Ms Atirah is a mentor to Poomesha under a programme called Grace, or GRoom-A-Child-to-Excel, which pairs girls aged five to 12 from low-income families with women who can be positive role models.

Ms Atirah calls or meets her young charge about once a week to chat or to play games such as Scrabble. She also plans to help her in maths, science and English and plans to take her to places of interest like the Night Safari.

Grace was started by the People's Association Women's Integration Network (WIN) Council, an umbrella body for the grassroots Women's Executive Committees here.

Launched on Sunday, a week ahead of International Women's Day, Grace has 52 women mentors aged in their 20s to their 50s from fields as diverse as advertising, engineering and teaching.

They will play mentor for at least two years to 20 girls from families with monthly incomes of $1,800 or less.

Ms Atirah said of her charge: 'I don't want her to think she can't do things because she comes from a needy family.'

Indeed, the mentorship programme wants to ensure that the girls are not disadvantaged by their family backgrounds, said Dr Amy Khor, the adviser to the WIN Council.

Under Grace, the girls get tutoring, are enrolled in enrichment activities and, if needed, are given up to $500 a year.

Read the full story in Monday's edition of The Straits Times.