Singapore Tamil Youth Conference 2016 Manifesto NUSTLS Singapore Tamil Youth Conference 2016 Manif | Page 78

Issue 13: Community Work for Tamils by Tamils
Author: Ms. A. Aarthi
BACKGROUND:
Needs of the Singapore Tamil community
Leadership
Education
• Ensuring
each
child • More youths to take
charge of community
achieves his academic
needs.
potential.
•
Greater integration of
• Support in career choice
different
community
and development.
partners
to
more
• Tuition and coaching
effectively
address
programs.
community needs
Family
• Improve
parent-child
relationships.
• Parents need to play a
more active role in their
children’s lives.
• Improve
domestic
environments
to
strengthen family ties.
Cohesion
• Reduce socio-economic gaps
within the community.
• Better understand the recent
developments in terms of
culture, language and religion.
• Improve
understanding
between ‘local’ Tamils and
newer Tamil migrants
Introduction
We need to consider and acknowledge the development of multiculturalism, the nature of migration, and state formation so
as to accurately uncover the specific issues and gaps within a particular community.
• In the case of the Tamil population, one of the longstanding issues is the perceived lack of cohesion. There are various
perceived separations to account for this lack of cohesion. This write-up will choose to focus the relationship between the
‘local’ Tamil Singaporeans and the newer Tamil migrants.
Community work in the past
Community Work today
• People may not have consciously engaged in ‘community work’ as it is
• Primary focus is on targeting the
known today. Our forefathers came from different backgrounds to
underprivileged. It has been incorporated
make a home out of a newly ‘immigrannation’. Community work was
into school curriculums to increase
thus carried out organically within and across the different ethnic
awareness of the marginalised and to
communities.
create a strong sense of civic responsibility.
•
Played a key role in improving social cohesion amongst communit