HARVEST FORCE 2023 ISSUE 3
STUDENT SPONSORSHIP SCHEME - HOPE FOR THE FUTURE
Rev Teresa Wilborn
MMS Consultant. She is a member of Aldersgate Methodist Church.
Her favourite food is laksa; it’s the first thing she eats when she returns to Singapore!
Over the past 15 years, SSS has provided educational opportunities to more than 2,000 children and youths from the poorest families in Cambodia, Laos, Nepal, Thailand, and Timor-Leste.
Editor’s Note: This article was first published in the September 2023 issue of Methodist Message.
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The MMS Student Sponsorship Scheme (SSS) is a programme that shares the love of Christ in a real and practical way by helping to break the vicious cycle of poverty. SSS has two donor schemes, for residential and nonresidential students. For residential students, SSS provides residential care to orphans or those from broken homes, including shelter, food, clothing, and access to education. For non-residential students, SSS contributes towards the costs of tuition, books, uniforms, school meals, and transportation. Whether directly or indirectly, people around the world have been affected by COVID-19. While the disease appears to be under control, the economic impact persists. Families living below the poverty line have been hardest hit with business closures, loss of jobs, inflation, and the death of breadwinners. Poverty continues to be the primary reason for children not enrolling in, or not finishing, school. Even if schools are “free”, the costs of uniforms, supplies, and transport are beyond the means of poor families. Dropping out of school virtually guarantees perpetuation of the poverty cycle since the income-earning potential of the child is reduced. SSS seeks to help these children. MMS has raised the monthly sponsorship rates with effect from 1 August 2023. The last increase in monthly contribution rates occurred eight years ago in 2015, 15 years after the scheme began in 2000. Unfortunately, living costs have continued to rise and a second increase is required in order to
