Reflections on Lengkok Bahru
When Kevin shared some of the everyday issues that the Lengkok Bahru community experienced, the first thing that struck me was how easy it was to feel stifled — from the limited amount of personal space at home to the loss of their cherished public spaces; from the constant need to spend money carefully, to the inadvertent yet inescapable reminders that one had to depend on other people for support :’( I had always imagined that education was one of the most effective ways for children and their families to escape the poverty cycle. As such, I often asked the children that I met about school and nagged at them to study hard without considering how they actually felt about school. So, when Kevin mentioned that school could be a demoralising and unenjoyable experience for them, it really changed my perspective, and I understood why these students may not see school the same way I did. I don’t think I would enjoy school either if I was always made to feel lousy about myself, if I always had to play catch up with my peers and if I never felt like I could make it to where I wanted to be — whether it was polytechnic or junior college.
Despite these challenges, my experience at the home visit was one filled with generosity. We met Mdm H, a loving and jovial granny who seemed to be holding down the fort by taking care of her son’s family, in addition to herself. She was proud to share her stories about cooking and baking, and she seemed highly resilient as she spoke matter-of-factly of her son in prison and her daughter-in-law who had left for another man, leaving two school-going children in Mdm H’s care. That said, I was also aware that all these thoughts and feelings may have just be my own projections. In reality, the community may be experiencing something completely different.
Kevin also mentioned that some people in Lengkok Bahru had difficulties using their SingPass because they used pre-paid cards and changed mobile numbers often as a result .This scenario got me thinking about what constitutes a basic right in society today. If we agree that social inclusion is a basic human need, and as society moves towards digital initiatives, then digital solutions for people with lower incomes cannot remain good-to-haves. They have to become must-haves.
On a brighter note, Beyond’s unwavering belief in building resilience in the community was very humbling and inspiring: working out solutions with the community definitely takes more patience, effort, and trial and error than it would if they were to solve the community’s problems for them, but it would also lead to sustainable, long-term solutions. Ideally, we could apply this ‘give the problem back to them’ model to a primarily elderly community (as is the current demographic at Cassia Crescent), but it’ll be very challenging — perhaps in theses cases, a lot more resilience has to be built within the community, so that people within the community can help and support each other.
