Speech by Mdm Rahayu Mahzam at CaringSG Family Day on 7 September 2024

Ladies and Gentlemen, Caregivers and Families, Partners and Friends of CaringSG,

Good afternoon. It is a true honour to be here with all of you today to celebrate CaringSG Family Day

To date, CaringSG has grown to a big family of more than 5,000. We have made an amazing impact in the last 4 years through more than 20,000 touch points with caregivers and persons with disabilities through our 3i programmes.

As one of CaringSG’s board advisors and also a fellow caregiver, it warms my heart greatly today to see all of you caregivers, volunteers, community partners, stakeholders gather together here as one big “family” at Enabling Village.

This event was made possible by SG Enable’s Public Education Funding as one of the i’mable initiatives, which celebrates the abilities of persons with disabilities and encourages everyone to take positive action for disability inclusion and commit to building a more inclusive society and enabling lives. It is especially meaningful to hold this event at Enabling Village, Singapore’s first inclusive community space.

The theme for the CaringSG family day is “Uplift the Caregivers, Uplift the Community”.

To realise the goals of Enabling Masterplan 2030, we are launching the Uplift campaign today to raise funds to help every caregiver in Singapore to be well and empowered.

To celebrate this campaign, CaringSG produced a unique “Uplift” coffee book to raise funds for caregiver programmes. The Uplift coffee book is a unique collaboration between CaringSG caregivers, our celebrated and differently abled calligraphist Jun Le, as well as our talented local artist, Ms Chia Choy Ping, and Dr Kenny Tan, who represents the professionals in our community.

This is truly a CaringSG “Family” production. Please do visit the Uplift booth outside the hall to donate and support this uplifting fundraising campaign.

To make the day even more fruitful, this Family Day will showcase the creativity, resilience, and positive energy in the CaringSG family.

The talks and workshops focus on helping caregivers to improve our mental health, make future plans and build our financial resilience.

The amazing CAREcottage bazaar outside this hall is another great way to support caregivers through cause-based spending. The CAREcottage is a CaringSG initiative to support caregivers who set up home-based businesses to engage their children with disabilities at home; this allows them to spend time meaningfully at home while awaiting placements in adult services.

Caregivers and persons with disabilities can also sign up for workshops by Enabling Academy to gain financial literacy knowledge

They can also book their medical, dental and vaccination appointments at the Mount Alvernia Outreach Clinic, or get a free eye check at the Eyeviser clinic.

On top of the talks, workshops and bazaar, you can also join the tours around Enabling Village.

However, the most exciting news I would like to share today is about the CAREkaki programme.

In 2024-2025, with support from SG Enable, and in collaboration with the Enabling Services Hubs by SG Enable and partners that aim to bring disability support closer to home, CaringSG will be setting up 10 CAREkaki chapters in 10 constituencies in Singapore.

The CAREkaki chapters are community volunteer groups which will champion inclusion for persons with disabilities and support caregivers in their respective constituencies, with training and support provided by CaringSG.

The 2 new constituencies to set up CAREkaki chapters in collaboration with the ESH@Jurong are the West Coast division of West Coast GRC (CAREkaki@West Coast) and Jurong Central of Jurong GRC (CAREkaki@Jurong Central).

Other pilot constituencies which implemented the CAREkaki programme in 2022 to 2023 will also set up their CAREkaki chapters to provide continual support for the caregivers, community volunteers and grassroots leaders namely, CAREkaki@Boon Lay, CAREkaki@Bukit Batok East, CAREkaki@Kampong Glam, CAREkaki@Nanyang, CAREkaki@Pioneer and CAREkaki@Telok Blangah.

With all of us putting our hearts and efforts together, the CAREkaki programme will be able to reach out to and support the caregivers and persons with disabilities in their neighbourhood.

In closing, I want to thank:

The CaringSG team here. You have lovingly put together so many amazing programmes for all of us here. Please give the CaringSG Family Day organising team a round of applause for making this Family Day a truly memorable one.

To you, all the caregivers and all our beloved children and families, big-hearted volunteers and community partners here, let’s all continue to stand together, support each other, and build a community where every caregiver is well and empowered!

Thank you and enjoy the CaringSG Family Day!