DPM Wong Kan Seng's comments at tea reception for the Inter-Agency Aftercare Committee
14 November 2007
The Straits Times - Care group for families of JI detainees lauded
14 November 2007
A GROUP of counsellors who have been helping the families of men detained in connection with terrorist group Jemaah Islamiah, were praised yesterday by Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng.
He said the Inter-Agency Aftercare Group - which focuses on the welfare of the families of detainees, not the detainees themselves - was 'very important'.
Speaking to reporters after sitting down to tea with 110 social workers, partners and leaders of the five-year-old outfit, he said: 'It is very important to have community organisations and community leaders who are prepared to spend time with the families of the detainees, because when the detainee is detained, and he is the main breadwinner, the family will be left without care, and worst of all, left without an income.'
He added: 'I am very pleased to know we have such leaders in Singapore and in our Malay-Muslim community and they volunteer to spend time doing this for their people.'
The group was started in 2002 by five groups: Malay-Muslim self-help group Mendaki, voluntary organisation Taman Bacaan, the Association of Muslim Professionals, Khadijah Mosque and En Naeem Mosque.
The Aftercare Group chairman, Mr Abdul Halim Kader, yesterday gave an update of the programmes run by the group. These include helping families of detainees with supplementary school fees, tuition for the children and utility bills.
They also receive support from The Straits Times School Pocket Money Fund.
One counsellor, who has worked with such families for three years with detainees, said the biggest challenge was getting them to trust her.
Referring to one family, Ms Rosedah Mohd Anuar, 35, said: 'At the beginning, the family members were very wary of counsellors. Only after about three months did they start to open up.'
