Apr 25, 2011 - Straits Times
By Yasmine Yahya
THE long-term solution to helping lower-income groups could lie
in encouraging residents and students from wealthier neighbourhoods
to volunteer in less-privileged areas.
Brigadier-General (NS) Tan Chuan- Jin, a new PAP candidate in
Marine Parade GRC, said this is one of the ideas he has for the
Kampung Ubi-Kembangan ward, where he is a prospective MP.
Speaking at the end of a walkabout at Chai Chee market, he noted
that residents in the Kampung Ubi-Kembangan ward are from a range
of income groups.
Many in Kembangan, for instance, live in landed private estates,
while a significant number of one- to three-room rental flats are
in nearby Chai Chee.
'Let's see what we can do... whether the community can
contribute time, just an afternoon a week, to spend time with kids,
looking after them. I think it's helpful to take them out of their
environment,' he said.
'You can provide some sort of tuition or activity which they
otherwise would not have got from their families. Those are key
things. Building a nation really starts from the grassroots -
family by family, floor by floor, block by block.'
