S’pore charity taps tailored programmes to prevent inter-generational offending

SINGAPORE - Ms Juliana Jumadi has been her family’s sole breadwinner since her former husband’s incarceration around 2009.

The 40-year-old single mother, who works in events management and as a part-time barista, takes care of her three daughters, aged seven to 17, in their one-room flat.

They are among the estimated 600 children and 300 families who are supported each year by NeuGen, a charity that helps former offenders and their families.

NeuGen Fund, formerly known as Iscos ReGen Fund, is the charity arm of the Industrial and Services Co-operative Society (Iscos), which helps inmates and former offenders and their families.

Since 2016, the organisation has helped Ms Juliana through various tailored programmes such as providing her with diapers and milk for her then newborn child, and tuition and reading programmes for her two older children.

The NeuGen support system impacted close to 1,000 beneficiaries including children and their family members in 2023, said President Tharman Shanmugaratnam in his speech at the NeuGen Charity Gala held at The Ritz-Carlton, Millenia Singapore on May 30.

The system, which the organisation calls Neu Empowerment Model, supports beneficiaries with various academic and social initiatives such as mentoring and counselling.

NeuGen plans to empower 1,000 children each year in the near future, said Mr Tharman.

“We have to appreciate how difficult it is to be a child growing up with a parent in prison,” he said.

These children have to grapple with feelings of abandonment and might have to be a caregiver to younger siblings, he said.

“All the more that we (should) do our part as a village to support them in any way we can, and help them to uplift themselves,” he added.

The charity gala raised more than $790,000 to support NeuGen’s programmes and initiatives. The event was attended by around 450 sponsors, donors and partners, as well as board members and staff of NeuGen.

NeuGen programmes and events, ranging from family day events to after-school activities, are organised with a goal of preventing inter-generational offending, said Mr Joshua Tay, chairman of NeuGen Fund Management Board, in his speech.

Sharing the real story of a drug-addict father with a drug-addict daughter, and potentially drug-addicted grandchildren, Mr Tay said he hoped stories of inter-generational offending would be “nothing more than just horror fiction” in the not-so-distant future.

Through NeuGen, Ms Juliana said she has received great emotional support as part of the mothers’ support group, or what she described as the “mothers’ clan”, where she has formed strong friendships and they share problems and ideas to solve them.

“It’s just so fun to be around positive people,” she said, adding that they meet about once a month.

She never imagined she would get emotional support from others in circumstances similar to hers.

“I feel like I have someone I can turn to,” she said.

Her children are also active members of NeuGen and have made meaningful connections.

“Each time they meet their NeuGen friends, I can see how their faces always light up, and their spirits too.” 

Ms Juliana is learning crafting so that one day, she can set up her own home-based business.

“From (having) nothing and struggling to be who I am now, I am happier and more cheerful,” she said. “And, most importantly, I am more grateful.”