Our History
Our Beginning
Friends of Children was established in 2003 as a pilot project under RSP Elders. Before 2003, NTU’s Welfare Services Club had various portfolios taking care of the different beneficiaries such as the Hearing Impaired and Visually Handicapped. However, the portfolios did not cover the children who are also vital to our societal developments.
Under the pilot project, we started with our 1st programme, the Bright Owl Project (BOP), at the Whispering Hearts Family Service Centre which is situated in Pioneer. This project provided the primary school children with academic difficulties from low income families free tuition services.
We gradually expanded and by 2006, we’ve had 2 new programmes, Club Fidentia (CF), for the secondary school children and Tree House Club (THC), a reading programme for the P1 and P2 children.
Our Development
Friends of Children achieved the Regular Services Project (RSP) status in 2006.
As a RSP, we continued to expand to include more programmes which focuses not only on the academic aspects, but also the character building and personality development of the children. Programmes such as Trampoline Club (TC) at the Students Care Service (Yishun Centre) and Tweens Club SengKang at Ang Mo Kio Family Service Centre (Sengkang) focused on weekly character building and lifeskills sessions to help the children from various backgrounds, such as mild autism, ADHD and dyslexic. The programmes we had stabilized in 2008 with a total of 5 centres and 7 programmes.
In addition to the weekly sessions at the different centres, the 6th management committees of Friends of Children felt that there was a need to unite the volunteers and allow them more chance to interact with each other. In 2008, combined activities such as Puzzlethon and Summer Camps were planned by the management committees. These events brought the children and volunteers from the different centres together for a day of fun and interaction.
By 2011, Friends of Children expanded to 7 centres and 10 programmes spread around Singapore with programmes running on almost all days of the week, from Tuesdays to Saturdays.
Our Family
In 2011, RSP Friends of Children has a total of over 300 active volunteers who are constantly engaged with our children through the weekly mentoring and character building programmes. We reach out annually to over 200 children from pre-schoolers who are entering the world of books and education to teenagers who are moving on to their next stage in life, to tertiary institutions or to the working society.
RSP Friends of Children has come a long way to who we are today. We’ll continue to reach out to the children, to help mold their young minds, realize their fullest potentials and to be the reason for them to smile.
Friends of Children was established in 2003 as a pilot project under RSP Elders. Before 2003, NTU’s Welfare Services Club had various portfolios taking care of the different beneficiaries such as the Hearing Impaired and Visually Handicapped. However, the portfolios did not cover the children who are also vital to our societal developments.
Under the pilot project, we started with our 1st programme, the Bright Owl Project (BOP), at the Whispering Hearts Family Service Centre which is situated in Pioneer. This project provided the primary school children with academic difficulties from low income families free tuition services.
We gradually expanded and by 2006, we’ve had 2 new programmes, Club Fidentia (CF), for the secondary school children and Tree House Club (THC), a reading programme for the P1 and P2 children.
Our Development
Friends of Children achieved the Regular Services Project (RSP) status in 2006.
As a RSP, we continued to expand to include more programmes which focuses not only on the academic aspects, but also the character building and personality development of the children. Programmes such as Trampoline Club (TC) at the Students Care Service (Yishun Centre) and Tweens Club SengKang at Ang Mo Kio Family Service Centre (Sengkang) focused on weekly character building and lifeskills sessions to help the children from various backgrounds, such as mild autism, ADHD and dyslexic. The programmes we had stabilized in 2008 with a total of 5 centres and 7 programmes.
In addition to the weekly sessions at the different centres, the 6th management committees of Friends of Children felt that there was a need to unite the volunteers and allow them more chance to interact with each other. In 2008, combined activities such as Puzzlethon and Summer Camps were planned by the management committees. These events brought the children and volunteers from the different centres together for a day of fun and interaction.
By 2011, Friends of Children expanded to 7 centres and 10 programmes spread around Singapore with programmes running on almost all days of the week, from Tuesdays to Saturdays.
Our Family
In 2011, RSP Friends of Children has a total of over 300 active volunteers who are constantly engaged with our children through the weekly mentoring and character building programmes. We reach out annually to over 200 children from pre-schoolers who are entering the world of books and education to teenagers who are moving on to their next stage in life, to tertiary institutions or to the working society.
RSP Friends of Children has come a long way to who we are today. We’ll continue to reach out to the children, to help mold their young minds, realize their fullest potentials and to be the reason for them to smile.