SINGAPORE - The Straits Times School Pocket Money Fund (STSPMF) received a $100,000 donation from home-grown company Q'son Kitchen Equipment on Tuesday (July 19).

Q'son chief executive Sally Chua, who founded the company in 1996, said she wants to help children receive education because it "is the only way for them to break out of the poverty cycle".

"My family did not have a lot of money to let me continue my education," she said, adding that she and her three siblings grew up poor in a kampung in Tampines. She graduated from Anglican High School in 1984 but could not further her studies because, as the eldest child, she had to work to help support her family.

Every year, STSPMF provides pocket money to about 10,000 children and youth from families whose per capita gross monthly household income is less than $690.

Ms Chua, 54, said many of Q'son's 200 employees, some of whom come from difficult backgrounds, want to give back to society too.

She said: "For many years, many of them actually contributed a portion of their salary to the (company's charity) missions."