With a household of seven living in a rental flat, life has always been a little tough for my family. Added to that is the challenge of bringing up three children with special needs.

I used to work as an Assistant Nurse at NUH, but I stopped working so that I can dedicate my time to looking after my children, as they need to be brought for regular medical appointments. My husband, who is the sole breadwinner in the family, used to work full-time with a company. But he now works as a part-time Grabfood delivery driver so that he has the flexibility to support me when we bring our children for their medical appointments

I enrolled my twin girls in My First Skool (MFS) when they were toddlers. They were identified for the KidSTART programme right from the beginning, and I enquired with the centre if there were additional support programmes I could apply for. The centre was very helpful and I got to know about the Bright Horizons Fund (BHF) established by NTUC First Campus (NFC) for low-income families.

The BHF’s support has helped to ease our family’s financial burdens. The fee subsidy means that I only need to pay a minimal sum each month for the girls. I am very grateful for this assistance because it allows my girls to attend school regularly. MFS has played such an important role in their lives. They have benefitted from attending full-day school, making more friends, learning to express themselves better and picking up essential social skills.

Besides fee subsidies, the BHF has provided my daughters with uniforms. This is a very useful form of assistance because with twin girls, I have to buy two sets of everything and therefore everything becomes double the price. Uniforms are also very practical because the girls need new uniforms as they grow bigger. Uniforms may seem like something small, but it is important for the girls to feel that they belong to something and have more confidence to go to school.

The BHF also gives assistance for many other things. My daughters were able to enjoy the whole graduation experience when they received subsidies for their graduation photo shoot. The BHF has provided my children with opportunities for outings and puts a smile on their faces by surprising them with birthday cakes. We have also received food packs and even care packs with children’s face masks and hand sanitizers.

For our family, it is always about deciding whether to spend money on food and medication or letting the children sign up for additional school events like the graduation photo shoot. The subsidies from BHF have allowed us to focus on providing necessities for our family and not have to worry about our girls missing out on anything in their preschool journey. NFC truly cares about children and has helped our family in many practical ways.