Charity Work In Singpore

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31380, 27 May 1967, Page 2

Charity Work In Singpore

especial Crrpdt. N.Z.P.A.) SINGAPORE, May 26. Charity work by New Zealand women in Singapore received some publicity yesterday with a story and a photograph in the English-language newspaper “The Eastern Sun.” Under the heading: “Kiwi army vrives do their bit for the blind,” the newspaper told the story of four New Zealanders who frequently assist teachers at the Singapore School for the Blind. The four are Mrs Thelma Mallasch (Christchurch), Mrs Margaret Macaskill (Ashburton), Mrs Ngalte Ockwell (Dunedin) and Mrs Joyce Jeakings (Nelson). Mrs Ockwell Is learning Braille so that she can be of more effective assistance. The others spend several hours each week either reading to the children or in general supervision. The work with the blind children is only a part of the large amount of charity work done by New Zealanders, most of whom are freed from normal household duties by “amas”—locally-employed servants.

Much of the charity work is done by individuals—one army warrant officer’s wife, for instance, helps care for a spastic child—but much is also done through two clubs, the New Zealand Army Wives* Club and the women’s section of the “Australian and New Zealand Association."