Agape Village when completed will have 4,200 sq meters in a 4-storey space next to the First Toa Payoh Primary School and the new Good Shepherd Place currently being built by the Good Shepherd Sisters. It will stand at the fringe of HDB’s light industrial estate and a distance away from the residential blocks.
In Singapore, you will not see beggars on the streets or hungry children scavenging for food, but the poverty gap is growing wider and there is a desperate need to connect those on the breadline to the services which can make a difference to their lives.
Tens of thousands of families are ensnared in an unforgiving poverty trap with little or no means to break free and make a better life for themselves. According to the Ministry of Manpower’s 2011 statistics, 307, 000 Singaporeans and PRs earn less than $1,500 a month. And of these, 110,000 earn less than $1,000 a month.
Agape Village will be a one-stop hub where people in need can connect to the 23 charities and services co-ordinated by Caritas Singapore, the social arm of the Catholic Church in Singapore.
Agape Village will bring together the common services of our Catholic charities under one roof – integrated case management, counselling, legal aid, medical aid, care-giver support, skills training and job matching for displaced workers and professionals, mentoring and life skills, coaching for the poor and marginalised in our society.
https://www.facebook.com/AgapeVillageCaritasSg
www.caritas-singapore.org
(Source: Caritas Singapore Community Council, CSCC)