2 women who help needy children with education get top honours from Her World

SINGAPORE - A woman who helps children from low-income families get better access to pre-school education and another who set up free literacy programmes for children have received top awards from Her World magazine.

Pre-school founder Ng Gim Choo was named Her World's Woman of the Year for setting up a charity so that vulnerable children can attend pre-school and enrichment programmes.

Ms Amanda Chong, a lawyer and writer, was Young Woman Achiever of the Year for co-founding a literacy charity which helps underprivileged children and migrant worker mothers improve their language abilities, as well as for her writing and advocacy work.

The awards were given out by President Halimah Yacob at a dinner at Raffles Hotel on Monday.

Mrs Ng, 70, heads charity initiatives under the EtonHouse Community Fund, a non-profit organisation she founded in 2015 to make education accessible.

She said children who do not attend pre-school typically do not do well in spelling tests when they get to Primary 1.

Both women said there are many possible reasons why children do not go to pre-school or get much attention from their parents.

For instance, the parents may have to support several children and hold multiple jobs, or a parent could be incarcerated.

Mrs Ng started a programme to build children's interest in literacy and numeracy through stories such as Goldilocks. This boosts their confidence when they enter primary school, she said.

The youngest of her three children was 10 when she started EtonHouse, a chain with 40 pre-schools in Singapore, in 1995.

She had just returned to work after being a housewife for 12 years. She had given up her career in accountancy to care for her children when her husband moved the family to London for work.

She said that when her children - who are now in their 30s and 40s - were young, the first thing she did when she got home from work every day was to read bedtime stories to them.

She added: "We wear different hats - that of a professional, wife, daughter, daughter-in-law and many more - and face many challenges.

"We have resilience and grit, and the emotional intelligence to hold our families together and build our careers at the same time.

"I accept this award on behalf of all women who work hard every day and never give up on their dreams."

Ms Chong, 33, co-founded volunteer-run organisation ReadAble with two other lawyers in 2014.

 They tapped their artistic network of friends to teach disadvantaged children literacy through drama, movement and play.

She and a group of volunteers hold weekly reading and language classes for children aged two to 15 years old living in Chinatown.

Her poems are taught in schools as part of the O-level literature syllabus.

Accepting her award, Ms Chong said she recalled how her mother gave up a career in banking to raise four children.

"I think of my mother when I think of achievement, because what I have learnt from her life is that achievement is not the high places you reach, but how much of yourself you are willing to lay down for the benefit of others, even when no one is watching."

Ms Chong, who is single, added that she struggled with unkind comments from some detractors as she grew in her career.

"There's an idea of achievement that has pitted women against each other, and made us feel inadequate about our life choices - whether we're married or single, have children or not, decided to stay home, or to focus on our careers.

"It is my hope that there will be room for every woman and girl to thrive in Singapore, and that the weight of inequality, stereotypes, or gender violence will not hold us back.

"I carry with me (the award) as great encouragement to continue working alongside others towards a more just and gentle world."