. For more information on World Vision’s One Life Fund, click here.
Please do not hesitate to contact Ms Deborah Zhang, External Relations
Manager at deborah@worldvision.org.sg or Tel: 6551 7147 if you require any additional information.
Private interview with beneficiaries can be arranged by contacting Mr Farren Fernandez, Tan Tock Seng Hospital’s Corporate Communications Manager at 6357 8415.
MEDIA CONTACTS:
World Vision is a Christian relief, development and advocacy organisation dedicated to working with
children, families and their communities worldwide to reach their full potential by tackling the causes of
poverty and injustice. We serve close to 100 million people in nearly 100 countries around the world.
World Vision serves all people, regardless of religion, race, ethnicity, or gender. For more information, please visit www.worldvision.org.sg
Appendix A: Fact Sheet – World Vision Singapore’s One Life Fund
1. The Need
As of September 2008, 3,482 Singaporeans were reported to be HIV-positive. Among these, are parents who struggle to pay for their medication and meet the most basic financial needs of the family. This includes paying their children’s school fees. These parents recognize the value of education and worry constantly that their children would have to stop going to school or are forced to discontinue their studies due to the financial toil resulting from the disease. Without an education, the parents fear that their children’s future is doomed to be one of struggle, despair and lack.
2. Creation of One Life Fund
On World AIDS Day 1 December 2008, World Vision Singapore launched One Life Fund to support these children living with HIV/AIDS in Singapore. World Vision’s One Life Fund is an educational bursary scheme that benefits children and youth in Singapore who are living with HIV/AIDS or those whose parents are afflicted with the disease.
World Vision partners with the Patient Care Centre, a hospital based community project set up by the Communicable Disease Centre of Tan Tock Seng Hospital, to support Singaporeans suffering from HIV/AIDS. The Patient Care Centre will administer the bursary scheme supported by the One Life Fund.
3. Who One Life Fund Benefits
Children and youth who are HIV-positive or have one or both parents who have been infected with the disease. Applicants eligible for the bursary must also fulfill the following criteria:
i) Aged between two to 25 years;
ii) Singaporean Citizens or Permanent Residents;
iii) Household income must not exceed S$3,000 net; and
iv) Applicant must be enrolled in a full-time registered/accredited educational program.
4. What One Life Fund Supports
The One Life Fund is an educational bursary scheme for children and youth living or has one or both parents infected with HIV/AIDS. The bursary will support a child’s school fees, textbooks and uniforms, as well as allowance for personal expenses such as transportation and meals. Each award will span the duration of education at each level of studies (e.g. a successful Primary 1 student will continue receiving financial support under the bursary for six years up to Primary 6), subject to annual performance reviews and positive recommendation by the medical social worker.
5. Goal of One Life Fund
To raise S$100,000 each year, disbursing bursaries to 28 or more recipients from all levels of education. The chart below indicates the anticipated number and distribution of bursaries per annum.
ANTICIPATED NUMBER AND DISTRIBUTION OF BURSARIES
