KUCHING: Up to March this year, a total number of 14,485 single mothers have registered with Sarawak Single Mothers’ Association (PITSA) whereas 700 have registered with the Carnation Club of Kuching and Samarahan.
This was revealed by Minister of Welfare, Women, and Community Wellbeing Datuk Hajah Fatimah Abdullah during the closing ceremony of the Single Mothers Empowerment Programme which was held at Dewan Hikmah here on Wednesday.
“We know that single mothers face many challenges and through this programme, we want to empower them to be more independent and develop themselves through skills and knowledge.
“This is for the wellbeing of not only themselves and their children, but will also contribute to the wellbeing of the community,” she said.
The minister added that in order to do this, single mothers need an environment that is empathetic to the issues and challenges faced by them.
“The environment must be supportive and the community must have empathy towards their problems and challenges.
“They also need a support system and this is why we want to create awareness of the matter so that it is useful for them,” she said.
The empowerment programme was organised by the state Women and Family Department (JWKS), together with the support of PITSA and Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak (Swinburne).
It was also reported that earlier PITSA and Swinburne had conducted a collaborated study called ‘An Investigation Into Barriers For Single Mothers’ Re-Entry Into The Workplace In Urban Sarawak’ that was done in Kuching, Samarahan, Bintulu, Miri, and Serian.
The aim of the study was to identify what are the obstacles faced by single mothers to re-enter into the workplace and these include lack of transportation, insufficient qualifications, and no one to take care of their children.
The empowerment programme hopes to tackle these challenges to make single mothers feel independent with a positive mindset and making them both productive and having a higher level of perseverance.
Also present was JWKS director Noriah Ahmad.
