A stranger funded her studies – she paid it forward by co-founding a charity for low-income families
CNA
Adriana Rasip co-founded Empowered Families Initiative to help low-income families in rental flats grow savings, start businesses and pursue goals through grants, matched savings and community support.
While Adriana Rasip was in secondary school, a stranger sponsored her education. She never found out who it was, as the money was given through the school. However, this was a turning point for her and continues to guide and inspire her work today.
“Someone believed in me, in my potential, and invested in me,” she told CNA Women. “I want to do the same for other families, to invest in people.”
As a political science student at the National University of Singapore, she wanted to be a policymaker. But a three-month internship at the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) turned those plans around.
While doing outreach to families living in rental flats to raise awareness of the community resources available to them, she realised that “you can’t make policies without knowing what’s the lived reality” of the people affected by them.
“I had the misconception that policymakers are the experts and that you can create programmes on your own,” she said.
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