A TEENAGER'S truancy helped inspire the launch of a charity that started as a project in The Straits Times newsroom 20 years ago.

Before inequality became publicly discussed in recent times, social activist and researcher Braema Mathi, then a journalist at The Straits Times, had been writing a series of stories on four children living in poverty. One of them, a 15-year-old, had skipped school for a month to work at Burger King full-time after his sole breadwinner dad lost his job.

The four Comeback Kids, so called because of their tenacity in wanting to get good grades in spite of challenging circumstances, prompted an outpouring of concern and donations. This led Ms Mathi to moot the idea of The Straits Times School Pocket Money Fund (STSPMF) to provide pocket money for children in low-income families.

By the late 1990s, Ms Mathi, now a visiting senior research fellow at Penang Institute in Malaysia, recalls "it had became convenient and comfortable to be beguiled into thinking that the hard times were over because Singapore's progress was phenomenal".

"In fact, many thought that there was no dire poverty and if schoolchildren were not doing well, it was mainly because they were lazy and playful," she says. "The Comeback Kids changed that by making visible what some children faced: How they did not dare make friends as they had little money to buy even a drink at the tuckshop, or how they missed school if there was no money for the bus. Children are generous and loyal to their families. They do not tell...."

"I, too, had overlooked seeing the struggles of such families through the eyes of a child," she says.

With the backing of Singapore Press Holdings' management, the STSPMF was officially launched on Children's Day, Oct 1, 2000. The fund's 20th year coincides with the newspaper's 175th anniversary this year.

Over the past 20 years, the STSPMF has tailored and extended the breadth and depth of its assistance to the vulnerable young, according to evolving education and social needs and the state of the economy. It has disbursed more than $70 million, helping over 170,000 children and youths. This year alone, with more families in need because of the Covid-19 fall-out, the fund has helped 7,000 beneficiaries so far, and plans to disburse more than $10 million.

Mr Warren Fernandez, editor of The Straits Times, and the fund's chairman, says: "We started with a simple mission, We wanted kids not to go hungry in school so they could concentrate on their studies, and not fall behind. "We have stayed true to that over the years, raising the amounts we give to each child, and also extending our reach to more and more children and families in need.

"When we have had more donations, or generous partners who will work with us, we have also extended other forms of help, beyond just pocket money, to try to close the gap in resources for other needs in schools, such as programmes or other educational needs.

"The thinking is the same, to try to help prevent kids feeling left out, or left behind, for want of funds. Thankfully, we have had wonderful support from our donors to help us make this possible."

Besides regularly reviewing the amount of aid the fund provides, the STSPMF is sensitive to beneficiaries' evolving educational needs, says STSPMF general manager Tan Bee Heong. Ms Tan says: "We move when the economy moves and when inflation goes up. We have also made changes when, for instance, we realised that schoolchildren were spending more time in school."

In 2008, for example, the sums allocated to children registered with the fund increased for the second year in a row to help with inflation. Primary school pupils then received $45 a month and secondary school students, $80, monthly. Now, primary school beneficiaries receive $60 per month and secondary students, $95.

In 2013, the fund started accepting applications from post-secondary students studying in junior colleges, polytechnics or Institutes of Technical Education (ITEs), who receive $120 a month. "We didn't want any of our secondary students to drop out of school," explains Ms Tan.

Former beneficiary Indra Putra Kamsan, 23, thinks of the fund as a stabilising factor that helped him progress through primary school to Millennia Institute, a pre-university centre. A chance to travel to Germany on an exchange programme when he was 18, brokered by the fund, also jumpstarted his academic drive.

Now a chemical engineering undergraduate at National University of Singapore, he says the help he received for six years between 2008 and 2016 helped "level the playing field" for him. When he was a child, his father, now 59, went bankrupt and Mr Indra remembers his family - including his two sisters and his grandmother - shuttling between relatives' homes, before settling in a two-room rental flat in Lengkok Bahru.

While his dad, a single parent, could not afford to buy toys for his son, STSPMF pocket money meant that Mr Indra did not have to choose between food for recess or lunch when he had to stay back in school. His father, who has gone blind in one eye and has severe vision loss in the other, has been unable to work for many years and still receives financial assistance from social service agencies today.

In 2015, Mr Indra was among a group of students who went on a 10-day trip to Technical University of Munich (TUM), a renowned German science and engineering school, to work in laboratories there, as part of an initiative by TUM Asia and the STSPMF.

"After the trip, I realised I needed to buck up and that I wouldn't make it to study chemical engineering with my average grades then," says Mr Indra. He later became the first in his family to enter university, where he is supported by Mendaki for his fees.

In recent years, some STSPMF donors and beneficiaries have started to push for a more well-rounded education, reflecting the societal push-back against an all-encompassing focus on grades and academics.

Last year, Capital Group sponsored 30 STSPMF beneficiaries with cash awards of $1,000 each for doing well in their Co-Curricular Activities (CCA).

Meanwhile, eight-year-old Adele Soong has used some of her STSPMF money to buy a $40 keyboard in lieu of piano lessons that her family cannot afford. The Primary 2 pupil is teaching herself how to play simple tunes using an app and YouTube videos.

"She doesn't have enrichment lessons right now. It's more to find out what her interests are, so we can build on them," says her mother, Ms Tiffany Tee, a hospital administrative assistant.

Ms Tee and her husband, a part-time delivery man, also have a four-year-old son and a nine-year-old son who is autistic. All three children are supported by the Education Ministry's Financial Assistance Scheme, which helps needy families meet school expenses.

Covid-19 has hit the family hard, owing to a dwindling of her husband's delivery jobs, says Ms Tee. The couple, both 44, also support Ms Tee's parents-in-law, who are in their 80s and live with them.

Donors have been stepping up to help those affected by the coronavirus.

The STSPMF is partnering Challenger, an IT retailer, to provide $1 million worth of e-grants to 2,000 students from low-income families. It is an effort to equip students with the right tools for home-based learning, which started in earnest during the lockdown and will soon be part of the school routine.

Each student will receive an e-grant of $500, which they can use to purchase a range of products from Challenger, such as laptops, printers and audio devices.

The number of individual donors like retiree Liao Tien Fook, 68, has been increasing over the years, says Ms Tan.

Mr Liao, formerly the managing director of a leather goods distribution company, has been an STSPMF donor since 2014, donating $1,000 on a monthly basis on average.

Recalling his poverty-ridden childhood, where his parents sometimes couldn't afford school fees for him and his four siblings, Mr Liao wants to make it easier for youngsters today to get a good education.

"I feel happy to do whatever I can. It makes me feel at peace," he says, adding that he was inspired by his late father, a Catholic businessman, who used to donate hundreds of dollars to several churches each Christmas.

Ms Tan has faith in the kindness of donors, which the fund has witnessed in spades in past crises. During the financial crisis in 2009, a then-record of $5.9 million was raised, almost 30 per cent more than the previous year.

She says: "Whenever there have been unprecedented times, you see unprecedented contributions from the public."