Projects

About The Ireland Funds Singapore

Singapore and Ireland have a long history of cultural ties and close relations since the early 1800s.
The Ireland Funds Singapore is dedicated to using its powerful global and local network to strengthen The Singapore Ireland relationship, by supporting worthy causes which honour the common Asian and Irish values of education, cultural and community relations. As an Institution of Public Character, donations to The Ireland Funds Singapore qualify for a 250% tax credit.

The Ireland Funds Singapore is part of The Ireland Funds. The Ireland Funds is a global philanthropic network established in 1976 to promote and support peace, culture, education and community development throughout the island of Ireland, and Irish-related causes around the world. With chapters in 12 countries, The Ireland Funds has raised over $600 million for deserving causes in Ireland and beyond, benefiting more than 3,200 different organizations.

Your donations are working hard

Since its incorporation in 2009, The Ireland Funds Singapore has met and surpassed its fund raising targets every year, raising more than a total of $3.2 million for charity. Our goal is to distribute ALL contributions every year. Your past donations have funded completed projects, which are now fully operational, and being used every day to improve the lives of young people with special needs and Elder Care.

How we help

Some examples of the practical, results-oriented projects which The Ireland Funds Singapore sponsors, are listed below:

Education – Helping young people with special needs to become independent members of society

  • The Eden School. TIFS paid for a vocational training kitchen for baking, teaching young people with autism a skill for the workplace.
  • The VIVA Foundation. TIFS paid for the establishment of a school at VIVA Hub forchildren suffering from cancer.
  • Delta Senior School. TIFS funded work-based training facilities in a special needsschool that helps one of the neglected communities in Singapore – young adults with mild intellectual disability.
  • Camphill School, Ireland. TIFS facilitated a donation of S$100,000 to Ireland, to assist in the construction of a facility for the Camphill project for young adults with mental and physical disabilities.
  • Down Syndrome Association (Singapore) (DSA). TIFS has funded the construction of a new facility for the DSA, a voluntary group which is established to help children born with Down Syndrome and their families.
  • CARE Singapore (Children-at-risk Empowerment Association) will be allocated funding for programs that will create a community of young people who are passionate about helping youths succeed and who can serve as role models for youths with disadvantaged backgrounds or personal difficulties.

Community Relations – Developing the Community

Following on from the highly successful collaboration with the Down Syndrome Association to stage the St Patrick’s Day Parade in 2012, TSIF sponsored The Singapore Irish Festival in 2013. In addition to the Buddy Walk, which in turn raised $125,000 for DSA. TIFS’s sponsorship facilitated a 3-day festival (the first of its kind) at Boat Quay, showcasing Irish Arts & Culture, and attracting more than 20,000 visitors.

  • Alzheimer’s Disease Association. TIFS paid for the building of a resource centre.
  • Alzheimer’s Disease Association- Family of Wisdom Centre. TIFS paid for the fitting out of a Day Care Centre for persons with dementia and their care givers.
  • Hua Mei Centre for Successful Ageing. TIFS funded the door to door care for the elderly.
  • HCA Hospice Care. TIFS funded HCA in creating its first of a kind day centre, Kang Le Centre, for terminally ill patients, in the heart of the community it serves. It is hoped that this model could be replicated across other communities across Singapore.
  • Metta Hospice Care – TIFS funded Metta’s “Fulfill a Wish” project in the delivery of much needed happiness into the lives of many house bound dying patients, by making something as simple as a day out, something they can look forward to.
  • Equal-Ark Singapore helps vulnerable youth remain engaged in the community through education and employment through the use of equine therapy. The contribution from TIFS assists disadvantaged youths including juvenile offenders, youth with disabilities, mental health issues, as well as youth not in education, employment or training.
  • Catch+ (Children and Teens Community Hub Plus) targets students living in rental homes in the rental estate of Jalan Kukoh – 1 or 2 bedroom units. The contribution enables them to conduct character development programs as well as to develop leadership skills for the youths in the area.
  • Singapore Association for Mental Health (SAMH) – TIFS is supporting SAMH with funds for the building of a Centre @ Marsiling where programs will be conducted for youth-at-risk as well as young adults suffering from psychological or emotional issues.
  • FILOS Community Services will receive a contribution for the FILOS team to learn from Ireland on evidence based programs (allowing them to gain more government funding eventually) as well as assist youths from poor and needy homes in Kembangan and Chai Chee.

Training Programme for Palliative Nursing Care

  • Assisi Hospice Care – TIFS funded healthcare professionals to train in palliative care in Ireland and at the same time enhance palliative care provision in Singapore’s Hospice sector.

Needy Students

  • Singapore Institute of Technology – TIFS’s Overseas Immersion Programme Grant benefits needy Singaporean students enrolled at the Institute to enable them to enhance their learning experience through overseas immersion in Ireland. This is matched by the Ministry of Education’s endowment of 3:1 towards this grant.
  • Brother Joseph McNally Book Prize in Aesthetics – TIFS funded this sponsorship for St Patrick’s School to recognize financially needy students who are able to excel in the area of aesthetics either through their CCA or in curriculum.
  • LASALLE College of the Arts – The McNally Legacy Project is a 3 year multi-disciplinary project, dedicated to and celebrating the life of Brother Joseph. The project is designed to strengthen the links between Singapore and Ireland. It will encompass the development of a short film, music concerts, an art exhibition, artist residencies, student exchanges and the McNally Scholarship and Bursary for needy and talented students. TIFS will contribute S$300,000 towards the project. This amount will be matched 1:1 by the Singapore Government’s Cultural Matching Fund.

Culture – Using music as an instrument of Social Change

  • The Ireland Funds Singapore supported the Irish Chamber Orchestra’s trip to Singapore in June 2010 where they worked with MCYS to promote music as a tool for community engagement.
    As part of The Singapore Irish Festival, members of the Irish Chamber Orchestra were sponsored by The Ireland Funds Singapore in March 2013 to perform and teach at schools throughout Singapore for a week.

2017 BENEFICIARIES

Our Causes Committee have focused this year on identifying projects in Organisations which have previously been supported by TIFS and which offer an Irish connection to strengthen our connections within Singapore. Once again disadvantaged youth, education and elder care are represented in the choice of projects which are currently being finalized with our Causes Committee. After some research into the causes that focus these areas, we at TIFS realized that there is a need for funds for quite a few organizations. As such, this year have selected the following Organizations for support:

  • FILOS Community Services
  • LASALLE College of the Arts
  • St. Patrick’s School
  • The 2017 Gaelic Football Carnival (At St. Patrick’s School from 30 Oct – 2 Nov 2017)
    Five teams participated in the event. They were from Ping Yi Secondary School, Anderson Secondary School, Spectra Secondary School and St. Patrick’s School. Irish Ambassador Geoffrey Keating was the Guest-of-Honour for the event and the President of The Ireland Funds Singapore, Mr Colin MacDonald was the special guest for the event. The Gaelic Football Carnival was made possible through the generous sponsorship of The Ireland Funds Singapore. St. Patrick’s School emerged as the Champions for this year. This is the third year the Gaelic Football Carnival has been held in St. Patrick’s School.

  • Boys Town (ongoing project from 2016)
  • Autism Resource Centre (ongoing project from 2016)
  • Fusion Fighters Create Not Hate (December 2017)
    Fusion Fighters is a progressive performance company and online community which started in 2013 with a dance crew of over 30 professional dancers and over 100 students based all over the world. Branching away from what is seen as the typical Irish dancing scene, they have rapidly grown to become one of the largest and most influential dance communities in the world, with over 70,000 followers and achieving over 30 million views online. Using this viral success, they are committed to using this platform to endorse and create campaigns to benefit others. In May 2017 Fusion Fighters launched their brand-new campaign ‘Create Not Hate’ to work alongside dance schools worldwide and integrate themselves into their local community and become involved in the important causes or charitable work happening in the area. Using their online community, and in order to raise as much awareness of these causes as possible, these campaigns are filmed professionally to create online episodes with projects taking place over all 6 continents with 2 episodes from each region. The Fusion Fighters have undertaken projects to support a children’s cancer charity, worked with a dance company for children and adults with special needs and also a campaign to promote safer driving. 

 

Thank you for your continued support of The Ireland Funds Singapore.