Colouring Banda Street 2015

News release

Colouring Banda Street 2015

Celebrating the lives and places of our pioneer residents through heritage murals

Singapore, 17 April 2015 – At an opening ceremony officiated by Minister Chan Chun Sing, Deputy Secretary-General of NTUC and Dr Lily Neo, Member of Parliament for Tanjong Pagar GRC, 13 heritage murals depicting and celebrating the lives of Singapore’s pioneer generation of residents living at Kreta Ayer were unveiled to the public for the first time.

The murals, with the largest measuring approximately 68 square metres (18.55m by 3.7m; slightly smaller than the area of a badminton court), were hand painted by over 500 PwC Singapore staff volunteers over a period of six months. It took over 1,000 man-hours to complete the murals.

This year’s initiative, titled Colouring Banda Street 2015, received support and funding from SG50. As part of this year’s initiative, bags of daily necessities such as canned and instant food, cooking oil, and toiletries were also delivered to the elderly residents by the Guests-of-Honour.

Said Minister Chan Chun Sing, Deputy Secretary-General, NTUC:

“It is heartening to see Kreta Ayer residents and volunteers from PwC come together to give their time, energy and good will to the elderly residents of the Banda Street community.

“I hope that this initiative will spur others– be it from the corporate sector or individuals – to volunteer and give where they can.”

Said Yeoh Oon Jin, Executive Chairman, PwC Singapore:

“We are encouraged by the willingness of our people to volunteer their time and energy over the past six months to improve the surroundings and celebrate the lives and places associated with this pioneer generation of Banda residents.

“As an organisation, we have been volunteering time and skills to try to make a difference for various communities and associations both in Singapore and overseas, including underprivileged communities and schools in countries like Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, and other places in Southeast Asia.”

Concluded Deborah Ong, Corporate Responsibility Leader, PwC Singapore:

“The Banda Street programme has come a long way since its inception in 2008, growing from 184 PwC volunteers to today’s over 1000 volunteers.

“As a firm, we have always made it part of our mission to give back to the communities we live and operate in. In fact, PwC’s purpose is to build trust in society, and solve important problems. Giving back to society and the larger community is a natural extension of our purpose. We aim to continue finding meaningful, practical yet innovative ways of improving the community surroundings for the Banda Street elderly residents.”

ENDS