 about 9,300 Singaporean households consisting of more than 700 people which are residing in the Housing){kind=link}
On Saturday (29 Jan) about 9,300 Singaporean households consisting of more than 700 people which are residing in the Housing Development Board (HDB) rental flats received gift bags handed out by volunteers from various organisations.
This is part of a program which are ran by districts for Chinese New Year.
The North West and South West Community Development Centres (CDC) partnered with volunteers from organisations like Sage Counselling Centre and Select Group to hand these bags out.
These bags consists of food and essential items.
North West CDC
The even ran by the North West CDC was held at Store@Woodlands at Block 852 Woodlands Street 83.
Residents from the North West CDC in Woodlands got to choose from 12 different food items to fill in their bags.
They had a choice from a big group of items of over 50 categories which included stuff like household products, cereals and milk powder.
A resident who was interviewed by the Straits Times mentioned that such events helped him get items that he really needed like Vitamin Cs and it is good that they were allowed to choose what they actually needed.
Sembawang GRC Member of Parliament (MP), Mariam Jaffar who was present at the event also said that it was important to let people choose what they want so as to reduce wastage.
She adds that at times people feel that the beneficiaries should just take what is given to them but that is not the case as giving people the freedom to choose what they want makes them feel better.
A total of 7,300 bags were given out at the event in North West CDC.
South West CDC
Minister for National Development, Desmond Lee, who was at a mirror event in Boon Lay spoke on the rental flats social services situation.
He said that in future, there will be coordinated social support for rental housing in Singapore.
In the South West CDC, about 2,000 bags consisting of rice and surgical masks were given out and they were packed by Sage Counselling Centre, volunteers from various organisations, the CDC and Nanyang Technological University.
Image source: North /West CDC/Facebook, South West CDC/Facebook