Community Heroes: I immersed myself in a rental flat estate to help kids cope with isolation. Here's what I learnt
Mr Abhishek Bajaj (pictured) found that children and youth living in rental flats that he visited were isolated and unstimulated.
In 2019, 6th Sense was initiated. It was a ground-up movement that I began with co-founders, Jezamine Chua and Manisha Nishad.
We befriend and engage children and youth aged under 18 who live in Housing and Development Board rental flats at Kebun Baru, which is located in Ang Mo Kio.
We do this two Saturday evenings a month.
It all started in 2017 when we set out to learn about the lives of rental flat residents.
Our exchanges left a deep impression on us. Each weekend, we were welcomed into their homes, had home-cooked fish curries, and listened to their stories.
Among them were families with two or more children living in a two-room rental flat. For reference, with an area of about 44 sqm, a two-room flat is about half the size of a four-room flat.
The children spend much of their life sharing this space with their family.
We realised that the children mostly stayed home during the weekend, because some parents did not want them to mix with others who are “bad influences”.
Other times, they played at the void decks of the housing blocks, which they viewed as their personal space.
The lack of engagement was leaving them isolated and unstimulated, and it pushed us to consider what we could do for them.
We began serving the children sporadically at Bukit Ho Swee and Yishun in 2017, and later consistently at Kebun Baru from 2019.
My brief experience as a community worker with Beyond Social Services in 2018 at Kebun Baru taught me a great deal about community building.
We practise “asset-based community development”, which means shifting our framing from what the community lacks to the abundance already present, and the gifts that each community member and the volunteers bring to the session.
An initial grant in 2019 from Our Singapore Fund, which supports projects that promote more socially inclusive communities, allowed us to kickstart fortnightly sessions at Kebun Baru for 15 to 20 children aged below 12.
Over time, we took the children to nature reserves and witnessed how the environment brought out different sides of them.
During a fashion walk with upcycled clothes at Thomson Nature Park, we saw how sensitively the children interacted with wildlife.
Looking back, some of my favourite moments were sitting on mats at the void deck with the children — making sand clay, learning how to crochet, and upcycling cardboard into a maze for them to wander around.
We are now developing “verticals” in areas where they would like to have intermediate skills sets. These include sports such as badminton, digital arts, and nature-based sessions.
In total, 6th Sense has served close to 80 children and youth with more than 100 volunteers from various institutions, with the help of the Singapore Kindness Movement.
Today, we help 25 children and youth in Kebun Baru, with 15 volunteers.
It really did not take much money to start making an impact on the children’s lives, and we were surprised by the results.
We see our sessions as third spaces, spaces away from home where the children feel safe.
In these spaces, children who were often quiet at the start of the session and playing with their phones ended our sessions energetic and expressive, playing with other children.
At times, we also gave them space for them to share about their family situations with us.
One time, a child used clay to make a figurine from the animated movie Finding Nemo. It illustrated how the child felt at home — hidden from his family members and trying to find his safe space within the home.
During those moments, we feel like we managed to counteract the forces that isolate these children.
Personally, developing 6th Sense allowed me to find healing for my inner child.
On the other hand, it was financially challenging because I had left my job at Beyond Social Services to conduct activities full-time.
I wanted to learn community work by immersing myself fully in this practice. We tried different ways to create income streams and even briefly registered ourselves as a company limited by guarantee.
Ultimately, we decided that it was best for 6th Sense to remain a volunteer-run initiative.
Concurrently, I pursued further studies in public policy at the National University of Singapore in 2020 and have been working full-time since graduating.
Over the years, 6th Sense carried on serving the Kebun Baru community with earnestness.
However, recently, I started feeling the need to move out of running every session. The community deserves a certain intensity of activities and I found myself struggling to provide for that.
I am in search of the next generation of youth to take over the reins, and will guide them accordingly.
My advice to someone beginning a ground-up would be to connect deeply with their cause.
Our biggest strength is how keenly aware we are of our causes’ assets and needs, and how carefully we articulate its narratives.
It is equally important to develop trust and relationships with stakeholders. Together, they support our activities, offer “lobang” (opportunities) and help us out during difficult situations.
Ultimately, a ground-up is a space where others can come in to lead and contribute with their initiatives, too, for the betterment of the cause.
ABOUT THE WRITER:
Abhishek Bajaj, 32, a researcher, believes in the simplicity of staying grounded, actively collaborating and being authentic with the people around him. Besides 6th Sense, he also runs Homeforall Migrants, a migrant worker ground-up initiative, which has served more than 10,000 migrant workers since 2020.
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