Highlights in 2020

Homegrown Pineapple Harvest

During the circuit breaker period in April, the staff were pleasantly surprised and delighted to harvest the first pineapple fruit from our very own garden. The fruit was sweet and juicy! Part of the credit goes to our volunteer, Mrs Jenny Ng, who helped us to plant the seeds. After months of tending to the plant with care, it was really encouraging to see that our effort had finally paid off as we get to enjoy the sweet fruit of our labour!

Staff & WINners Bonding – Bowling on 15/10/2020 at Safra Yishun

We organize a bowling session for the staff & WINners on 15 Oct 2020 at Safra Yishun.   Although most of us are simply amateurs at the game, we all had fun ‘pitting our skills against one another and cheering each other on. The purpose of the activity was obviously not for competition but it is a healthy way to enhance interaction and bonding among staff and the WINners.

Outing to Lower Seletar Reservior Park on 19/10/2020

It is said that a just a few minutes of being in nature makes one feels healed and restored.  And we certainly believe so!

The WINners, together with one of the staff, took a long walk to and fro our centre at Upper Thomson Road to spend an evening at Lower Seletar Reservoir Park.  Although the journey was long, it allowed the girls to appreciate nature along the way.   They enjoyed a picnic at the park and took many beautiful shots against the colourful hues of the setting sun.  The girls also had fun playing with the water features at the park.

Life Skills Training with Volunteers

Object lessons are a fun part of learning.

The win-win approach in CONFLICT RESOLUTION as an opportunity to come to a mutually beneficial result.

Korea Kimchi and Swedish Meatballs Cooking Lesson

There is no need for us to travel abroad nowadays in order to enjoy different types of cuisine around the world. And what’s more satisfying than to be able to create such cuisine like Korea kimchi and Swedish meatballs in our very own kitchen! Good food certainly need not come expensive!

Moreover, cooking together has always been a great and fun activity for us to build teamwork. The WINners were assigned different roles from cutting & chopping of vegetables to kneading the minced meat and finally getting the food ready to be served. As not everyone is a ‘master’ at cooking, they will end up having to rely on each other’s strengths to get through the activity.  No words of complaints were heard.  Instead, laughter and giggles filled the dining hall, adding excitement to a otherwise ordinary Saturday afternoon.

Interest-Based Skills

We were blessed to have volunteers to avail themselves and share their skills to teach the WINners handicrafts like decoupage and pebble art.  The WINners learn to make home decor pieces and one-of-a-kind gifts.

SG Cares Giving Week Fund

GEM New Start Centre Limited is privileged to be one of the beneficiaries of the SG Cares Fund which was launched by President Halimah Yacob on 1 Dec 2020.  The fund aims to help small charities like us who are struggling amid the pandemic to raise funds to sustain our programs and operations.  We were allotted an amount of $3,277.34 from the total funds that were raised.