COVID-19 Support Grant
The COVID-19 Support Grant has been extended for new applicants and existing recipients till 31 December 2020.
For details of any help scheme in relation to COVID-19, you may visit supportgowhere.gov.sg.
SADeaf Awards Ceremony 2020
The Singapore Association For the Deaf
Deaf Achievers Award 2020
The annual Deaf Achievers Award 2020, presented by the Singapore Association For the Deaf (SADeaf) will be presented online this year due to the Covid-19 situation.
These awards recognise the achievements of Deaf and hard-of-hearing persons, as well as acknowledge the contributions of the individuals, donors, organisations and ambassadors to our community.
Date: Saturday, 24 October 2020
Time: 2pm
The pre-recorded ceremony will be posted on the SADeaf Facebook Page, and will feature award winners’ videos, photos and speeches. This year, SADeaf presented awards in the following categories:
● Deaf Achievers (Outstanding Deaf/hard-of-hearing students) Awards
● Teacher of the Deaf Award
● Long Service (staff) Awards
● I-L-Y (I LOVE YOU) Awards
We welcome the SADeaf and Deaf/hard-of-hearing community, general public, schools, media and all interested persons to join us at this ceremony and celebrate the occasion.
For media enquiries, please contact :
Alvan Yap, Deputy Director
Email: alvan@sadeaf.org.sg
Mobile: 91596770 (text only)
Singapore Charting Path to Phase 3
Singapore will be charting its Path to Phase 3 as it now finds itself looking forward to easing of restrictions for businesses and the wider community as the pandemic stabilises. The multidisciplinary task is charting the path to Phases 3, where Singapore will function comfortably until a vaccine is found.
✅ Here is what to expect for phase 3:
1. More employees come back to work. They follow safe management practices. They are flexible working hours, staggered reporting times, working from home and no more than half of the employees are at the workplace.
2. Business travel is permitted for senior executives. When they return, they will have COVID-19 test and self -isolate till test results are out.
3. Seminars, corporate retreats, and annual general meetings within the workplace will be allowed to resume as long as safe distancing measures are in place. Work-related events at external venues remain prohibited now.
4. All religious organisations can conduct congregational and other worship services for up to 100 persons, as long as safe distancing measures are in place.
5. For a Wedding reception, up to 100 guests including couple, but excluding vendors and service providers. The guests should be split up into groups not large than 50, or attend the wedding at separate time slots. There should be at least 30 minutes between slots for the cleaning and disinfection of the event space.
6. Voluntary COVID19 testing of taxi and private-hire car drivers has started. More than 10.000 tested so far. Around 750 stallholders and food delivery personnel have been tested. No positive cases were reported.
7. Legal cut-off age for children in Singapore to wear masks will be raised to six years and above, up from two years old currently.
Play your part, Connect with the Deaf
We have come up with a campaign with NUS to help the Deaf.
Around 40% of them are age 40 and below and due to the current Covid-19 situation, having to wear a mask in public has undermined the ability of others in reading the lips of our beloved deaf community. Furthermore, having to unable to communicate effectively, has also allowed them to experience greater challenges and disruptions while performing daily tasks.
Therefore, we have organised a sharing session which includes a basic sign language introductory course via a Zoom Webinar, Co-hosted by NUSPM2020 and us.
Date: 31 October 2020
Time: 2PM – 5PM
Cost: Free!
I hope that you can take part in this campaign with us to help those in need during this pandemic. The link is https://www.giving.sg/campaigns/nus_sadeaf2020
Thank you!
Town Hall
Dear Deaf Community,
We are planning a Town Hall meeting for the Deaf Community soon. What is a Town Hall? It is a platform where all the Deaf can gather to contribute signs based on the theme of the meeting.
Did you notice that this video does not have subtitles?
Why? The Town Hall is for the Deaf who use sign language.
💊 Theme?
- Medical Terms
📆 When?
- Saturday, 7 November 2020
⏰ Time?
- 3 pm to 5 pm
💻 Where? Now, there is a limit on gatherings so we will use an online platform – Zoom.
If you are interested, do register now. However, there is a limit to the number of participants – 20.
If you are interested, please contact Hidayat at 98432617 or email at hidayat@sadeaf.org.sg.
Enabling Master Plan: Emerging Stronger Conversation
How has your experience been like during this COVID-19 period? What challenges or opportunities did you face? What are your aspirations for a post-COVID Singapore? How can each one of us play a part?
The Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) Disability Office would love to hear from you!
Join MSF for an online conversation on what a post-COVID Singapore should look like for persons with disabilities, caregivers and others in the disability community.
There will also be sharing a summary of our 2019 disability engagement findings and broad recommendations of our two Enabling Masterplan 3 (EMP3) workgroups on (i) preparing persons with disabilities for the future economy and (ii) using technology and design to promote independent living.
As themes emerge from these conversations, MSF is keen to form new partnerships with you to tackle issues that you care about.
When will it take place?
These online conversations will take place on:
• Session 1: 22 October 2020 (Thursday), 7.30 pm – 10.00 pm
• Session 2: 5 November 2020 (Thursday), 7.30 pm – 10.00 pm
• Session 3: 6 November (Friday), 2.30 pm – 5.00 pm
• Session 4: 10 November (Tuesday), 7.30 pm – 10.00 pm
How to register?
Click the link https://go.gov.sg/empesc2020signup to register and indicate your preferred slots. *Slots are subjected to availability.
Registration will close on 14 October 2020 (Wednesday). Selected participants will receive a confirmation email on your confirmed session.
For queries, please contact andre_lim_from.TP@msf.gov.sg
E-ready Administrator Course (Online)
Boost your employability by joining the E-ready administrator course! An online course for persons with disability.
Mode & Accessibility of Training
This will be an online course conducted by our trainers via video meeting platforms such as Zoom and / or Google Meet.
Live captions and transcripts of the lessons will be made available to trainees. Sign interpretation available upon request. For enquiries on accessibility kindly contact us at training@lightofdawn.com.sg or via Telegram: https://t.me/Training_LightofDawn_GasAcademy.
What will trainees learn?
- Fundamental administration skills such as document preparation, handling money matters and also communication
- The use of digital tools for productive administrative work (e.g. Google Suite, Trello)
- How to maintain and update information in company website / E-commerce website
- Introduction to digital marketing
- Apply learning to hands-on work-tasks simulated practice
- Job interview skills
Course Duration & Dates
- 1st Dec 2020 – 4th Feb 2021
- Total: 25 training days
- 3 training days a week – Mon, Tue, Thurs
- 9am – 5pm
Subsidises & Course Fees
95% course fee subsidy by SG Enable
- Payable course fees: $139.25*
- Training allowance: $6 per training hour*
- Training commitment award: $100 for completing course*
*Trainees may receive 95% course fees funding, training allowance and training commitment award, subject to attendance and other terms and conditions.
*Trainees may also make use of SkillsFuture Credit and CPF Post-Secondary Education Account to offset their payable course fees.
Employment Opportunities
- Office Administrator, Administrative Assistant, Department Assistant (e.g. Purchasing Assistant).
- We will arrange for our trainees to attend job interviews with a pool of interested employers during or after the course
Application Process
- Email completed Application Form with supporting documents to training@lightofdawn.com.sg
- Application Period: Until 16 Oct 2020
- Shortlisted Applicants informed: end of Oct 2020
- Successful Applicants confirmed: Nov 2020
- Start of course: Dec 2020
Enquires and More Information
For more information refer to Course Website
For enquiries, please contact training@lightofdawn.com.sg
Chef and teacher among those who share how they overcame hearing loss
Mr David Lee, a specialised teacher at Mayflower Primary School; Mr Ken Tan, who runs his own food stall; Mr Muhammad Ammar Nasrulhaq Abdul Karim, a choreographer and instructor with Redeafination, a hip-hop group for the deaf; and Ms Vanessa Chea, an undergraduate from Nanyang Technological University’s biological sciences.
Some features of our #DeafAtWork series during the International Week of the Deaf 2020 were interviewed by Straits Times.
Read more about their experiences in the link.
Purple Parade 2020
ABOUT THE PURPLE PARADE The Purple Parade is a movement to support inclusion and celebrate abilities of People with Disabilities in Singapore. It is the largest ground-up initiative started by passionate Special Needs organisations and groups and supported by the Central Singapore CDC and other corporate and community partners. HELP RECORD and SEND IN AS MANY PURPLE PLEDGES AS POSSIBLE IN OCT 2020
- Record a Purple Pledge YOURSELF.
- Share and invite all Your team members, friends and/or families to RECORD too!
- Share all pledge video recordings on social media with the hashtags #PP2020 #CelebrateAbilities #SupportInclusion
- Send the video to purpleparade@unearthedproductions.com.sg by 11 October to be featured in our Purple Pledge montage
- Here’s an instructional video and info on How to Record your Pledge for your reference
Decommissioning of Emergency SMS ‘70999’
Announcement – Decommissioning of Emergency SMS ‘70999’
Emergency SMS Helpline service ‘70999’ (SPF) will stop on 1 Oct 2020.
Please use the number ‘71999’ (SPF) and ‘70995’ (SCDF) instead. No registration is needed, these numbers are to be used only in emergencies.
What are these Emergency SMS Helpline services for?
Members of the Deaf Hard of Hearing and Speech Impaired community (DHS) may not be able to make voice calls.
Emergency SMS Helpline services allow the DHS community to use a mobile phone to send an SMS to Singapore Police Force (SPF) and Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) during emergencies.
History & Background
| 70995 | 71999 | ||
| Year Established | 2008 | 2008 | |
| Contact | SCDF | SPF | |
| Registration | No | No | |
| Service | In use | In use |
The Emergency SMS Helpline services – SMS ‘70999’ and SMS ‘70995’ – started in 2008. Subsequently, in 2016, the ‘71999’ SMS service was launched as part of the SG Secure initiative.
‘71999’ and ‘70999’ SMS services serve the same function. The difference was that users of the ‘71999’ SMS service are not required to pre-register. To prevent confusion, the ‘70999’ SMS service will be decommissioned on 1 Oct 2020.
This will not have any impact on individuals from the DHS community who SMS the Police for help.
For more information
SMS 71999: www.police.gov.sg/SMS-71999
SMS 70995: www.scdf.gov.sg/home/about-us/information/sms-70995-emergency-service
Original Text
The Emergency SMS Helpline services – SMS ‘70999’ and SMS ‘70995’ – were established in 2008 to enable the Deaf, Hard of Hearing and Speech Impaired (DHS) community to communicate with SPF and SCDF in an emergency. Members of the community could sign up for the Emergency SMS Helpline services by registering their information in a database.
In 2016, the ‘71999’ SMS service was launched as part of the SG Secure initiative. The ‘71999’ SMS service serves the same function as the ‘70999’ service by enabling the DHS community to communicate with SPF via SMS in an emergency. Users of the ‘71999’ SMS service are not required to pre-register. With the new ‘71999’ SMS services, it would be confusing and duplicative to maintain the old ‘70999’ SMS service and the database. The ‘70999’ SMS service will be decommissioned. We have received support from social service agencies serving the DHS community, as well as SPF and SCDF. The decommissioning of the ‘70999’ SMS service will not have any impact on individuals from the DHS community who SMS the Police for help.
Please note that the ‘70995’ service provided by SCDF will continue to be in use. Pre-registration is not necessary.
We seek your assistance to update your clients on the decommissioning of ‘70999’ which will take place with effect from 1 Oct 2020. They may instead SMS to ‘71999’ in an emergency. Please also update your agency website on the ‘71999’ number where relevant.
For queries on the Emergency SMS numbers, you may contact:
- SPF (on the decommissioning of ‘70999’ or on ‘71999’) – Ms Goh Pei Sze, Goh_Pei_Sze@spf.gov.sg
- SCDF (on ‘70995’) – Mr Faizal Mamasan, Faizal_Mamasan@htx.gov.sg
Individuals may also visit www.police.gov.sg/SMS-71999 on SMS 71999, or www.scdf.gov.sg/home/about-us/information/sms-70995-emergency-service on SMS 70995, for more information.
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