AWARE was registered in 1985 following a forum held by the National University of Singapore Society in November 1984, called “Women’s Choices, Women’s Lives”, organised by Zaibun Siraj, daughter of Mrs Mohamed Sirah, and Dr Vivienne Wee.

Opening of AWARE centre in Race Course Road.

Advertising Standards Authority of Singapore (ASAS) decides to develop new guidelines to curb sex discrimination in advertisements

Launch of AWARE’s Helpline and Singapore’s only helpline for women in crisis.

Appointment of former AWARE president Kanwaljit Soin as Nominated Member of Parliament (1992-1996)

Education Ministry decision to offer “Life Skills For Boys & Girls”. Previously, girls did Home economics and boys did Technical Studies

Changes to police handling of rape cases as a result of the AWARE Rape Study Committee’s “Proposal for standardising and enhancing police procedures in rape management”

Revisions to the Women’s Charter to provide more protection for victims of domestic violence. Former AWARE president Kanwaljit Soin initiated this by introducing the Domestic Violence Bill as a Nominated Member of Parliament.

Appointment of former AWARE president Claire Chiang as Nominated Member of Parliament (1997-2001)

Policy change to allow women to sponsor their foreign spouses for citizenship or PR status

Appointment of former AWARE president Braema Mathiaparanam as Nominated Member of Parliament (2001-2004). She was nominated by AWARE.

Lifting of the quota restricting female intake for the medical faculty at the National University of Singapore

Constitutional amendment to accord the same citizenship rights to the children of Singaporean women as the children of Singaporean men

Government acknowledgement that men and women play equal roles as joint “heads of household”

Equalisation of medical benefits for male and female civil servants

Development of legal reforms that addressed gaps in Singapore’s legislation on trafficking (in collaboration with NUS Pro Bono Law Society)

Revisions to the penal code, including issues of marital rape

United Nations recognition of the areas where Singapore has to become more compliant with CEDAW (Convention On The Elimination Of All Forms Of Discrimination Against Women)

In March, AWARE’s management committee was replaced by a group of activists from a church unsympathetic to AWARE’s values. This was a part of a series of events referred to by the media as the ‘AWARE Saga’. In May, the new management committee was ousted at an Extraordinary General Meeting requisitioned by long time members of AWARE

Submission of our third CEDAW Shadow Report to the United Nations, highlighting areas of gender inequality in Singapore

Launch of the Sexual Assault Befrienders Service, the first support service for survivors of sexual assault in Singapore

Our research and feedback contributed to the deletion of Section 157(d) of the Evidence Act, an archaic law that makes it possible to discredit an alleged sexual assault victim through her sexual history

Collaborated with Ngee Ann Polytechnic to conduct a survey on paternity leave. As a result of the survey, we recommended the implementation of a 2-week paternity leave and more employer support for fathers

Secured revisions to the Voluntary Sterilisation Bill to include the need for an order from the High Court before sterilisation of mentally disabled people

Launched the Sexual Harassment OUT (S.H.OUT) campaign in November to increase awareness of the prevalence of sexual harassment in the workplace and to push for greater legal protection for victims

Successfully persuaded MINDFEF and SAF to prevent the singing in the military of the lyrics of ‘Purple Light’ which glorified raping women

Government introduced one week of mandatory paternity leave – following extensive campaigning from AWARE

Launch of the We Can! End All Violence Against Women campaign, to widespread publicity, including huge media coverage of star Change Maker and domestic violence survivor Rachel Chung

Received a grant from the UN Women Fund for Gender Equality to fund “Gender Equality IS our culture!”, a three-year project developed in collaboration with our Indonesian partner Solidaritas Perempuan

Protection From Harassment Act was passed in March and came into force in November, providing new remedies for harassment victims

The Sexual Assault Care Centre (SACC) was launched in May, replacing the Sexual Assault Befrienders Service (SABS) to provide support for sexual assault survivors. An intensive video and TV campaign featuring Zoe Tay and Judee Tan helped to raise awareness of the service

StopTraffickingSG – a coalition of AWARE, Healthserve, HOME, TWC2, MARUAH and UN Women – campaigned for better protection of trafficking victims in the Prevention of Human Trafficking Act

SACC expanded to better meet demand for its services, with a new WhatsApp service and a welcoming new website. The AWARE Centre was also renovated to have a dedicated wing for Support Services that allows us to better serve clients

AWARE launched Women’s Action, a rich and immersive website telling the story of the struggle of gender equality in Singapore – its landmark achievements, its champions, and the deep impact of its work on ordinary people

#WhiteRibbonSG united men and boys from all walks of life, including Minister K. Shanmugam and playwright and actor Adrian Pang, on the importance of ending gender-based violence. The campaign brought Ride Against Violence, where 25 Harley bikers, 5 Chrysler jeepers and boys from Beyond Social Services took the anti violence message to the streets

AWARE worked closely with the Ministry of Manpower in developing a Tripartite Advisory on Managing Workplace Harassment which was launched in late December. Building on the Protection from Harassment Act, it sends a robust signal to employers that preventing and responding to workplace harassment is their responsibility.

AWARE championed rights of single parents and influenced policy changes, including through #asinglelove, a powerful public campaign. In April, the government announced of increased benefits and protection for single mothers: unmarried mothers now receive 16 weeks of maternity leave – just like married mothers – and their children will be eligible for Child Development Accounts

AWARE raised $215,829 for a programme to support lower-income women with back-to-work support, confidence building, skills training, job placements, mentorship, entrepreneurial support through collaborations with industry partners and research, in partnership with Daughters Of Tomorrow

The White Ribbon Campaign thousands hundreds of men and boys to commit to end violence against women, and involved co-founder Michael Kaufman, Minister Tan Chuan-Jin, Olympic athlete Joseph Schooling, Minister Ong Ye Kung and Adrian Pang

GEC published “Perempuan”, an anthology written by and for young Muslim Singaporean women, which sold almost 400 copies

SACC launched its first support group for sexual assault survivors to share their journey of recovery, and receive support from one another

AWARE received both the Charity Governance Award as well as the Charity Transparency Award which celebrate good governance and disclosure practices in the charity sector

AWARE brought gender equality in Singapore to the world stage at the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council session, raising issues such as the underrepresentation of women in politics, the marital immunity for rape, systemic discrimination against single parents, the tenuous legal status of foreign wives, and the treatment of domestic workers

AWARE organised the second chapter of Apa Itu Activist? A Civil Society Forum for Action and Advocacy to discuss strategies for social change

The police announced that AWARE would work with them on a training video on survivors’ experiences of sexual violence. AWARE also responded to #MeToo, which saw more survivors calling SACC for support. #MeToo generated a spike in calls to the Sexual Assault Care Centre (SACC). Community events, persistent media engagement on sexual violence, and research on the technology-use in sexual violence also drew public attention to the issue. Support for the repeal of marital rape was affirmed by Parliamentarians during a debate on aspirations of women in Singapore.

Single parents led a movement to press for policy change through not one, but two petitions. More than 8,000 supporters signed a public petition and seven single parents led a parliamentary petition urging changes to single parents’ access to housing. Through research, comics, stories, videos, and dialogue sessions, the community continued to demand for changes to discriminatory policies against single parents. A recommendation raised in AWARE’s report led to a change where HDB relaxed the conditions of their ASSIST scheme for single parents. AWARE’s advocacy on housing also led to more discussions in Parliament on single parents’ issues.

AWARE shaped UN gender equality experts’ recommendations for the Singapore government. A big win on the international stage: AWARE’s NGO coalition report on women’s rights in Singapore heavily shaped the CEDAW Committee’s concluding observations for the Singapore government. The Committee’s recommendations were issued after a review process in Geneva where NGOs, including AWARE, engaged UN’s gender equality experts on local issues concerning violence survivors, older women, domestic workers, LBTQ women and sex workers.

The Women’s Helpline was strengthened to better support ALL women. The Women’s Helpline took on a new look – and a new number: 1800 777 5555.

In 2018, the Women’s Care Centre saw 32% more helpline calls and 48% more counselling clients over 2017. WCC also launched Syariah law legal clinics, and expanded the helpline to four languages.

Meanwhile, the Sexual Assault Care Centre saw a 57% increase in cases over 2017.

• February 2018 — AWARE’s recommendations to protect sexual assault victims were reflected in amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code and Evidence Act.
• October 2018 — AWARE submitted recommendations to the Penal Code Review Committee, including: repealing marital immunity for rape, and expanding the definition of rape and sexual assault.
• November 2018— AWARE launched Aim For Zero, a two-year campaign to end sexual violence in Singapore.

AWARE continued its campaign for single parents’ rights with #asinglelove.

• March 2018 — in line with AWARE’s suggestions, the Ministry of National Development lifted the debarment rule on purchase flats for divorced couples, and the time debarment on rental flats.
• August 2018 — AWARE opened the SHE Project, a shelter providing single mothers with stable housing and training from Daughters of Tomorrow.

This year, AWARE launched the Power Fund: a women’s rights fund that provided nine up-and-coming civil society organisations with financial and capacity-building support.

In August 2018, AWARE published the report “Why are you not working?”: Mothers explain challenges with work and care with a blockbuster panel event.