It takes a village to raise a child, and Marina Osman knows how hard it can be to not have that support.
The 39-year-old Learning and Development specialist at DBS Group Operations grew up watching her mother care for her twin sisters with cerebral palsy, a group of neurological conditions affecting movement and posture.
Her sisters, now 38, need help for activities like eating and showering.
Marina’s father had been the sole breadwinner, working as an air-ticketing agent and then as a taxi driver, so caring for the three children largely fell to her mother.
“She was on standby 24/7 to meet (our) needs. It was physically, mentally, and emotionally very demanding,” Marina recalls.
Her mother had little access to resources and guidance for raising children with cerebral palsy in the 1980s and 1990s, she says.
Marina Osman (left), with her mother Susie Said, sisters Jamilah and Jamalia, 38, and children, Qayyum, 9, and Khalisah, 6.
PHOTO: SAMUEL HE
“People had not been very open about sharing their problems, so my mother kept a lot of things to herself,” she adds. “I think it had been a very lonely journey for her.”
Marina struggled as a mother too. She was frustrated and stressed when her milk supply fell short after her son was born in 2017. Confiding in others is what pulled her through, she says.
That support – which she found, and her mother never had – is what she offers other mothers today as a volunteer at KidSTART, a non-profit organisation supporting families in early childhood development from pregnancy through age six.
Being a mum can be overwhelming, she says. “You’re dealing with a child who cannot speak to you and you don’t know what is right.”
“The least I can do is to listen (to these parents) on what they’re going through without any judgment.”
Marina, who is married and has a nine-year-old son and six-year-old daughter, began volunteering at KidSTART workshops in May 2026 through DBS People of Purpose, the bank’s staff volunteer movement. They live with her parents, now in their 60s and retired, and two sisters in a five-room Housing Board flat.
The workshops are part of the Pregnant Mum and Baby Nutrition Programme, launched by DBS Foundation and KidSTART in September 2025 with a $6.5 million, three-year commitment to support 2,250 mothers from pregnancy through to the child’s first year.
Under the programme, DBS employees help facilitate workshops on nutrition, mental wellbeing and financial literacy; deliver care packs containing items like chicken essence, pregnancy pillow and nursing shawl, and encourage meaningful engagement among parents.
Marina engages parents at these sessions. “I give them a safe space. I tell them: ‘Whatever you tell me, I will keep it in my pocket; I won’t reveal it to anyone else.’ It helps them to feel more comfortable opening up to me,” she says.
Marina Osman (right), watched her mother, Susie Said, raise her sisters with cerebral palsy in the 1980s and 1990s – when guidance and resources for such conditions were harder to come by.
PHOTO: SAMUEL HE
Making better choices
For new mum and housewife Anantaraja Puvanapriya, who goes by Priya, joining KidSTART has enabled her to make better choices as a parent – starting before her daughter was born.
A good start for every child
Launched in 2016, KidSTART is a non-profit organisation supporting families from pregnancy until their child turns six – a period of rapid brain development, says its chief executive officer Joel Tan.
By reaching families early, KidSTART aims to build parents’ confidence, strengthen the bond between parent and child, and connect families to the right support to enable their children meet developmental milestones for their age, he adds.
The 38 year-old joined KidSTART in October 2025, after a KidSTART practitioner approached her at the National University Hospital (NUH) following an obstetrics appointment.
Mothers enrolled in KidSTART at NUH have a team of three – a medical social worker, a nurse and a case management officer – guiding them through pregnancy.
Priya’s assigned nurse helped her to recognise when to head to the hospital based on her contraction frequency. Her daughter was born in March 2026.
She and her husband, 41, an enforcement officer, had initially wanted only new baby goods for their daughter.
But financial planning tips from workshops held by KidSTART and DBS Foundation made them more conscious of ways to stretch their budget.
They turned to good condition second-hand items, including from online platforms recommended by other KidSTART parents, and eventually bought a crib from a reselling platform.
The savings let her set aside more for insurance and her baby’s future, she says.
More experienced mothers also appreciate these workshops.
Ong Kah Hwee, 27, a mother of three and a sales administrator, says they help her better distinguish wants from needs and plan healthy family meals – using the supermarket vouchers she receives as part of the Pregnant Mum and Baby Nutrition Programme.
“I’m very particular about what my children eat because I want them to have a healthy diet,” says Ong.
That focus on nutrition began right after giving birth, when she received confinement meals for 10 days as part of the programme.
DBS volunteers look after her children at these workshops, letting Ong and her husband focus during the sessions.
Ong joined KidSTART during her second pregnancy in 2023, at a particularly trying time for the family. She and her husband – now a building modeller – had been unemployed and finances were tight then.
Beyond the programme, KidSTART also delivers fresh produce to the family’s home every month and sourced baby items like a double stroller, she says.
Finding a village
Other than practical advice and assistance, KidSTART weaves young families into a network of practitioners and volunteers like Marina, who offer emotional support.
Marina Osman (second from left) is one of the volunteers for the Pregnant Mum and Baby Nutrition Programme, launched by DBS Foundation and KidSTART. She is pictured here with her mother and two children at their home.
PHOTO: SAMUEL HE
Priya says she felt afraid at the start of her pregnancy, as she did not know many people becoming parents at the same time as her and her husband.
“Some were years ahead of us, and their experience is quite different from parents raising a young child now,” she says. “I thought (we were) going to be alone on this journey.”
Joining KidSTART connected her with other parents at a similar stage. A KidSTART practitioner and hospital worker also regularly check in on her prior to and after delivery, to see how she is coping physically and mentally.
She says: “I feel very supported, because I know that besides my family, there is a wider community out there that I can reach out to.”
That sense of community is what Marina hopes to offer as a KidSTART volunteer. She is heartened that organisations like KidSTART now exist to provide families with emotional support and financial help, recalling how her parents had nowhere to turn to during her childhood.
She was more fortunate. She found her village when she needed it.
Having a support network helped Marina Osman (right) in her motherhood journey – and she now volunteers to be there for other parents.
PHOTO: SAMUEL HE
“I manage better when I can speak to someone and get what I’m feeling out of my system,” says Marina.
That is why she wants to be part of someone else’s support network.
“It’s not easy being a mother when you feel like what you’re doing is not enough, even when you’re actually going above and beyond.”
Better Starts with Us is the Ministry of Social and Family Development’s (MSF)’s multi-year effort to build a more caring and inclusive Singapore through the shared “We First” spirit.
MSF works with social service agencies, corporates, institutes of higher learning, volunteers, and the community to pool collective expertise and resources, with the aim of building strong families and resilient individuals.
Find out how MSF, its partners, and you can play a part at go.gov.sg/betterstartswithus
In partnership with the Ministry of Social and Family Development
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