On 12 March 2016, we held Fair For All Families, a community carnival in support of single parents and their children, in commemoration of International Women’s Day. We’re heartened to witness the overwhelming support for single parents at the carnival. Over 400 people gathered at Hong Lim Park that very sunny Saturday and were treated to an afternoon of exciting activities, from a parent-child painting class, to yoga, to moving speeches by single-parent families.

We were very lucky to have had an outpouring of support from our generous sponsors comprising commercial partners, small-business owners and NGOs, who provided us with freebies and vouchers to be given out exclusively to single-parent families.

Fair for All Families would not have been complete without our brave and inspiring speakers. Sherlin Giri and Zubee Ali both shared their stories of acceptance, change and struggle as single parents. We also heard from Rakin, the child of a single mother, who spoke about the challenges he faced growing up in a single-parent household where financial struggle was the norm. Their words reminded us of the resilience that is often displayed by single parents and their children, and affirmed the support we want to see for them in our society.

We were also graced by a speech by Ms Tin Pei Ling, Member of Parliament for MacPherson SMC. She has previously spoken out in support of increasing the length of maternity leave for single mothers in Singapore. At the carnival, Ms Pei Ling spoke about the importance of supporting and including single parents and their children in Singaporean society, and the necessity of state support in making this happen.

Thank you to everyone involved for making this happen! Check out more pictures of the fair by Abishek Balasubramanian here.

Fair For All Families is also in support of #asinglelove, an initiative started by AWARE, Kinetic Singapore and Daughters Of Tomorrow (DOT). To find out more, please visit the website at http://asinglelove.sg/.