(Multimodal arts expression workshops of Project Acting Up. Photo credit: MIJ Hub)
We are reaching the two-year mark after the first Covid-19 case in Singapore was reported in Jan 2020. Far from over, the pandemic continues to spread around the world with more transmissible variants and has posed many challenges to recovery.
Against this backdrop, our oscar@sg fund continues to support initiatives addressing needs from the ground and serve those who have been impacted by the pandemic in Singapore. Since its launch in April 2020, the oscar@sg fund has supported more than 260 projects including the launch of a special community fund in 2021 with five Community Development Councils (CDCs).
In 2021, the oscar@sg fund supported a wide array of beneficiaries addressing a broad spectrum of needs. Friends for Aviation distributed ez-link cards to show our appreciation to front-liner workers at Changi Airport. To keep our seniors engaged as they were urged to reduce socialising, the Glowers Drama Group produced a bespoke radio play “Chap Lau” for seniors featuring stories of kampong residents in the 1960s. The oscar@sg fund reached Pulau Ubin this year as Project Goodstock Visits our Ubin Friends 2021 delivered care packs and conducted health checks for elderly boatmen and residents living on the island. Stepping up our efforts to promote digital inclusion in Singapore, Digital Inclusion Programme (D.I.P) aims to bridge the digital divide by providing laptops to the financially needy students, ensuring stable internet access at home, and conducting digital literacy workshops. Focusing on the emotionally vulnerable youth, Project Acting Up works with therapists and counsellors and conducts weekly mental health workshops using a multimodal arts approach to provide guidance on emotion management.
Covid-19 also affected our friends with disabilities disproportionately. Singapore’s five Community Development Councils (CDCs) and Temasek Trust’s oscar@sg fund launched a new ‘Temasek Trust - CDC Lifelong Learning Enabling Fund’ to support 4,000 adults with disabilities on their learning journey as part of COVID-19 recovery through training subsidies and learning support services. Administered by SG Enable, the fund is now open to application till 31 December 2022. More details can also be found on SG Enable’s website.
We are grateful that oscar@sg has allowed for a deeper insight into the needs of the ground-up organisations in Singapore. Extensive interactions with oscar@sg grantees have enlightened us about the need for more comprehensive support for this community aside from project funding. In November, Temasek Shophouse hosted a webinar “From the Ground Up” in partnership with Ground up Central, NVPC, to facilitate collaboration, sharing and networking within the ecosystem. The event gathered ground-up stakeholders and change seekers virtually and covered causes such as environmental protection, mental health, disadvantaged children & youth, elderly and youth & resilience. Through coordinating our efforts with Ground up Central, we hope that ground-ups in Singapore could receive more holistic support to grow, flourish and create a wider impact on the society.
The oscar@sg fund remains open to applications as we are stepping into the third year battling the pandemic. We look forward to continuing to serve the community and more importantly, emerging stronger from the pandemic together.
(Note: oscar@sg fund is now renamed The OSCAR fund. The OSCAR fund by Temasek Foundation aims to help communities uplift the vulnerable and foster an environment of care through ground-up, self-help philanthropic initiatives by citizens and residents. This is an extension and expansion of the original oscar@sg fund previously administered by Temasek Trust).
