SINGAPORE - It was in prison school, while spending 12 hours a day preparing for his O and A levels, that Mr Mohammad Azahari Abdul Razak realised studying was something he could be good at.
In 2018, he secured his diploma, before gaining full-time employment as a service technician in a water treatment company.The record sum will benefit more than 3,000 inmates, ex-offenders and their families, by providing rehabilitative and aftercare services for the ex-offenders, which include the bursary programme.Over 600 corporate and individual donors attended the event at the Ritz-Carlton Millenia Hotel.
After serving a 13-year sentence, Mr Azahari was contacted by friends on the wrong side of the law upon his release in 2014.The fund also supports the family and children of offenders through the Yellow Brick Road programme, which provides parenting workshops, tuition classes and social enrichment workshops for families and children among others.Ms Yew said this Yellow Brick Road programme aims to break the"generational effect" of a prison sentence.