There are many problems with using international or US based
crowdfunding platforms (eg. Singapore money transfers not
supported). The Singapore Government should ideally implement a
secure Singapore based crowdfunding platform (run by the
Government) that Singaporeans can use for cases such as these, to
help fellow Singaporeans. Anyone knows how we can help Mr John
Low?
Mr John Low suffers chronic pain from arthritis and rotator cuff
disorder - a tear in a tendon in his shoulder.
But that's the least of his worries, said the father of
three.
His wife, Irene, 47, had a heart operation in 2009 and has
end-stage renal failure.
His eldest child, Cassandra, 21, who is waiting to go to
polytechnic, has anaemia.
Second daughter Celia, 19, is partially deaf and needs a hearing
aid. She also has mild intellectual disability and knows just a
handful of words like "Papa", "Mama" and "Didi" (Mandarin for
younger brother).
His son, Bernard, 12, has cerebral palsy and epilepsy, and needs
round-the-clock care.
The couple are jobless and rely on the $1,240 a month in financial
assistance from the North East Community Development Council
Medical social workers help them with the medical expenses, but Mr
Low conceded that it is not enough.
"If we don't have enough to eat, let the children eat first because
they are still young. My wife needs fresh food because of her
kidneys. I can eat less. It doesn't matter," he said quietly.
Full report at :
http://yourhealth.asiaone.com/content/super-dad-ignores-own-ailments-care-247-sick-wife-and-children
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http://therealsingapore.com/content/man-resorts-crowd-funding-pay-daughters-69000-moe-debt
MAN RESORTS TO CROWD FUNDING TO PAY OFF DAUGHTERS $69,000 MOE
DEBT
Dear Friends,
Our whole family was delighted
that our second daughter got through the teaching interview. She
was an exemplary student in school and her strongest characteristic
is that, she does not give up in all her pursuits.
She got all the relevant teachers
and even her PE teacher to write her testimonials in order to
support her application to join the teacher’s trainee programme for
‘O’ Level students.
Prior to this, my daughter had
already gained entry to one of the diploma courses in the
Polytechnic through their Direct Admission exercise, where they
base the qualification on the student’s preliminary
examination.
She qualified for health and
fitness, event management and nursing courses. If we had a crystal
ball, we would not have opted for the teaching course.
I had always thought of my
daughter’s strong determination to overcome all odds to succeed in
life would enable her to be successful in any course that she took.
This is after seeing her excel in the National Team in Silat (Malay
Martial Arts) and doing well in training others to master the
skill.
She even cleared her studies in
the Polytechnic even though she had never studied chemistry and
additional mathematics during her secondary school
years.
Our main intention for her to
take up the profession was because of the values she can pass on to
her students, if she were to become a teacher
eventually.
She proved herself well when she
was doing the course at NIE scoring over 3 points for her GPA. The
practicum was supposed to be just a formality before she became a
teacher.
Life is known to throw you a
curved ball and we were shocked when my daughter did not get
through her first practicum despite almost getting a pass for the
second observation.
She had to pay $700 to do the
second practicum without getting any allowance for it.
This is very stressful for
everyone because it is at the tail-end of the course and the amount
to be paid back to MOE is certainly much more compared to if she
were to drop out of the course earlier.
At the second practicum, she had
to take it in a different school. It was as though she started from
ground zero because the school’s culture was different from the
previous school.
She did not go to a higher
ranking school so actually she was in a worse position coupled with
the mentors having no interest to coach anyone.
One mentor was furthering her
studies during the night and the other mentor had lost all passion
for teaching. The other mentor has since left the teaching
profession.
My daughter wanted to do her best
at this second practicum but it seemed that nothing was going her
way.
The following is her personal
account of what she went through at the second
practicum.
1. I spent sleepless nights to
prepare the lesson plan and taken every feedback to improve it and
work on it.
2. I spent a lot of time
improving my lesson plans, I did my very best to execute everything
I have planned during lesson. Due to the amount of time I spent
improvising the lesson plan, it hinder my progress to prepare for
my other topics.
3. I have spared time to
participate in preparing for teacher’s day celebration. I
choreographed a presentation by the students for the occasion which
have taken much of my own time.
4. I am involved and present in
every Judo session and wrote a reflection about what I had
observed
5. I paid $700+ to redo my
practicum and when I explained to Ms June (CT 2). She said that
money doesn’t go to them. I was taken back by this reaction and
felt lost.
6. Ms Yati (CT 1), she was taking
part-time degree studies, she made me felt that I was a burden to
her hence, I dared not approach her for help. She too had sleepless
nights, her son was falling sick most of that time. I felt stress
about it. She did try to share with me about her problems and how
she was able to overcome it.
7. She could only spend a certain
amount of time with me as she has to complete her own
assignments.
8. Ms June (CT 2) was planning to
resign and she did.
9. I came very early to school at
6am to prepare equipments for students so that I was able to save
time and able to carry out my lesson smoothly.
10. I tried to approach to Ms
June (CT 2) for advice and motivation to persevere; she said that
if I failed this practicum, I have a diploma to get a stable career
and pay the liquidated damages and the numbers will eventually go
down.
11. I have a friend in the same
school, she’s a classmate of mine. She too was teaching the same
subject as me. The CTs goes to her and tell her what were my flaws
and finding out from her what was wrong with me. My friend would
come to me and tell me what they had spoken about me. Why must they
do that instead of discussing this with me directly?
12. My friend and I, we
quarrelled about it because I was unhappy that the CTs went through
her instead of facing me. The CTs tried to find out more from her
about me whether I am always this emotional. I felt that this
situation was as if they were talking behind my back.
13. This caused me to build a
barrier between myself and the CTs. I was clear that I have to work
together with them. Due to this incident, I dared not to speak or
seek help from anyone.
14. When my NIE supervisor wanted
me to do a reflection, I did and email to her. I never got any
reply from her on how I could overcome it.
15. A week before the moderation,
I came to my senses and told the subject head; Ms Mai that I want
to put all this behind and forgive my friend, I want to keep moving
forward and do my best in the moderation.
16. I went back home and take
every feedback and make amends. The feedback that kept appearing
was that there was no link in my PowerPoint slides and in my
delivery. I should add more visual so to cater the different
learning needs of the students.
17. I felt the moderation was my
only hope that I could prove to them I have not given up. I had
searched for hours, videos and clear explanations for the terms
which were one of the areas of improvement that I felt I did quite
well but still it was not significant enough
18. I have done well in NIE as I
passed all the modules.
19. I was late once because of
the traffic jam. The rest of the week I reported punctually to
work. (unquote)
The thing that we feared most has
now dawned upon us. My daughter is now slapped hard with a
SGD$69,000.00 debt.
What is worse than this is, the
diploma that she received from this course is too specialized for
teaching and have no commercial value. This means that she had
wasted 4 years of her life pursuing something that cannot be used
unless she is a teacher.
So friends, this is where we as a
family are now. We are burdened with a debt of SGD$69,000/-. We
cannot afford to pay and have exhausted all avenues for appeal,
including to the Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. MOE says our
daughter has to pay and there is no other alternative.
We appeal to your good sense to
help us in our bad financial times, so that, as a family, we can
move on and have closure to this horrendous episode in our lives.
No amount is too small for us. We thank everyone for reading and
understanding our plight and donating to us.
May God bless you all!
Your humble family of
5!
Transitioning.org Editor’s
note: Zulkifli is a regular volunteer at our charity events and his
wife joins him regularly. The crowdfunding site is
listed here.
*Article first appeared
on Transitioning.org,
a Support site for the unemployed.