Support Children with Parents in Prison

When a parent is incarcerated, a child’s world changes too. Your donation helps families rebuild trust, strengthen bonds and give every child the chance to feel safe, loved and seen.

Give children a fairer start

Our Mission

Giving children a fairer start to life

New Life Stories was established in 2014 to prevent intergenerational incarceration. New Life Stories is an IPC (Institution of Public Character) that aims to provide children of incarcerated parents with essential reading and pro-social skills to ensure that they are not left behind in their crucial early years of development.

New Life Stories has put in place a holistic strategy targeted at providing support to children of the incarcerated and their families. The programmes aim to provide these children with educational and emotional stability so that they can have a fairer start in school. Their parents are also supported by our customised in-prison programmes to prepare them for their release and to give them the reassurance to successfully reintegrate back into society. New Life Stories also educates and guides the families by providing them with essential tools to be self-sufficient.

Monetary donations above SGD50 are entitled to a tax deduction of 250% per transaction.

Our Campaigns

Join Our Campaigns

Support Children with Parents in Prison - NLS Family Strengthening Programme

When a parent is incarcerated, children often face separation, stigma, and instability in their lives. Many are cared for by relatives who step up selflessly but are stretched thin and struggle to meet every need. That’s where New Life Stories steps in. Through our Family Strengthening Programme, we support children, parents, and caregivers in rebuilding trust, healing broken bonds, and breaking the cycle of intergenerational incarceration. Our approach focuses on reconnection and providing a sense of trust and belonging rather than merely correcting behaviour. This motivates parents to stay out of prison, and prevents children from repeating a cycle. Your donation helps us create brighter childhoods and more resilient families through befriending, weekly reading sessions, learning journeys, workshops, and plenty more resources that restore hope and joy. Safe, loved and seen: that's what we believe each and every child deserves. Even when life takes a sudden, difficult turn, it is our job to remind every child that they are not forgotten.

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Beneficiary Stories & Media

Her life changed at 15 days old

Read the true story of Yayah, who was 15 days old when her father was taken away

Her life changed at 15 days old

Sathiya* is a quiet force of love and resilience. In a small one-bedroom rental flat, she single-handedly raises her 4-year-old daughter, lovingly nicknamed Yayah, while juggling long shifts as a Patient Service Associate at a local hospital. When I met her during one of our Ramadan home visits, it was clear that life hasn't been easy - her husband, Ameer*, has been incarcerated since 2021, just 15 days after Yayah was born. He has missed many milestones - her first words, her first steps. But one thing he’s never missed? A visit. For the past four years, Sathiya and little Yayah have shown up without fail. Through the glass and across the distance, they’ve held on to their unshakable bond which Sathiya remains committed to keeping alive despite the demands of single parenting. During my visit to their home, Yayah held on to her bantal busuk (“smelly pillow” in Malay, referring to her comfort blanket) throughout our conversation. Though shy around strangers, she is clearly a bright and gentle girl who, according to her mother, loves to draw and play with her dolls. Yayah doesn’t remember life with her father at home but her mother makes sure she knows she’s loved by both of them, with illustrations of them as a family framed on a shelf and her parents’ names printed across the living room wall. With no support from Ameer’s family, Sathiya ensures that Yayah continues to feel connected to her father even in his absence. Sathiya has held everything together with grit and grace, leaning on help from various SSOs, MUIS, her own family and now, New Life Stories. Through NLS, Yayah receives emotional support from her counsellor and will soon be paired with a befriender under our Family Strengthening Programme. Sathiya and Ameer are also learning how to co-parent, to reconnect, and to rebuild the family they never got to begin. Their first open visit after joining the Dear Papa programme gave Yayah the chance to sit across from her father without a barrier. This week, Yayah will get yet another opportunity during their next open visit to be held by her father and the family gets a chance to feel like a family again. Its stories like these that truly keep us going - to do what we do for our families. Thank you for being here with us, for us.

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