Looking Back on a Year of 100 Wishes

2019 was a fruitful year with the expansion and growth of YWLC’s Community Engagement (CE) flagship programme 100 Wishes, led by the CE subcommittee. 100 Wishes is a year-long series of skills-based workshops organised for women and children beneficiaries at crisis centres. This year, our programme was run in partnership with Star Shelter, a facility under the Singapore Council of Women’s Organisations (SCWO).

In 2019, 100 Wishes encompassed five workshops of various themes, including our first-ever volunteer-run Picnic in the Park in the beautiful Botanic Gardens in November. Over the various sessions, over 30 YWLC members had a chance to volunteer and over 20 Shelter beneficiaries participated. The programme kicked off in March with an impactful discussion about building effective parent-child relationships in a digital age. Beneficiaries subsequently tried their hand at baking and decorating cupcakes to celebrate Mothers’ Day in May, and learned about mindfulness through yoga and meditation in July. In the lead-up to the festive season, they let their creative juices flow making leaf-art prints and storytelling at our Picnic in the Park, and during a cosy art-journaling session in December.

We are grateful for the support of our YWLC volunteers, many of whom are regular friendly faces to the mums and children. We also would like to take this opportunity to thank our Elaine and Abigail from Star Shelter for their tireless support in booking venues and publicising the sessions to ensure we have a good turnout. Last but definitely not least, we extend our heartfelt appreciation to the following workshop speakers and trainers, who contributed their time and resources pro-bono to make a difference to the beneficiaries:

1. Ms Carol Loi, Village Consultancy Pte Ltd. (Mar - Parenting Conversations)

2. Ms Florence Chia, Patissier Queen Creations (May – Mothers’ Day Baking)

3. Ms Arti Daryanani, Purely Potent (Jul – Yoga, Dec – Art Journaling)

4. Ms Michelle Khoo, The More We Get Together (Nov – Picnic in the Park)

Of course, the programme would not have been a success without the leadership and dedication of our CE sub-committee members Minerva (also Deputy Director of CE); Nithya, who continues to lead next year’s programme; Angie and Min Hui. We are expanding our partners and hope to impact even more beneficiaries in 2020. So stay tuned and we look forward to your continued support to give back to the community as one YWLC family!