Tuesday 25 June 2013

INTERNATIONAL WIDOWS DAY - Saturday 31 August 2013



(Picture Source: sg.news.yahoo.com)
 
 NOTICE:
 
Gardens by the Bay outing is confirmed to be on Saturday 31 August 2013
 
Please call Wicare office by 25 July 2013 at 63542475 for attendance & transportation confirmation.  
 
 
 

Tuesday 18 June 2013

About WiCare For You - We Care For You

Welcome to our WiCare For You Blog (We Care For You)!

Our WiCare Blog is dedicated to providing aid & comfort to widows in Singapore.



Mission Statement

"Bringing hope to the broken-hearted widows and the fatherless"

Wicare is a support group for widows and the fatherless, registered in October 1998 with the Registrar of Societies as a Voluntary Welfare Organization.

Wicare Support Group is run by a non-salaried management committee comprising widows and volunteers who are also widows.

WICARE assists widows and the fatherless in their time of need and provides grief support. This is accomplished through a series of self-help programmes with the following goals:

  • To support widows emotionally and to encourage bonding with others in the support group;
  • To assist widows to become self-reliant and financially independent; and
  • To encourage widows to reach out and support other new widows in turn.
The ultimate goal of WICARE is to help widows to move on, care for their children and re-integrate into society.

Who started it?

Ms Joyce Lye is the Founder-Chairman of WICARE.

Objectives

  • WICARE reaches out to widows and the fatherless to identify with their grief and loss.
  • WICARE provides encouragement and friendship to widows and their children through its family activities.
  • WICARE provides help to widows with talks on single-parenting, financial management, self-care and other practical topics.
  • WICARE provides opportunities for widows to accept their loss, to cope with the present and provide hope for the future through programmes such as home visits, support group meetings and the Grief Recovery Weekend.
  • WICARE provides information on professional help for widows and their children through its networking with counselling and family centres.
Programmes

Since March 1996, WICARE has been organising bi-monthly talks on widowhood, coping with grief, single-parenting, financial management, self-care, sexuality and remarriage, among other relevant topics. These interspersed with social events for mothers and children, such as picnics, BBQs, annual bowling and small-group gatherings in homes. As of January 2006, WICARE holds monthly gatherings at its own premises at Bishan Junction 8.

“New Chapter” Weekend

Since 1998 till June 2008, WICARE has conducted nine Weekends (the previous name was Grief Recovery Weekend). These were organised by its committee members, its advisor, Mr Anthony Yeo, and Ms Christine Lim of the Counselling and Care Centre. Each Weekend ran from Friday evening to Sunday and covered grief work, accepting the loss, coming to an emotional closure, rediscovering self-identity, setting new life goals and making future plans. WICARE plans three such weekends each year, subject to response, and takes in between four and eight participants at each weekend for effective group support and sharing of experiences. The “New Chapter” was revised to a two full-day non-residential weekend in June 2007.

Target Group

Widows and fatherless children.

Membership

When WICARE started in 1999, it had 32 Full Members and seven Associate Members. As at June 2008, there are 136 Full Members and 58 Associate Members, with a mailing list of 515. Membership data is updated annually.

Beginning in August 2004, WICARE extended its outreach to the Chinese-speaking community, as it expects an increase in the number of widows who need emotional and moral support.  It started with less than ten ladies. As of October 2007, the list of Chinese-speaking widow contacts has grown to 87.


About Our Founder Joyce Lye





Joyce Lye was angry with God. Why did her husband die so unexpectedly? He was only 33 when their car skidded and crashed in Holland Road. Joyce was in a coma and she revived, filled with bitterness and self-pity. She was rude to her friends and even unkind to her two daughters, at that time only 3 years and 14 months old.

"When I got out of the coma I was shocked and frightened and wondered what the future would be like for my girls and for me," she recalls. After 10 months of anguish, a Bible passage struck her: "The widow who is really in need and left all alone puts her hope in God and continues night and day to pray and ask God for help." It was then 1985 and she became a Christian with renewed hope.

"Then at one prayer meeting, the words ‘A widow among widows’ flashed before me," Joyce recalls. "But I wanted to remarry and my children were so young." So, she forgot the message, closed down her floral business and become an insurance agent. Today, Joyce is an Executive Prudential Adviser and she has been with the company for 18 years.

"Somehow, God would not be ignored. It just happened that no matter what I did, widows kept crossing my path." And, naturally, Joyce consoled and counseled them. Her career at Prudential also strengthened her. "I found tremendous inspiration and motivation from Prudential's training programmes that reinforced the importance of having a vision and hope," she adds.

Joan Swee, a corporate trainer and Honorary Secretary of Wicare, reveals:"“I met Joyce after I was widowed for over a year. She was an oasis for me. She was struggling… juggling between bringing the bacon home and making time for her teenage daughters. Yet, she gave hours and hours of listening to bereaved widows who needed someone to understand their pain."

Joyce’s informal gatherings with other widows led to the forming of Wicare Support Group in 1994 to support widows and the fatherless. One of its core programs is the two-day residential Grief Recovery Workshop.

"There are many emotional issues that need to be worked through and released," explains Joyce. "Often, there are specially difficult cases like wives whose husbands had committed suicide. Or wives who get a big shock – finding out their husband had cheated them all these years – when a 'second family’ turns up at the funeral."

Wicare was fortunate to have the support of Mr Anthony Yeo, Consultant Therapist of Counselling & Care Centre, who provided the help of family therapists. Today, Joyce and two of Wicare’s committee members are trained to do the Grief Recovery Therapy themselves.

"The wounds of widowhood are not easily seen with the eyes because the process of grief is expressed within the heart and soul. Others who are not widows can misread us. It takes a widow to fully understand a widow," explains Joyce.

Wicare has benefited from the help of many people including Dr Teo Ho Pin, Mayor of Northwest CDC, who found premises for them at Block 3 in Gim Moh Housing Board Estate. Now, Wicare has relocated at its new 1,000-square feet premises at Bishan Office Tower, thanks to the National Council for Social Services. The office is managed by two full time staff, who are also widows.