She dropped out of the Institute of Technical Education (ITE), and less than two years ago was struggling to make ends meet when excruciating pain forced her into hospital – her kidneys had failed.

While recovering, Ms Wong Rui Jun realised she needed to study to better her life. In May, the 29-year-old will do just that, starting a diploma in commerce (business administration), thanks to how she encouraged other dialysis patients despite her predicament.

Recognising that spirit, the National Kidney Foundation (NKF) nominated her for a scholarship offered by Kaplan Singapore.

Ms Wong’s problems began in Primary 1 when she started getting frequent urinary tract infections (UTI). After two years, doctors discovered she had a neurogenic bladder, preventing her from urinating normally.

In Primary 5, an MRI found the cause behind her malfunctioning bladder – spina bifida, a birth defect where a foetus’ spine fails to grow properly. She underwent an eight-hour operation to correct it but, by then, her kidneys were badly scarred.

A year later, an ultrasound scan revealed her kidneys were only around 25 per cent functional.

“They described it like, ‘Although you are 12 years old… you have a pair of 60- to 70-year-old kidneys’,” said Ms Wong.

Doctors predicted she would need dialysis by 18, but life threw different challenges her way.

When she reached 18, she dropped out of the ITE partly due to poor health. About two years later, her parents divorced, and she and her two younger siblings moved in with her mother.

In 2009, her father’s firm went bust. From being in a “very well to do” family, she had to take on several jobs to make ends meet, including as a club manager and getai singer.

Though her kidneys were still holding out, she was far from healthy. But her family’s situation meant seeking medical treatment “was the last thing on my mind”.

She recalled that if she had a fever or UTI, she would go to her family doctor to get antibiotics.

In March 2015, her kidneys failed, stabbing her body with pain and requiring her to be hospitalised.

She received financial support from NKF and a new job as a part-time saleswoman. It was during this period that she realised she needed to upgrade herself through education.

Last October, NKF awarded Ms Wong its Smile and Encouragement Award, given to patients who encourage others to stay positive.

In the same period, Kaplan launched its Bright Future Scholarship for ITE graduates and O- and N-level students in adversity who wish to pursue further education. Kaplan contacted organisations such as NKF to recommend individuals, and NKF picked Ms Wong.

Last month, she won the scholarship worth about $6,000.

She is still in shock about how quickly everything progressed, and frequently said she is “very lucky”.

Her health is still not perfect, but she feels much better, and said she does not have much to complain about. “I’ve always believed your mindset has to be very positive for you to achieve what you want.”

Applications for the Bright Future Scholarship are open till Feb 8.

josehong@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on Jan 23, 2017.
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A fire broke out in a unit on the 10th floor of Block 4, Sago Lane early Monday morning.

Stomp contributor Yin Khay said that its balcony had caught fire.

She said: “Firefighters knocked on some units’ doors to evacuate people. “I also heard some people shouting, “Fire! Fire!.”

According to Yin Khay, the fire was put out in 30 minutes.

The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) confirmed it received a call at around 5am regarding a fire at Sago Lane.

SCDF deployed two fire engines, two red Rhinos, an ambulance and a support vehicle to the scene.

Upon arrival, firefighters extinguished the fire in the flat’s kitchen using a compressed air foam jet and a water jet.

They also rescued two occupants of the unit – a Chinese woman in her 80s and a Chinese man in his 50s.

Both suffered from smoke inhalation and were taken to Singapore General Hospital.

15 residents from the block’s upper floors self-evacuated.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

The newly built Jurong Christian Church at the junction of Tah Ching Road and Corporation Drive is not your typical church building.

Instead of just one church, the building situated in a public housing area houses six Protestant churches of different denominations.

In January last year, the Ministry of National Development (MND) said it would lease land for “multi- user places of worship” for the first time, to house multiple groups of the same religion in the same multi- storey building.

While there are existing buildings that house more than one church, these are usually leased from private landlords.

The Jurong church hub is one of a few designed and built from scratch to house multiple church groups.

The pilot project was spearheaded by the Lutheran Church in Singapore to help address land scarcity faced by small and medium-sized religious groups in Singapore.

Partially opened last month, the new church building has a gross floor area of 64,436 sq ft.

Its amenities include three sanctuaries, three multi-purpose halls and a rooftop chapel.

The Jurong Christian Church (Lutheran), or JCC (Lutheran), owns the plot of land under a 99-year lease.

It bought the land in 1967 and used to have a two-storey red brick building there.

The church is one of three long-term occupants of the new hub and contributed about $12.5 million to the $24.5 million effort.

The others are the Renewal Christian Church and New Life Baptist Church, which are contributing about $6 million each.

The three occupants have permanent sanctuaries, offices and activity space at their disposal.

The Lutheran Church’s Bishop Terry Kee said: “We have been blessed with the land, so we wanted to share our space.”

Its three short-term tenants paying monthly rents are Jurong Tamil Methodist Church, Bible Mission Church and Hearts Alive.

The hub will be officially opened by Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam on March 4.

The authorities allowed the Jurong church hub to raise its plot ratio from 1.6 to 1.79 “in view of their interest to see if the hub concept would work”, said Bishop Kee.

The ratio represents the density of building in an area of land.

The hub was also given an increased allowance for its height, and it is as high as a 10-storey Housing Board block of flats.

Building committee chairman Thomas Tan said the height was needed to ensure that the sanctuaries have enough head room to provide worshippers with the sense of a “service hall as well as inner peace”.

JCC (Lutheran) originally purchased the land from Jurong Town Corporation.

In 2007 or so, the church roof began to leak and the Building and Construction Authority advised the church to reinforce some of its columns and beams should it continue to use the building.

But this would cost $1 million and would not improve or expand the existing space for its 500 congregants.

Bishop Kee, who participated in the National Council of Churches of Singapore’s (NCCS) panel to give feedback to the MND on religious hubs, then thought of using the Jurong grounds as a test bed for the hub concept instead of just rebuilding for JCC (Lutheran) alone.

He said he empathises with small and medium-sized churches that struggle with steep rents and unconducive environments.

Churches and temples have the option to purchase sites set aside by the Government, but these are usually too big and too expensive for smaller groups.

Many churches rent ballrooms in hotels or are housed in cramped industrial estate spaces.

There are more than 100 small and medium- sized churches in industrial areas.

The NCCS represents more than 250 churches in Singapore, but not all of the churches in industrial estates are registered with it.

Reverend Lai Soon Loy, the pastor in charge of the 40-year-old and 200-member New Life Baptist Church, said the members have been “nomads” for all of the church’s history.

Its last official address was an industrial building in Jalan Pemimpin.

He said: “The new building is an actual formal church space and the worship atmosphere will be much better. It’s quite exciting to be part of this pilot project.”

To address concerns over “disamenities” such as noise from congregants and traffic pollution, the team will roll out several measures, including arranging for services to start at different times.

Bishop Kee said: “We hope to manage the disamenities well so that the authorities will support similar plans and churches will be encouraged to share their facilities in future.”

On doctrinal differences among the various denominations worshipping under one roof, Bishop Kee said: “As long as their belief is within the Christian faith, we will be able to find common ground to work together. Essentially, we are doing things in the spirit of unity to serve the community in love.”

Asked if there are concerns of “church hopping”, Bishop Kee said: “It could be a bit stressful for pastors but a bit of competition will keep us on our toes.”

melodyz@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on Jan 23, 2017.
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In the year since it opened, the Centre for Domestic Employees (CDE) has handled more than 500 cases, with salary disputes, request for transfers and physical abuse being the three most common issues.

While more than 80 per cent of all the cases have been resolved, the centre said it wants to push for mandatory electronic payments by employers, so maids have more ownership of their money.

CDE chairman Yeo Guat Kwang said yesterday that salary disputes arise because there is no standardised system for paying these workers.

He was speaking on the sidelines of an event at the Singapore Flyer to thank the centre’s volunteers and to share CDE’s report card for the past year.

Currently, some employers pay their maids in cash.

In some cases, the employer would “act as bankers” and collect loan repayments from maids on behalf of maid agencies, Mr Yeo noted.

But when employers fall into financial difficulties, they end up paying the maids and agencies late, or not at all.

The CDE, which is run by the National Trades Union Congress, will push for electronic payments to be applied to all domestic workers, he said.

There are about 237,000 foreign domestic workers in Singapore.

The centre, which has sheltered 110 workers since it opened on Jan 24 last year, will open a second shelter in a yet undisclosed location in June, which can house up to 100 maids.

It also has plans for programmes such as counselling, retraining and temporary job placements for those staying for longer periods.

Those involved in abuse cases may stay at the shelter for six months or so.

To help employers and employees understand each other better, and reduce cases of miscommunication, the centre yesterday launched a series of books which portray, through comics, the various cultural misunderstandings that may arise.

The books, which come in four different bilingual versions, including English-Bahasa Indonesia and English-Tagalog, are available at the CDE’s office and website.

The centre will also launch a survey next month of 2,000 employers and employees to understand how best to tackle the issues faced by both sides.

Welcoming CDE’s push for cashless payments, the president of the Association of Employment Agencies (Singapore), Ms K. Jayaprema, said this will enable the worker, employer and the authorities to track independent records that can prove whether payments were made correctly and on time.

This article was first published on Jan 23, 2017.
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Stomp contributor Ita was at OUE Downtown at Shenton Way on Monday morning (Jan 23) when she saw a biker braving the pouring rain to push traffic barricades to the side of the road.

Ita speculated that strong winds might have blown them out of their original positions.

The rain was relentless, but the motoryclist did not mind getting drenched to push the barricades out of the way to ease the traffic jam on the road.

Ita managed to capture his heartwarming act on video and wrote:

“Good Samaritan on the move despite the heavy rain to avoid the road jam.”

Visit STOMP for more stories.

It has been more than four years since our maid, Anna, returned to Indonesia.

Since then, there has been a role reversal of sorts. My two older children have had to do more household chores, while Anna has been studying hard in Medan to fulfil her dream of becoming a teacher.

To encourage Anna to work hard, we told her then that we would attend her university graduation ceremony.

Four years passed in a flash, and the invitation to her graduation came last month.

My husband and I, our three children, plus my mother and sister made a trip to Medan to congratulate Anna on graduating from St Thomas University with a degree in English education.

We spent four days there but did not attend the actual ceremony because tickets were limited.

Our 10-year-old son, who was six when Anna left, is the only child who remembers kakak (“elder sister” in Malay). Our seven-year-old daughter, who Anna looked after since she was an infant until she left two years later, remembers only what we told her about kakak.

Anna had not met our youngest, who was born last year.

The older two were hesitant when we first told them about our plans. “Are we really going?” asked the boy.

“I don’t even remember her,” added my daughter, whom Anna missed the most.

We explained to the children that we wanted to keep a promise, even though it was made four years ago, and even if they no longer remembered much about kakak.

We told them it was also a way of showing gratitude to someone who had helped us tremendously in the past.

For more than two years, Anna cooked, cleaned and helped to look after both of them so I could continue working full time as a journalist.

My mother-in-law would drop by regularly to supervise her.

Anna came to Singapore not knowing how to cook, but returned to Indonesia with an impressive repertoire of dishes.

She enjoyed looking through recipes with me, learning how to cook new ones I found online, and experimenting with various ingredients.

Anna, who broke five milk bottles soon after she came, was not the best at housework.

But I appreciated her willingness to learn and her honesty. She would come to me each time and apologise for breaking the bottles.

But what I cherished the most was her care for my children, without which I would have left my job after giving birth to my daughter.

There are different reasons women come to Singapore to work as maids. And during our trip to Medan, my children learnt that Anna came because she wanted to earn money to study in a university.

She did well for her senior high school but her parents could not afford the university fees.

Salaries in her home town were paltry and it would take her too long to earn enough. So she decided to work as a maid to earn her tuition.

With her savings from working for us for more than two years, she returned to Medan in 2012 and enrolled in university, paying tuition fees of about $850 a year.

After classes each day, she would sell belts in the market to earn money for her daily expenses.

Her savings ran out in her final year and she nearly had to defer her graduation, but she managed to pay her fees after pawning jewellery and borrowing money from her brother.

Over four days in Medan, the children heard the details about her story, her desire to study, her financial struggles and her eventual graduation.

While we were there, we visited her university and took pictures with her in her graduation gown.

We also did some sightseeing. Anna, who is Catholic, took us to Graha Maria Annai Velangkanni, a church that looks like a Hindu temple from the outside.

It was a fascinating sight.

Her graduation was a momentous occasion for her family.

It was the first, and likely the only one, among her siblings.

So it was befitting that we celebrated the occasion with a meal with her family.

Neither her parents nor her four siblings speak English.

But with Anna to translate, we learnt that her eldest brother was worried about her when she came to Singapore in 2010, having heard troubling stories about maids working here.

Her mother shared that Anna still has a photo of my daughter in her bedroom.

The rest of the trip was filled with some supermarket shopping, downtime in the hotel and some fun at the night market for the children.

All in, it was a fruitful trip. We caught up with Anna and she got reacquainted with the children.

I doubt the children will remember much of Medan from our short trip, but I do hope they will remember for a long time that there are people like their kakak, who long to have a shot at studying but have to find ways to overcome their financial difficulties before they can do so.

Sometimes, it takes an outsider to provide a different perspective.

Seeing education as a privilege rather than a chore, and being able to appreciate the opportunities they get, will go a long way to see them through the tough days in school.

This is especially so in the case of my son in Primary 5, whose weekdays are quickly filling up with homework, tests and co-curricular activities.

With a busy training schedule and extra classes, he stays back in school four days a week. But I hope he continues to enjoy all the activities because – as he has realised from our trip – not everyone has the opportunities he has.

Anna said our visit was the “best graduation gift” she received, but I think my children took home something more precious – knowledge that they should not take their education for granted.

stnewsdesk@sph.com.sg

Jane Ng, a former education journalist, is now a freelance writer.

This article was first published on Jan 23, 2017.
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SINGAPORE – A white sedan reversed into a childcare centre at Block 676 Hougang Avenue 8 on Sunday (Jan 22) afternoon.

It left the glass window and part of the concrete wall of the My First Skool childcare centre shattered and smashed.

The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) received an alert for assistance at 12.50pm, and dispatched an ambulance.

A Chinese man in his early 50s refused to be taken to hospital. He had no visible injuries on him. No other injuries were reported in the accident.

The police confirmed that no one was in the childcare centre when the accident happened, and that investigations are ongoing.

Facebook user Esther Korene Goh wrote: “Luckily it’s Sunday today. Else many toddlers will be in danger.”

A small crowd of onlookers could be seen standing around the scene, and a video by Facebook user Ling Guo showed some surveying the damage done to the centre’s interior.

In a media statement, the childcare centre said it had contacted all parents of the affected bay which caters to children from the kindergarten levels, within two hours of the accident.

“Children will be housed temporarily at a nearby My First Skool located in Rivervale Crescent, which is a new centre that is soon to be opened. Transportation arrangements will be provided,” the centre said in the statement.

It added that rectification works to the Hougang centre is expected to take three to four weeks to complete.

This is the second such incident in four days.

A taxi driver had accidentally reversed into a void deck on Thursday (Jan 19) morning, sending his vehicle up a parapet of a walkway between blocks 816 and 817 in Jurong West Street 81. No one was injured too.

This article was first published on Jan 22, 2017.
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For years, a section of Pasir Ris Farmway has been home to a small collective of animal shelters housing a staggering number of rescued animals – 1,000 dogs and 800 cats.

Split between seven animal welfare groups and several passionate individual rescuers, the space is also shared by commercial pet farms and private boarding houses.

When the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) announced last October that the shelters had to vacate by the end of this year to make way for industrial development, it sent tenants into a panic as the process of finding new shelters to move to in a year seemed like an impossible task.

Their initial worries were alleviated a month later when the Government said it would build new rental facilities for the animal shelters in Sungei Tengah by December this year.

The existing shelters vary in size and financial capability, and the dogs and cats in every one of them have their own stories.

Many are strays that were rescued, found with injuries or taken over from the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) after being rounded up.

Some were given up by breeders when they became too old to breed.

Another perennial problem is dogs which are abandoned by owners who do not want to care for them anymore.

This results in many animals being dumped near shelter entrances.

Mr Mohan Div is the co-founder of Animal Lovers League, the biggest and oldest shelter at Pasir Ris Farmway.

It has 300 dogs and 200 cats, and its motto is “Every animal deserves a second chance.”

He stressed that everything the shelter does for the animals is motivated by compassion.

“People are getting too detached from nature and its attributes because we want to be sterile and squeaky clean,” he said.

“We have less fervour and a lot of disdain for animals, but animals, like humans, have every right to live.”

Although the future of the animals has been settled, some shelter owners, while grateful, are worried about the built-up nature of the new space.

The facility, which will be managed by the AVA, is slated to be two storeys high.

For Mr Mohan, whose shelter has an outdoor area for animals to run around in, the new space will be a far cry from the existing premises.

“We are grateful for the space, and the good thing is that the animals won’t be stranded,” he said.

“But here, the animals can soak up the sun and watch the world go by… With the new arrangement, the freedom and space they enjoy now will be compromised.”

As he aptly put it, “it’s like moving from a bungalow to an HDB flat”.

mcheong@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on Jan 23, 2017.
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