Our Founding Director, Huijia, turned a year older last month and shares a reflection article on what she is grateful for, despite all that is happening around the world.

I turned a year older this past weekend.

This birthday was an exceptionally quiet one, because we wanted to respect our government’s call to stay home as much as possible. I spent a part of the weekend baking cookies together with my toddler, and shared some with neighbours to spread some cheer around. Through that, I learned that one should never underestimate the joy that a bunch of freshly baked cookies hand-delivered by a cheerful little toddler can bring to others.

Hope, taking her job seriously in quality control

As we face unprecedented challenges in maintaining what makes us feel most human - being able to gather to celebrate significant milestones, meet face to face as a team or even having dinner with the extended family, I decided to spend my birthday weekend writing to community partners and friends around the world. Checking in on them, sharing my own thoughts about our situation in Singapore, and ending with what I hope to be a message of solidarity and encouragement during these exceptional times. We are all in this together. Beyond #SGUnited, we are #WorldUnited.

For families with young children in countries with lockdowns, or Stay-Home notices, my husband Wilson and I secretly sent them DIY soap-making kits (in dinosaur shapes to boot). If we have to wash our hands more frequently nowadays - why not have fun doing it? And we hope that with these kits, the children will be somewhat occupied (for a while at least! And give stressed-out parents a much-needed reprieve, however short it might be), but also be able to bless other kids in their community with some fun, handmade dinosaur-shaped soap and spread the hand-washing habits around. Just thinking of their little faces when they receive these surprise packages gives me great joy.

And finally, I spent the rest of the birthday weekend in quiet reflection (ok, I lie, I spent some of it watching Netflix and Youtube too, because #I'mJustHuman) and being grateful for my wonderful team who have been reaching out to various partners in the past few weeks to render support. Be it helping to pack and distribute sanitizers, befriending and supporting the homeless as part of the Safe Sound Sleeping (S3P) initiative, or recruiting volunteers to pack essential supplies for our migrant brother friends, I feel very proud to be part of a team that makes me want to be a better person.

Raine (far right), with one of our amazing community partners Abhishek who runs Sixth Sense, a local ground-up movement that responds to the community needs at Kebun Baru, one of our rental flat neighbourhoods in Singapore. They were making hand san… — Raine (far right), with one of our amazing community partners Abhishek who runs Sixth Sense, a local ground-up movement that responds to the community needs at Kebun Baru, one of our rental flat neighbourhoods in Singapore. They were making hand sanitizers with the community’s kids for distribution.

We hope all of you and your loved ones are well and keeping safe. During this #StayAtHome period, should you want to surprise someone feeling a little down with a sweet treat, why not support our local F & B social enterprises? Here’s a listing that local volunteer initiative Be Kind SG compiled:

Source: Facebook Post by Be Kind SG

Cafes offering food and/or coffee

1. APSN Café for All (11 Jalan Ubi)

2. Ashraf’s Cafe (168 Changi Road)

3. Bettr Barista (Retail Coffee at various stores)

4. Crossings Cafe (55 Waterloo Street)

5. Foreword Coffee

(Temasek Shophouse, CHI - Centre for Healthcare Innovation,

Civil Service College Singapore - Buona Vista)

6. Lina's Cafe (7 Jalan Pisang)

7. Metta Cafe (32 Simei Street 1)

8. My Nonna's (SUTD & NGHS)