Mentorship @ Lengkok Bahru

Over the past year, we had the privilege of getting to know Teacher Bee, who started Mentorship @ Lengkok Bahru from the ground up. Teacher Bee, as she is often affectionately known, by many of her students and volunteers, has been serving the kids around the neighbourhood passionately and lovingly. It was started 2013 and the tuition center has around 40 students who regularly show up for tuition. Majority of the students are from rented apartments in Lengkok Bahru. Tuition sessions are held every Tuesday and Thursday (7:30pm - 9pm)and on Saturday (2pm-4pm). During each session, students receive academic support from the mentors who interact with them, sometimes even taking home a few small gifts lovingly prepared by the mentors themselves too.

We sat down with Teacher Bee to ask about her motivations for doing this, and what we got was truly inspirational.

Apart from tuition time, the tuition center provides a shelter for kids at risk. Many of the students who comes to the center are from single parent family and lack parental guidance as parents are always out at work leaving the students to fend for themselves so they tend to spend a lot of time playing outside home and have not cultivated the stillness of sitting down to study or learn. Over the years as we bond with the students, the tuition centre is now a place where the students are delighted to visit as it is a place where they feel secured (away from bullies) , a place where they can find help when they encounter difficulties in their studies and a place where they can play freely as long as they follow the house rules and a place where someone will listen whenever they have something to share.

It’s with great joy that we got to know and experience this initiative within the Lengkok Bahru community. Indeed, such serves as a shining example of how much we can do, with so little.