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Women’s Wing celebrating Singaporean women and promoting a more sustainable Singapore

06 Mar 2021 6 min read

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The Women’s Wing of the People’s Action Party (PAP) celebrated International Women’s Day with a series of programmes islandwide to galvanise Singaporeans to build a more sustainable Singapore.

In her speech, Mrs Josephine Teo said that with a shift in the landscape, Women’s Wing will re-examine how to better support women to realise their full potential. Women’s Wing will also continue to update their engagement with women supporters and activists.

Mrs Josephine Teo, Chairperson of PAP Women’s Wing and Minister for Manpower and Second Minister for Home Affairs, together with Ms Sim Ann, Chairperson of this year’s Organising Committee and Vice-Chairperson of Women’s Wing, Ms Mary Liew, President of NTUC, and Ms Yeo Wan Ling, Member of Parliament for Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC launched the multi-venue celebrations this morning.

Chairperson for PAP Women’s Wing Mrs Josephine Teo (Third from left) launched the event together with Ms Sim Ann (first from left), Chairperson of this year’s Organising Committee and Vice-Chairperson of Women’s Wing, Ms Mary Liew, President of NTUC (second from left), and Ms Yeo Wan Ling, Member of Parliament for Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC (fourth from left).

Two new functions within Women’s Wing to further women’s development in Singapore

She announced the setting up of two new functions within the Women’s Wing to better understand the concerns of women and advocate for improvements.

The Research Group will be headed by Member of Parliament Yeo Wan Ling with Minister of State Gan Siow Huang as Adviser. Together with their activists, they will keep a close watch on emerging trends and their impact on women while sharpening the Party’s sensing of women’s views.

The Policy Group will be headed by MP Hany Soh, with MOS Sun Xueling as Adviser.  The Group will raise the concerns facing Singaporean women and advocate for improvements in our public policies.

The launch event was jointly organised with the National Trades Union Congress’ Women and Family Unit (NTUC WAF), in partnership with the Textile and Fashion Industry Training Centre (TaF.tc).

The launch event at Punggol Shore – the REIMAGINE Fashion Showcase – featured nine “reimagined” work outfits designed by local designers for women in various occupations. The outfits which took three weeks to produce were repurposed from used materials such as old fabrics, upholstery textiles with outfits for the urban farmer and confinement nanny made from sustainable materials like organic cotton.

The REIMAGINE Fashion Showcase featured nine “reimagined” work outfits designed by local designers for women in various occupations.
Fashion designer Josephine Ho (fourth from left) briefing Minister Mrs Josephine Teo (third from left) on the intricacies of the outfit for confinement nanny.

With the varied activities planned with the theme of sustainability, the celebrations also virtually presented programmes led by PAP women MPs Ms Cheryl Chan, Ms Hany Soh, Ms Nadia Samdin and Ms Rachel Ong across the island.

Mrs Teo and other guests at the event checked in on the Members of Parliament at other locations.
MPs zooming in from different locations.

South East (SE) District: Making sustainable bags and adopting sustainable gardening 

MPs for East Coast GRC Cheryl Chan and Jessica Tan joined 12 participants at PAP Changi-Simei Branch to learn how to turn used T-shirt into sustainable fashion tote bags. Over 50 participants also attended a similar workshop conducted by Eileen Yap, Founder of Singapore Fashion Runway.

Cheryl Chan said, “Sustainability begins with our daily actions. From recognising the need to reduce usage to creative ways of reusing items and up-cycling, we can all make a difference.”

Separately, MP Tin Peiling and Minister of State Tan Kiat How joined the South East families online to learn how to grow leafy vegetables at home using food waste as fertilizer, and create their own self-watering pot and eco-enzymes.

MP Cheryl Chan and Jessica Tan taking a group photo with the participants at the workshop.

North West (NW) District: Conducting active recycling drive to drive home the sustainability message   

18 PAP branches within the district, in collaboration with Tzu Chi Foundation (Singapore) and Sembwaste Pte Ltd set up recycling points on 6 March 2021 from 9 to 1130 am. Over 2000 residents brought in recyclable materials and learned how to sort them for more effective recycling. They were also given seeds suitable for indoor planting.

Hany Soh, Organising Chairperson for the celebrations at NW district, believes that we can do more as a community to embrace sustainability as our way of life.

“Active recycling is one of the ways in which the community can come together to do more for the environment. I plan to conduct a regular active recycling drive at Woodgrove to encourage more residents to recycle and upcycle.” 

It’s never too young to start recycling. Ms Hany Soh gave a young resident a packet of seedlings and a reusable cup made from recyclable materials to thank her for joining the recycling drive.
MP for Nee Soon GRC Ms Carrie Tan at the recycling point in her constituency.

South West (SW) District: Going green begins at home!  

Over at South West District, 100 women activists and women MPs led by MP for West Coast GRC Rachel Ong participated in two concurrent events.  The first event was a hybrid live-online workshop to upcycle unused clothes into fashionable mask straps.  After that, they distributed 2,000 mask straps that they made over the past two weeks using cleaned recyclable materials for Mask Strap Gift Distribution! event. The gift pack includes a guide on making the strap and a message on recycling wisely.

MP for West Coast GRC Rachel Ong learning how to make mask straps at the workshop.

Male MPs – Minister S. Iswaran and Gan Kim Yong, MPs Don Wee and Zhulkarnain Abdul Rahim also joined in to distribute the mask strap gift packs to members of the public across several locations in the South West District.

MP for West Coast GRC Rachel Ong said, “My hope on this International Women’s Day is that together, we will continue to encourage one another to be intentional in doing our part in creating a cleaner and greener Singapore!”

Minister Iswaran joining the activists to distribute mask straps at West Coast Hawker centre.
Minister Gan Kim Yong also helped to distribute mask straps at his constituency, lending support to the WW activists.

Central District: Celebrating sustainability in our food habits, homes and reducing food waste.

At the central district, MP Nadia Samdin, Minister Indranee Rajah, Minister of State Gan Siow Huang, Mayor Denise Phua, MPs Joan Pereira and Ng Ling Ling and activists visited Sprout Hub, one of Singapore’s largest urban farms. They also attended a hands-on composting workshop. This experience allowed women activists to have a go at growing edibles while rethinking their own food consumption habits.

Pointing out that food is an integral part of our culture and lives in Singapore, Nadia Samdin said, “Our team hopes that by better understanding the impact of our purchasing and consumption habits and learning how we can bring sustainability into our homes and kitchens, more women feel empowered to embark on their own sustainability journeys and can encourage their families along as well.”

Her team also organised an afternoon talk on sustainability in our homes and wet markets. Pamelia Chia, author of the book “Wet Table to Market” and content owner of SGPNoodles, a one-stop online resource on Singaporean food heritage, discussed how to promote sustainability through food with the dynamic mother and daughter duo behind Spice Zi Kitchen.

MPs Nadia Samdin, Ng Ling Ling, Joan Pereira and MOS Gan Siow Huang (from left to right) at Sprout Hub after the urban farm tour.
MP Denise Phua and Minister Indranee Rajah sharing about the black soldier larvae with the other districts at the live dial-in on zoom.

Read our joint media release with National Trades Union Congress’ Women and Family Unit (NTUC WAF).