By Ting Claravall with Kate Vickery
One of Aidha’s longest-serving alumni volunteers is leaving us to go back home to the Philippines and start her new journey as an entrepreneur. Celmar has been a mainstay at Aidha since almost the very first day we opened our doors. So here’s a simple tribute to show her how much we appreciate all she has done. Please join us in ‘Cel-ebrating Celmar’ and do wish her luck in her future endeavours by commenting below!
Our new campus manager, Patricia Cummings.
This month, Aidha welcomes on board a new member of staff. Patricia Cummings joins the Aidha team as one of our part-time Campus Managers, a role she shares with Marie Kretz di Meglio. Read on for more on Patricia:
Maria (right most) helping out with packing goodie bags for this year’s Tour de Singapore
That’s how Maria Tato Garcia, or simply Maria, sees herself when asked about her volunteer work with Aidha.
“I’m also a migrant woman in Singapore. The only difference is that I was lucky to have had a good education which gives me a wider choice of opportunities in life.”
This is why she’s very passionate about Aidha and its mission of providing education to migrant domestic workers to help them create financially sustainable futures.
When Animesh first started volunteering with Aidha, he wasn’t sure how the students would respond to having a male mentor. “It was a bit challenging in the beginning as I didn’t know if students would be comfortable speaking up right away,” he explained.
Animesh Agrawal
By : Karen Fernandez
‘good egg’ n.Informal. an agreeable or trustworthy person. One ‘good egg’ at Aidha must surely be long-time volunteer, Miin Hwang, who has remained steadfastly with Aidha since 2010. From Aidha’s early days at Nassim Road, then at NTUC, and now at UWC, Miin has been a loyal and passionate supporter of Aidha’s journey. In her typically understated manner, she quietly and efficiently takes on the projects that come her way, from planning the logistics of moving over 300 students from NTUC to UWC, scouring properties around town in search of a new Aidha admin office, to installing Windows on our laptops, organising an office recycling bin, hanging up pictures, and most recently, helping project-manage the set-up of our new campus management database system. Miin has long become our go-to person because we know that any task will get done fast and reliably. Combined with a wicked sense of humour, Miin is a volunteer we are always glad to see every Monday and Tuesday and feel very fortunate to have on our team. Read More
By : Ting Claravall, with contributions from Jackie Winstanley
Like many volunteers, Catherine Wu found herself fulfilling a lot of different roles in the three years she has been volunteering with Aidha.
“I attended the Volunteer Orientation in January 2012 and started out as a computer workshop coach. But shortly after that, I was asked to be a Leadership and Compass Club mentor.”
Catherine didn’t hesitate to say yes as she was impressed with Aidha’s professionalism and high calibre of mentors, staff and volunteers. It was clear to her that those who designed the curriculum were obviously knowledgeable both in education and the psychology of motivation. She maintains Aidha must be doing something right since it continues to attract educated, professional and skilled volunteers with diverse experiences and backgrounds. Read More
NEWSLETTER 