Cleaning Up like a Boss

Business school for domestic workers helps them become entrepreneurs.

I've been a volunteer mentor at Aidha for over two years now and it's one of the most gratifying aspects of my life here in Singapore.

It has given me the privilege to mentor women who are a lot like me.

I too come from a developing country — a foreign worker in Singapore.

Like most of my mentees, I send money home to family every month. And I share with them the journey of adventure mixed with sacrifice that characterises the choice we made to leave our motherland to ensure a brighter future for those we love.

Like them, I struggled to make ends meet. It took a while to find that balance of taking care of others and not to forget about my own needs.

Opportunity

What Aidha has given me is an opportunity to learn, together, how to manage our finances, make it grow, start a business, become entrepreneurs, and thrive as independent, capable and confident women!

It has also given me the priceless gift of seeing the metamorphosis of women like Jeanilyn Bermudez, in the video above, from impoverishment to empowerment.

From wondering "Can I?" to exclaiming "I can!"

To have witnessed that transformation from follower to leader in their own right and in their own eyes, is an honour I hold close to my heart.

There is one more thing I share with my mentees: we share a hope and a determination to make a difference with our lives. I have no doubt that we are already on our way.


Like Mai, you can volunteer to be a mentor with Aidha. Or you can sponsor a scholarship for domestic workers to gain financial and computer literacy as well as business management and entrepreneurship skills.

About Aidha

Set up in 2006, Aidha is teaches financial literacy and confidence skills to foreign domestic workers and lower-income Singaporean women. To date, the charity has impacted over 36,000 women, family and community members in some of the poorest countries in Asia.

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