#ActionForHer returns with free exhibition advocating caregiver support

09/09/2022

Bring the family down to the Sands Expo & Convention Centre this Saturday (Sep 10) afternoon for #ActionForHer: Growing Our Circles of Care. Twenty-three local Volunteer Welfare Organisations are equipping and inspiring caregivers and parents with informative stories during this free exhibition.

This is also a good opportunity to volunteer with an organisation that supports caregivers, who are usually women.

“The work of caring for our loved ones at home and in the community often falls on the shoulders of women,” writes the Party’s Women’s Wing on its website.

“But many hands make light work—and it’s on all of us to help lighten her load.”

This initiative is organised in response to the PAP 4G Leaders’ efforts towards strengthening our social compact, through the Forward Singapore exercise. 

Key to this exhibition, then, is that it is not just women who are/ should be caregivers. Rather, caregiving is an all-of-family matter.

“It’s true—our women then, and even today, are often the ones shouldering the caregiving loads in their homes and communities.” Minister for Communications and Information Josephine Teo, who is also the Chairperson of the Women’s Wing, reminisced on Facebook Sep 5 about growing up under her granny’s generosity of care.

“It’s time we shifted mindsets and embrace how every individual can help lighten the heavy caregiving load, and play an equal part in bringing care to those around them,” Minister Teo added.

As such, the stories and information shared at ActionForHer: Growing Our Circles of Care are spotlighting the need to widen Singapore’s caregiving circles. They seek to grow Singapore’s care ecosystem as well.

A progressive Women’s Wing

Minister Teo’s call to shift mindsets about caregiving keeps with how the Women’s Wing constantly empowers women to contribute to Singapore’s development economically, socially and politically.

The Women’s Wing was formed in 1989, with the PAP Women’s League, established in 1956, as its precursor. Mdm Chan Choy Siong helmed the League; Delta constituency residents elected her as their Parliamentary representative in 1959, and in 1961, the Women’s Charter was enacted through her efforts.

That the League was formed during an early chapter of the Singapore Story, even before independent from the British, underscores the PAP Government’s fundamental commitment to gender equality.    

“The only differences between men and women workers are the physical and biological ones. Women are equal to men in intellectual capacity,” said Founding Prime Minster Lee Kuan Yew in September 1975, at the NTUC’s International Women’s Year seminar.

“Societies which do not educate and use half their potential because they are women are those which will be the worse off,” he added.

In recent years, the Women’s Wing has advocated towards enhancing support for young families and for more high-level gender diversity in workplaces. It has taken action against online harm.  

The Women’s Wing is also a key contributor to the landmark White Paper on Singapore Women’s Development this year. The Paper, which was commissioned to improve the lives of local women, consists of 25 action plans in five areas: equal opportunities in the workplace, recognition and support for caregivers, protection against violence and harm, other support measures for women and mindset shifts.

It was unanimously endorsed in Parliament, reflecting the Party’s longstanding advocacy for empowering women while social mores change.     

#ActionForHer continues

Saturday’s ActionForHer: Growing Our Circles of Care exhibition, with its recognition and support for caregivers and stories for shifting mindsets, works in the spirit of the Government’s White Paper.

It also continues our initial Sep 2021 to Mar 2022 #ActionForHer campaign. At that time, over 130,000 pledges poured in from people answering the question “What action will you take for her?”. This galvanised support and sparked conversations about how Singaporean women can thrive, as well as about the issues they face.

Saturday’s exhibition is adding to this positive change — shifting mindsets so that actions don’t come from top-down policies but from new internal mindsets. Come down, and play a part in growing Singapore’s circle of care.

#ActionForHer: Growing Our Circles of Care

Saturday, Sep 10, 2022

1pm – 6pm

Sands Expo & Convention Centre, Heliconia Junior Ballroom, Level 3

10 Bayfront Avenue, Singapore 018956 

Admission is free

 Cover photo credit: Homeage