<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR>More seeking financial aid
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->The community development councils (CDCs) received close to 15,000 applications for financial assistance between January and March this year, up from 9,000 last year during the same period and 7,500 in 2007.
Another 4,800 applications were received islandwide last month, Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS) figures show.
Of the applications processed so far, about seven in 10 have been approved. Housewife Noorjahar Abdullah, 42, is among those who began receiving CDC aid. A bladder operation, coupled with having to care for a special-needs child, left the single mother of five children aged between nine and 18 unable to work full-time.
She earned about $600 a month selling home-baked cookies and working as a part-time cashier before the Care Corner Family Service Centre referred her to the Central Singapore CDC in January. She now gets $200 a month in cash from the CDC, and vouchers to pay for her utilities and town council bills.
She hopes to get back to work when her health improves. 'With the CDC helping, I can concentrate more on looking after my son,' she says, referring to youngest son Mohammed Lateef, who has an attention deficit disorder.
The Central Singapore CDC alone processed nearly 4,700 applications between January and last month.
In addition to dispensing money from national schemes, each CDC has initiated local schemes to help cushion the needy from the recession. South West CDC, for instance, has helped more than 500 laid-off workers with food vouchers and transport subsidies, via iCOPE, a scheme launched in December.
A programme launched by South East CDC two weeks ago helps more than 2,000 needy students in the district get $30 each for school meals every year. This is in addition to meal subsidies from the Ministry of Education. Others, like North West CDC, are beefing up existing food-aid programmes. Since 1999, the CDC has been distributing dry food like rice and biscuits and frozen food vouchers to needy residents. This year, fresh vegetables will be included as well. The number of food-aid packages distributed has also increased by four times - from 177 in December 2007 to 705 last month, a CDC spokesman said.
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->The community development councils (CDCs) received close to 15,000 applications for financial assistance between January and March this year, up from 9,000 last year during the same period and 7,500 in 2007.
Another 4,800 applications were received islandwide last month, Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS) figures show.
Of the applications processed so far, about seven in 10 have been approved. Housewife Noorjahar Abdullah, 42, is among those who began receiving CDC aid. A bladder operation, coupled with having to care for a special-needs child, left the single mother of five children aged between nine and 18 unable to work full-time.
She earned about $600 a month selling home-baked cookies and working as a part-time cashier before the Care Corner Family Service Centre referred her to the Central Singapore CDC in January. She now gets $200 a month in cash from the CDC, and vouchers to pay for her utilities and town council bills.
She hopes to get back to work when her health improves. 'With the CDC helping, I can concentrate more on looking after my son,' she says, referring to youngest son Mohammed Lateef, who has an attention deficit disorder.
The Central Singapore CDC alone processed nearly 4,700 applications between January and last month.
In addition to dispensing money from national schemes, each CDC has initiated local schemes to help cushion the needy from the recession. South West CDC, for instance, has helped more than 500 laid-off workers with food vouchers and transport subsidies, via iCOPE, a scheme launched in December.
A programme launched by South East CDC two weeks ago helps more than 2,000 needy students in the district get $30 each for school meals every year. This is in addition to meal subsidies from the Ministry of Education. Others, like North West CDC, are beefing up existing food-aid programmes. Since 1999, the CDC has been distributing dry food like rice and biscuits and frozen food vouchers to needy residents. This year, fresh vegetables will be included as well. The number of food-aid packages distributed has also increased by four times - from 177 in December 2007 to 705 last month, a CDC spokesman said.
