Guest of Honour Mr Seah Kian Peng, Speaker of Parliament and Group Chief Executive Officer of NTUC Enterprise (second from left) posing with two children from My First Skool at Braddell Heights and My First Skool’s General Manager Ms Thian Ai Ling (first from right) with their plants during the preschool centre’s fundraising event on 19 August 2023.

Five-year-old Kieran Emmanuel Albuquerque squints in concentration as he carefully places a paper cutout on his elderly friend’s flower pot made using a recycled plastic bottle on Monday morning (14 August) at NTUC Health Senior Day Care in Serangoon Central.

This interaction between children from MFS at Braddell Heights and seniors at the day care centre next door has been a weekly affair since the launch of NFC’s and NTUC Health’s structured Intergenerational Programme in 2017.

Since July this year, their weekly sessions have focused on their fundraising collaboration where they create recycled flower pots to raise funds at today’s fundraising event for Bright Horizons Fund (BHF), NTUC First Campus’s charity fund. Besides the sale of recycled flower pots, the event included funfair booths for families to take part in. Mr Seah Kian Peng, Speaker of Parliament and Group Chief Executive Officer of NTUC Enterprise, was the Guest of Honour at the event.

Five-year-old Kieran Albuquerque from My First Skool at Braddell Heights decorated recycled flower pots with a senior from NTUC Health Senior Day Care at Serangoon Central on 14 August 2023. These flower pots would be sold during a fundraising event at the preschool centre on 19 August 2023 to raise funds for NTUC First Campus’s Bright Horizons Fund, which will benefit children and families from low-income backgrounds.

“As our young children engage with the seniors, their families, friends, and the community to raise funds for a good cause, they build relational skills through effective communication and teamwork, and build empathy and respect for others. These are skills that are greatly beneficial for their holistic development,” said Ms Thian Ai Ling, General Manager at My First Skool.

Lawrence Teo, Head of Senior Day Care at NTUC Health said, “At NTUC Health, we believe that our community as a whole can play a part in connecting generations. Through intergenerational activities, there is so much our seniors can impart to the younger generation by way of their personal experiences and life lessons. The young can also help seniors to reignite that spark of curiosity and excitement to learn something new and to live agelessly.”

Started in 2008, Bright Horizons Fund helps children and families from low-income backgrounds, and also children with learning needs, through various support programmes. These programmes cover three aspects to ensure holistic support for children and families: financial aid, health and well-being, and learning support. More than 37,000 children have benefitted from BHF’s programmes thus far, and more than $19 million has been disbursed to families.