Raising three children single-handedly has been no easy task for 53-year-old Operations Executive Segar Muttu Karuppan, but a helping hand from the NTUC U Care Fund has really helped lighten the burden.
“Being a single parent is difficult as I have to support my three school-going children with only one income. I had to rely on all the help that I could get to purchase new books and uniforms for my children. When they went on to tertiary schools, I had to get laptops and more for them, and these expenses added to my financial load” he said.
A member of the Education Services Union (ESU) for almost 30 years now, Mr Segar says that he has never regretted becoming a union member.
For the past five years, his daughter aged 23 and two sons aged 21 and 18 had received Back-to-School vouchers and Scholarship awards which helped lessen his burden greatly.
He also received NTUC U Stretch vouchers to help with his family’s expenses on daily necessities.
Today, his daughter has started work, his older son is about to graduate from polytechnic, and his younger son has graduated from the Institute of Technical Education and will be serving his National Service soon. With their good results, both of Mr Segar’s sons had received Scholarship awards totalling $450 from the union in 2011.
About Care & Share
2011:
Over $9.3 million was disbursed to over 90,000 low income union members and their families through various assistance programmes.
Caring for low-income members
U Stretch Vouchers: $2.4 million worth of vouchers were disbursed to help low-income members stretch their expenditure on daily basic necessities.
Champion for children and youth
U Care Back to School Vouchers: Over $3.78 million worth of vouchers went to 30,000 school-going children to help them purchase new school supplies.
U Care Education Co-Funding Scheme: More than $800,000 in co-funding was extended to affiliated unions/association which supported 8,300 students with bursary and scholarship awards.
NTUC First Campus Bright Horizons Fund: $500,000 was donated to help 400 children from low- income families attend pre-school as well as participate in literacy programmes.
Caring for the elderly
NTUC Eldercare Trust: $1 million was donated to support and promote the emotional and physical welfare of the elderly through NTUC Eldercare’s community-based facilities and services.
Caring.Sharing.Reaching Out (CSR) Initiative
U Care 50 CSR Co-Funding Scheme: Over $36,000 in co-funding support was given to 31 community service projects undertaken by affiliated unions and Labour Movement entities. In 2011, a total of 53 projects were organised to reach out to charitable organisations, demonstrating that the Labour Movement goes beyond just helping workers and members, but also to the less privileged in society.
