SINGAPORE – Classmates Kelsey Emmanuelle Chen and Nur Fareeha Raisha Md Yazid, both five, were glued to the stage as storybook characters came alive at the Gardens Learning Hub, interacting with them at times.

“We knew Kelsey’s friend Nur Fareeha was also part of this interactive storytelling programme, and it was a pleasant surprise for both girls to find out they were in the same session,” said Kelsey’s mother, Ms Joanna Jael Chen, 39.

The session took place on Dec 10 at the Gardens Learning Hub in Gardens by the Bay, where EtonHouse’s latest school Garden School by the Bay is located.

The two girls are among the more than 10,000 children from low-income families who benefit from free nature-based educational activities supported by the new Gardens Learning Fund set up by Gardens by the Bay.

The fund is the Gardens’ first education-focused fund to help children between the ages of four and eight from low-income families.

It supports specially curated programmes based on nature and environmental sustainability concepts to improve the children’s language and literacy skills.

“Cultivating a love for nature in the next generation is one of our key objectives as a ‘people’s garden’,” said Gardens by the Bay chief executive Felix Loh at the session, the first supported by the learning fund.

“Through the new Gardens Learning Fund, we are expanding on this commitment by providing more young people access to nature and sustainability-based educational activities, no matter their background.

“Our goal is to spark curiosity and ignite an interest in the natural world from the early formative years.” 

These activities will be held every weekend at the Gardens Learning Hub. KidStart Singapore is one of the non-profit organisations putting together such activities for beneficiaries.

“When Kelsey was born, I would read to her. She started flipping through books at the age of two. I never allowed her any screen time, so she occupies her time with books and outdoor activities,” said Ms Chen, a private tutor and single mother.

School holiday activities are usually trips to the library and reading books passed down by older cousins.

Similarly, Madam Siti Hadijah Abdul Samad, 39, a housewife, said her eldest daughter, 18, reads to Nur Fareeha, who has loved looking at picture books since she was three years old.

“Reading and learning are always fun with a friend to share the experience with you. She (Nur Fareeha) was so happy to see her best friend Kelsey at the KidStart storytelling session,” Madam Hadijah added.

The fund was set up with a donation of $750,000 from private donor Tan Aik Hock, a businessman.

Mr Tan, 54, who is executive consultant of the Singapore Lam Ann Association, a non-profit cultural and clan organisation, said he grew up in a kampung in Ang Mo Kio and did not attend kindergarten.

“I started school at Primary 1 at Ai Tong and faced a lot of challenges. I wanted to give these children from low-income families a leg-up so that they can start out school life on an equal footing with their peers who are better off,” he said.

“When Felix (Loh) brought up this (idea of a fund), I thought it was a great idea. After all, we want to leave a legacy for Singapore, and that is our children.”