Social services veteran Anita Fam gets MSF’s first Lifetime Achievement Award

SINGAPORE – About three decades ago, former lawyer Anita Fam saw a physiotherapist help a girl walk for the first time.

This was at Singapore’s first school for children with multiple disabilities, where she witnessed the school’s first – and only – physiotherapist at work.

Later, she accepted a request from AWWA’s late founder Leaena Tambyah to join its board as legal adviser. 

“Just to see that look of sheer joy on the girl’s face, that she could do this, is something I will never forget,” said the 62-year-old Ms Fam, who is currently the president of the National Council of Social Service.

The move set her on a journey of social service, which has lasted well over 20 years and has seen her holding key roles on the National Healthcare Group board and at the Singapore Hospice Council and St Andrew’s Autism Centre, among others.

She has contributed to improving mental health and palliative care in Singapore, along with efforts geared towards those living with disability.

These contributions were recognised on July 25 when Ms Fam was given the Ministry of Social and Family Development’s (MSF) inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award at the Sands Expo and Convention Centre.

The award, now one of MSF’s Volunteer and Partner Awards, honours exceptional individuals for their remarkable contributions to the community for 20 years or more.

MSF’s awards recognise the impact of volunteers, social service agencies (SSAs) and corporate partners.

Apart from the Lifetime Achievement Award, three other awards were introduced this year: the Outstanding Agency Award for exemplary SSAs, the Outstanding Partner Award for impactful partner organisations, and the Lifetime Service Award for volunteers who have served with MSF for 25 years.

A total of 140 volunteers and partners were recognised on July 25. Their contributions range from foster parenting to supporting programmes for lower-income families and youth at risk.

Social service agencies Samaritans of Singapore, Fei Yue Community Services and Rainbow Centre received the Outstanding Agency Award, while corporates DBS Bank and SP Group got the Outstanding Partner Award.

Minister for Social and Family Development Masagos Zulkifli said at the ceremony that the refreshed awards better recognise the impact that volunteers, SSAs and corporate partners have made.

He noted that there has been a shift from ad-hoc volunteering to sustained and skill-based volunteerism, along with a shift towards sustainable philanthropy for corporates.

He said MSF will roll out a foundational training programme for new volunteers in 2025. The programme was co-created with the Singapore University of Social Sciences, and comes in response to volunteers’ feedback about having more learning and development opportunities.

Ms Fam told The Straits Times one of her main goals is to help charities build their capabilities by enabling them to invest in talent and retain it.

This is done through various initiatives such as the sector salary guidelines and the Community Capability Trust that aims to resource the sector with $480 million over 10 years to strengthen SSAs’ organisational capabilities.

Fund raising is a challenge for charities.

Ms Fam recalled that during the Covid-19 pandemic, she was worried about SSAs, as their services were disrupted. The first support measures the Government introduced were to prop up businesses, and she lost sleep over SSAs, which rely on public donations, being left to raise funds by themselves.

“How would they continue – the isolated seniors, the persons with disabilities, who are so reliant on therapy and other interventions? We really didn’t know how long everything would last,” said Ms Fam, who was the chairwoman at Assisi Hospice at the time.

In 2020, she started a fund for these charities by forking out $1 million of her own. She then called NCSS Community Chest chairman Phillip Tan, who helped top up the fund to $5 million. And later, the Government and community also chipped in, and the fund snowballed to more than $28 million.

The Invictus Fund was able to support 90 SSAs through the pandemic.

Ms Fam said she has seen the sector evolve from being poorly funded and volunteer-run, with SSAs formerly known as “voluntary welfare organisations”, to becoming better-resourced and more cognisant of the need for corporate services.

She recalled how the special education sector started out without trained principals or a proper curriculum, but became professionalised over the years.

Ms Fam acknowledged that every time the salary benchmarks are raised, it increases the pressure on SSAs to raise funds.

“But at the same time, the ones who are stronger in what they do are the ones who have probably invested way more selectively into the quality of manpower that they have, and it’s reflective of the services,” she said.

Ms Fam hopes to change the minds of donors and SSAs, from wanting to ensure money goes straight to beneficiaries, to investing in the agencies to do far more with the money invested in them.

She also hopes SSAs can work together with one another, as well as with social enterprises and for-profit companies, to serve vulnerable groups.

Ms Fam noted that better collaboration among SSAs would ensure clients do not have to give the same information to several different agencies serving them.

Of her decades-long journey, she said: “I’ve never engineered any of the commitments and responsibilities that I have taken on. I’ve always responded to a need or request.

“If I can make a difference in some small way, then I will do so.”