- 2 weeks ago
Audrie Siew: Advancing Family Integrity, Child Protection, and Systemic Social Reform in Singapore
Singapore continues to be recognised globally for its strong social institutions, effective governance, and commitment to building inclusive communities. Among the leaders who have helped strengthen these foundations is Audrie Siew, whose appointment to Icons of Change Singapore recognises her exceptional contributions to child protection, family preservation, and systemic social reform.
Throughout a distinguished career spanning public service and the non-profit sector, Audrie has dedicated herself to safeguarding vulnerable children, strengthening families, and advancing integrated social care systems. Her work embodies the principles of Sustainable Development Goal 16 – Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions, demonstrating that resilient societies are built upon institutions that protect, empower, and uphold the dignity of every individual.
As former Executive Director of The Salvation Army and former Director at Singapore's Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF), Audrie has played a pivotal role in shaping policies, programmes, and services that support children, youth, and families facing complex social challenges. Her leadership has contributed to strengthening Singapore's social service ecosystem through collaboration between government agencies, community organisations, and frontline practitioners.
Widely respected for her expertise in child protection, trauma-informed care, foster care systems, and family preservation, Audrie has consistently championed approaches that place the well-being of children and families at the centre of decision-making. She recognises that lasting social change requires not only intervention during times of crisis but also preventive strategies, early support, and coordinated systems that enable families to thrive.
Throughout her career, she has advocated for integrated care models that bridge policy with practice, ensuring that vulnerable children receive holistic support while families are equipped with the resources, guidance, and stability needed to remain strong and resilient. Her work reflects a deep understanding that protecting children is both a social responsibility and a collective investment in the future of society.
Audrie's leadership extends beyond organisational management. She has been instrumental in developing multi-lateral collaboration, bringing together government, social service agencies, healthcare professionals, educators, and community partners to create more responsive and effective support systems. Through this collaborative approach, she has helped strengthen institutional capacity while promoting compassionate, evidence-informed solutions to complex social issues.
Singapore continues to be recognised globally for its strong social institutions, effective governance, and commitment to building inclusive communities. Among the leaders who have helped strengthen these foundations is Audrie Siew, whose appointment to Icons of Change Singapore recognises her exceptional contributions to child protection, family preservation, and systemic social reform.
Throughout a distinguished career spanning public service and the non-profit sector, Audrie has dedicated herself to safeguarding vulnerable children, strengthening families, and advancing integrated social care systems. Her work embodies the principles of Sustainable Development Goal 16 – Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions, demonstrating that resilient societies are built upon institutions that protect, empower, and uphold the dignity of every individual.
As former Executive Director of The Salvation Army and former Director at Singapore's Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF), Audrie has played a pivotal role in shaping policies, programmes, and services that support children, youth, and families facing complex social challenges. Her leadership has contributed to strengthening Singapore's social service ecosystem through collaboration between government agencies, community organisations, and frontline practitioners.
Widely respected for her expertise in child protection, trauma-informed care, foster care systems, and family preservation, Audrie has consistently championed approaches that place the well-being of children and families at the centre of decision-making. She recognises that lasting social change requires not only intervention during times of crisis but also preventive strategies, early support, and coordinated systems that enable families to thrive.
Throughout her career, she has advocated for integrated care models that bridge policy with practice, ensuring that vulnerable children receive holistic support while families are equipped with the resources, guidance, and stability needed to remain strong and resilient. Her work reflects a deep understanding that protecting children is both a social responsibility and a collective investment in the future of society.
Audrie's leadership extends beyond organisational management. She has been instrumental in developing multi-lateral collaboration, bringing together government, social service agencies, healthcare professionals, educators, and community partners to create more responsive and effective support systems. Through this collaborative approach, she has helped strengthen institutional capacity while promoting compassionate, evidence-informed solutions to complex social issues.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00sometimes some of them overlap so actually collective impact and the movement what rbw
00:05movement tries to do is to get everybody you know pointing the arrows in the same direction so
00:09together we can do more hi everybody i'm audrey sue i'm the southeast asia ambassador for world
00:20widow orphans i'm so happy to be here thank you very much for inviting me um well uh i am
00:25a wife
00:25of one husband and basically i've got two biological children uh we as a family have fostered seven uh
00:32seven six children and one adult and she was she had various disabilities so i guess uh i've been
00:39a leader at various in various functions relating to vulnerable children i've been working in the
00:43vulnerable children space for the past maybe more than 15 years so i've taken positions which include
00:50like you know at the leadership level of ngo overseeing a continuum of services for vulnerable
00:55children um i've been working at policy levels uh oversight of sectors and doing service development
01:03and so on so forth so i've been i've been working with kids for many years now
01:12change maker is a really big word uh so i think for me that is is a journey and it
01:19starts
01:19with having a deeper understanding of the pain that children had to go through because they live
01:25in very difficult circumstances in their families and then have to be removed from their families
01:29because of their safety or whatever reason it might be so i guess being a change maker really to me
01:36just
01:37means not forgetting the pain and remembering that we just really have to do something about this to
01:44make it better and so of course like you know we have to take care of ourselves and also our
01:48families
01:49our friends and so on so forth but it's about living missionally
01:59well world without orphans actually a movement that cuts across or right now over 90 countries
02:04so in all these different countries all the various national facilitators actually try to
02:09gather people together to to to so that people can come together to discuss to collaborate to try to
02:17solve the vulnerable children problems in their countries so as the world without orphans a
02:22southeast asia ambassador i try to gather the national leaders of southeast asia so you can
02:27strengthen the movement so i think basically maybe a collective impact right a lot of people are
02:32wondering what collective impact means if you think about it there are many many people in this world
02:37and in southeast asia even actually having wonderful hearts burning passion for vulnerable children but
02:44they're all contributing in their own ways to vulnerable children and they're going this way and
02:47that way and all that everybody's doing their thing but you look at it all the arrows are pointing
02:52all over right so actually collective impact and the movement what rbw movement tries to do is to get
02:57everybody you know pointing the arrows in the same direction so together we can do more you see when the
03:04problem is very big no one person or organization no matter how amazing and how talented can actually
03:11solve the problem right so the only way to solve big problems is really when we get people working
03:17together and with that we've got good chance
03:25okay so recently we had our first ever world without orphans southeast asia regional online
03:32regional leaders online gathering and actually when we we talk of this this actually started because we
03:39wanted to have a physical gathering in manila but you know what happened in the world right basically
03:44like you know i mean uh there was war in the middle east and then flying became very uncertain
03:49so because of that we had to actually cancel the physical gathering in manila so we thought oh
03:54dear how do we gather people together can we try online so we were going to gather online people
04:00we thought only 15 to 20 people would be coming so when the day actually came and we had we
04:05signed
04:05on we had over 40 people attending this online gathering and these gathering these particular leaders
04:11they'll come because it's only a leaders gathering we didn't expect many people it's not a mass event
04:15so the the things that the leaders that were coming actually had a very were the right people and they
04:21were the people who were working or had a sense of calling or passion for vulnerable children and as
04:28they sort of discussed i could hear their rich discussions and their heart for the work and they
04:32were all wanting the same thing they want a better world for vulnerable children and we also hear also
04:37that they they resonate with this this very important principle that children should grow in
04:42families so i was very i was very heartened by this i was like wow you know i was very
04:48thankful to
04:49actually meet all of them and from like you know um this few this small gathering that we thought we
04:53had because it's meant to be a leaders gathering not a big one now we're double the number of leaders
04:57who are coming on board this so we hope that this this work in the southeast asia gathering
05:03can be multiplied in southeast asia so we hope that the next gathering we have we will have more
05:08people coming on board and then more people hearing for the much needed um like you know information
05:15we hope that more people can hear this very important message that children need to grow in
05:20families and they can grow better in families we're not saying orphanages are bad at all because
05:25orphanages often rise up to meet a need where there are not enough families but we as a community all
05:30over the world can actually look at how we build options for families for children in any place
05:35that we are so we hope that that message can go out now so the second story um maybe i
05:40can share a
05:41little bit of success about how important uh like no family is so i had a foster boy who was
05:46having
05:47many challenging behaviors so he came in and i was talking to him let's call him then that's not his
05:54real
05:54name i told him he was 11 years old i said then can you tell auntie audrey why why are
06:01you behaving like
06:02this so that auntie audrey knows how to help you and he said to me auntie audrey do you know
06:08that it's
06:08been quite a few years and i cannot go back to my mom so because of that i keep wanting
06:14to go back to my mom
06:15but i just can't so with that i stand with his eyes i told him okay then auntie audrey is
06:23going to
06:24talk to the child protection professionals and we will find a way to see whether it is possible for
06:31you to get back to your mom so but you have to work with us so after that dan was
06:36like wow i'm very
06:37good behavior he still struggles and all that but his behavior improved tremendously so he's now he's now
06:43able to go back to his family already and salvation army actually runs a service called the befrienders
06:47for family service which i developed together with um another friend of mine like you know in this in
06:54the social service and basically and he's now being supported by the community because befrienders for
07:00families is basically a community service where where people in the community come alongside and wrap
07:04around each vulnerable family you know so he and his family are being supported by the community
07:08and so far they've been saying that you know that they're able to thrive at home in their family
07:15so this another story of how families actually families and communities rise up to take care of each other
07:28peace and justice are very important concepts in society right so when you've got peace and justice and
07:34strong institutions actually societies can thrive so actually when we look at these concepts these
07:38concepts i think it's useful to think of it at two levels the first level is actually that of the
07:43vulnerable children themselves so vulnerable children often come with multiple issues right because of
07:51what they've experienced in the past they live in very difficult backgrounds so they have got what
07:54we call as very often come with what we call as adverse childhood experiences or aces so aces include abuse
08:01neglect uh maybe um like you know um difficult or difficult household conditions like example uh one
08:09parent um like you know being one parent or one household member having addiction or maybe a divorce or
08:16even uh like you know seeing uh seeing a household member go to jail or experiencing uh spousal violence or
08:24something like that so can you imagine as a child you're seeing all this or having all this in your
08:28life it affects
08:29the child greatly and when the child is growing up actually the brain is still developing so all these
08:34things actually affect the development in a very deep way so this in the end actually has long-term
08:41impact that goes all the way to adulthood so research has shown right when a child has four or more
08:46aces
08:47for example um they are four times more likely to have clinical depression um or they can have 12.2
08:54times
08:54more suicide attempts so can you imagine the impact on children so when you want peace and justice
09:00actually we need to help vulnerable children to thrive right so that's one level and research is
09:06very clear that actually children thrive better in families so i think raising family-based care for
09:14vulnerable children is a key pillar for us to be able to build peace and justice in the future for
09:19vulnerable kids that's one so the second part for peace and justice is about the community so i often
09:25say right so can you imagine every single vulnerable family being surrounded by a by a community group
09:32so what would that what would the family look like what would the community group like what would the
09:37community group look like and what would society at large look like when we have got so many people
09:42going around and helping others so basically when you have a community like that and your community is
09:48actively helping others the society will look very different and the objectives of peace and
09:54justice will come up even stronger
10:01well every year world without orphans actually commemorates orphan sunday on the second sunday of
10:08every november so basically on the second sunday of every november we send out to all our networks and
10:13all say hey everybody can we come just set aside some time to remember orphans and the need for
10:20orphans to be with families right so basically in this time if it's a religious institution we'll say
10:26hey can you pray about orphans uh well in a community group we say oh can you set up some
10:30time set aside
10:31some time and maybe in this time maybe invite a foster parent to share or adoptive parent to share their
10:36story so that they can we can raise awareness for the need for kids to be in families and so
10:41on so forth
10:41so this is one one this is one project that i hold very dear because actually there's a need for
10:46the
10:47community to actually know more
10:53so the thing that i enjoy the most about my current work is that i get to meet like-minded
10:57people from
10:58across the world it's really amazing like for example i just came back from nepal and i met so many
11:03people who are passionate about vulnerable children it invigorates me it helps me to feel that actually i'm
11:08part of this very very large global community that's out there trying to make things better for kids
11:18well actually i don't really have a concept of work-life balance because to me um work and life
11:25i mean if if you basically see that your life is about living missionally you don't really need to
11:31separate it isn't it yeah so so i guess to me it's more like things are integrated you know so
11:38if you
11:39live missionally you don't really you don't really it's you don't really see it separately i think that's
11:45it even if you sort of like have that integration and that purpose-driven life and the whole missional
11:51focus in your life right actually you still need to have fun and take care of yourself and take care
11:56of
11:56your family and spend time and do life right so so i guess what i do is that you know
12:01i i i that's the
12:02balance that i do to make sure that i also have time to spend my family for example i go
12:07for family
12:07holidays with my family like you know regularly so that you know we can all get away spend some
12:12intentional time together uh having fun right because we are big on having fun yeah and then um like
12:18you know that's one thing and and then um every night okay this is my secret which probably won't be
12:23secret after this but like you know i will make sure i watch sea drama
12:29because to me it's a little bit of escape now because sea drama with all these beautiful faces
12:34and beautiful people like you know i need that break to go into the surreal world i especially like
12:39period drama because it's nothing like my world right so i need to sort of like have a little bit
12:43of
12:43escape yeah so sea drama is my escape like zhang linghe pursuit of jane
12:54first things first is to remember why you're doing this the heart of the matter is the matter of the
12:59heart right so start where you are remember what we said before about what's in your hands so what
13:04is your hands is what you can use to start and i will always say you know do not disdain
13:08the day of
13:09small beginnings so sometimes a small beginning doesn't look like much but don't disdain it because
13:14actually you know it can grow grow into something very very big have faith carry on and take care of
13:21yourself start small and keep the dream big
13:30well with this saying in world without orphans there's always this question what is in your hands
13:35right so we believe actually that whatever is in your hands can be something that's used to
13:40contribute to this area of work because you know there are many people who can make life better for
13:46kids so for example what you guys are doing are already so important making this message well
13:51like better known and raising awareness so that's already in your hands you'll use what's in your
13:55hands whether it's a videography or or like you know um social media and so on so forth to actually
14:01help people to be more aware so like you know people can also find ways for supporting families
14:07like vulnerable children to stay with families so example if the if the family is finding it difficult to
14:12actually take care of the kid maybe somebody in the community can come alongside the family and maybe
14:17be a friend to the family right maybe bring the child out for mcdonald's respite for a little while
14:23so that the mother can have a little bit of rest and so on so forth this helps the family
14:27a lot
14:28yeah so then basically for those who are able maybe rise up to be foster families or
14:33adoptive families be there for the kids who can no longer be with their families and it's so important
14:38because in singapore for example there's a shortage of foster parents and so if people can do that we
14:43can all together together together we can make a better world for kids and also please do like and
14:49follow our world without orphans sea you know social media as well as world without orphans sg social media
15:08so
15:08you
15:08you
15:09you
Comments