IWD 2024: Joanna Tan of Children's Wishing Well on why underprivileged children don't need our sympathy

What does inclusion mean? This International Women's Day, we feature incredible individuals leading social enterprises that are championing the underrepresented and underserved. Their mission? To shatter societal stigmas and create pathways to equal opportunities for all.

Having spent nearly two decades in strategic planning roles in healthcare, where she helped manage national health crises like Sars and H1N1, Joanna Tan made the switch to philanthropy in 2018 when she joined the Children’s Wishing Well.

Originally founded as the Student Advisory Centre in 2002, the non-profit organisation was renamed by Joanna in 2018 to reflect a focus on fulfilling the wishes and needs of children and youth from low-income families. As CEO, she has propelled the organisation from a single centre to 10 sites across our island, and has expanded the organisation’s reach, offering comprehensive services to over 1,000 beneficiaries annually.

Under her guidance, Children’s Wishing Well runs impactful programs like the Children Enrichment Programme, emphasising academic support, non-academic interests, life skills, and socio-emotional support.

How does your background influence your commitment to the cause?

I have been doing volunteer work since I was 15 years old. For more than 20 years, I volunteered with disabled, disadvantaged, and terminally ill children, both in Singapore and when I was studying overseas. I also volunteer in a different way by serving on Boards and Committees of charities. My heart has always been with people, serving those in need, and speaking up for the underprivileged.

I come from an underprivileged background myself, and I often tell the children and youth that I work with that in the ballot of life. None of us could choose our families. None of us did anything to deserve the circumstances that we were born into. But I know that it is not how much we have, but how much we give that matters.

What are some of the challenges Children’s Wishing Well has faced?

Children’s Wishing Well is a 100 per cent privately funded charity – this means that we are not government funded, and every cent is fundraised through donations. It was so hard in the early days to get funding from corporations. As the budget was tight, we had to do everything ourselves – I remember washing the woks used to cook lunch for the children, and my dresses would be soaked from all the washing.

But the children always kept me going. One girl who was abandoned at birth to her grandparents told me, “My grandmother said I’m naughty, that’s why my mummy doesn’t want me. I am a good girl, I promise. Can you please ask her to come back?”

In a developed country like Singapore, it is hard to imagine that poverty exists. Most of us don’t realise what poverty trap is, and how hard it is to escape the poverty trap.

Young children are often not being sent to preschool and primary school for many poverty-associated reasons – for example, their parents are ill or working night shifts or double-jobs, or there is no money to take the bus.

The government provides textbooks and uniforms, but there are still many things lacking, such as the money needed to buy school bags and pencil cases. Even if they go to school, they continue to fall behind – nobody at home to help them log into home-based learning or supervise their homework; their homes are small and hot and not conducive for studying; there are no resources for project work or coaching for Direct School Admission (DSA). They might also be ostracised by classmates because they don’t have money to hang out and do cool things.

To create a more inclusive environment, we must not dismiss the challenges faced by underprivileged children. They don’t need our sympathy either, they just need an opportunity to start life on an equal footing with other children.

What motivates you to continue to serve the underprivileged?

I am not a superwoman, and I can only make a limited difference alone. Of course, there are times when things get so hard that I just want to cry and give up.

But if each one of us does our small part to impact one underprivileged child, if each one of us speaks up to tell our friends about the inequality that exists in society, if each one of us remembers to invest in children who are the pillars of tomorrow…then I think together, we will make our community and our society a happier and better place.