Soulrich Foundation Gives To Yellow Ribbon Fund

Every year in Singapore, more than 9,000 ex-offenders complete their sentences and are released from the various prisons and drug rehabilitation centres (DRCs).

It is disheartening that ex-offenders have to live with the stigma of having served time behind bars when they are released from prison, one that can often be more punishing than the prison sentence itself. Many ex-offenders, once released, find themselves literally stepping into a second prison. This time it would be a prison with invisible bars, of suspicion, of mistrust and of discrimination.The best rehabilitation regime during incarceration is of no use if ex-offenders find themselves rejected at every turn when they are released into the larger community.

Yellow Ribbon champions Hope, Forgiveness, Acceptance and Second Chances for ex-offenders in Singapore. Without second chances, a released offender will leave the first physical prison and find himself entering into a second social prison. When successfully reintegrated into society, they can pay it forward and actively give back too — as individuals, or collectively as a community.

We recently met up with Ashley Leong from Yellow Ribbon to show our support and present a cheque.

Said co-founder of Soulrich Foundation Shalyn Lee, “The Yellow Ribbon Fund is the first national charitable fund devoted entirely towards the development and implementation of rehabilitation and reintegration programmes for ex-offenders and their families. We hope to do our small part in assisting ex-offenders to reintegrate back to society. Everyone deserves a second chance.”