In Singapore, 99 percent of the total pool of early childhood educators are women. In conjunction with the upcoming International Women’s Day, U Family and the Education Services Union (ESU) decided to show appreciation to early childhood (EC) educators in all unionised pre-schools with some 15,700 care packs.
President Halimah Yacob kick-started the distribution process on 5 March 2020 by giving out 200 care packs to the staff of PAP Community Foundation Sparkletots and NTUC First Campus’ My First Skool in Punggol. NTUC President Mary Liew, NTUC Secretary-General Ng Chee Meng and leaders of U Family and ESU joined her for the event.
Commenting on this initiative, NTUC Vice-President and Chairperson of NTUC Women’s Committee, K Thanaletchimi said: “Early childhood educators play an important role in caring and educating our children. Amid the Covid-19 outbreak, many of them have gone the extra mile to keep the children safe, allowing parents to go to work with peace of mind, knowing that their children are in good hands. The care packs are our way of appreciating these ‘sheroes’ who are doing their part to fight against the virus.”
Each care pack contained a healthy beverage and snacks.
English teacher Fauziah Bte Izuddin from My First Skool, appreciated the gesture: “The visit motivates us to do better. Although it is our job, a little goes a long way. It helps us to feel more motivated in caring for the children.”
“We want them to be healthy. So, as teachers, we increased the precautionary measures that we take in school. For instance, now instead of two times a day of temperature taking, we increased it to four times,” added Ms Fauziah.
Another 1,800 care packs were distributed to 50 other pre-schools on the same day by U Family and ESU, while the remaining care packs will be distributed to all unionised pre-schools over the next few weeks.
ESU General Secretary Arshad Isamil said: “Since the outbreak, the union has been actively working with management and NTUC to identify ways to better support our workers. Hence, we are happy to roll out this initiative together with U Family to care for the early childhood educators.”
