SINGAPORE - At least 250 Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) students facing unexpected financial hardship due to the Covid-19 outbreak will get help from a new fund.
The university said in a statement on Friday (April 24) that the student relief fund will give out grants of up to $2,000 to each recipient to cover living costs and school expenses.
The grants could also go to students whose work attachments and allowances have been affected.
Fund-raising efforts, which started on March 30, are continuing. As of Thursday, $458,400 in gifts and pledges from 46 corporate and individual donors had been collected for the fund, which has a target of $500,000.
SIT president Tan Thiam Soon said the university is grateful to see donors responding so quickly to its appeal, and is looking forward to more stepping forward. The fund was set up to help students who had been hit the hardest by the Covid-19 outbreak.
Said Professor Tan: "Many of them are impacted by the family breadwinners' loss of income. Or the students themselves have lost part-time work or internship opportunities that would normally have helped them cope with their expenses. A number of our students are lacking Internet access or laptops at home for online learning during this time of stay-home measures."
The fund will work together with existing relief measures by the Government to provide some financial stability for students, and help ensure the crisis does not derail their education, he added.
One of the donors to the fund is Applied Materials South East Asia, a materials engineering solutions company. Its regional president, Mr Brian Tan, 45, said it hopes its contribution will bring relief to students, allowing them to focus on their academic goals.
"The Covid-19 pandemic is affecting our communities in unprecedented ways, and we would like to extend our support to SIT students facing challenges during this time," he said in a statement.
Another donor, fund manager Chew Ghim Bok, 62,said: "In my interactions with SIT students, I have found them to be not just academically proficient, but also dedicated to a common goal of serving the community at large. Many of them have undertaken their own personal journeys to contribute their passion and efforts to the community. I hope that the SIT relief fund can play a part in ensuring that students may continue to focus on pursuing their goals of helping others, in spite of the challenging financial circumstances presented by Covid-19."
Another donor, who prefers to remain anonymous, said that the pandemic may have made it harder for families to provide financial support for their children, and that part-time jobs that many students from less privileged backgrounds used to take up before this period have disappeared.
"At the same time, the forced distant learning has brought to light that many of these students lack basic tools, such as computers, necessary for distant learning. My contribution should help to allow deserving students to buy necessary tools for distant learning despite the prevailing challenging times," said the donor.
