Core to TSMP’s values is giving back to the community. Chaired by Stefanie Yuen Thio, SG Her Empowerment Limited (SHE) is a new charity for the empowerment of women and girls in Singapore. Jennifer Chia and her team helped establish SHE as a company limited by guarantee, and she will stay on as company secretary. Shen Yi Thio will spearhead discussions and collaboration with tech platforms and search engines to streamline reporting procedures when there are offending images or posts, to facilitate and expedite takedowns. Felicia Tan will head the liaising with the Law Society Pro Bono Services Office to provide legal clinics and pro bono legal services to those coming to the Victims’ Support Centre. Cathy Pereira will help SHE to coordinate with the police on providing more holistic and empathetic victim support.

SHE was born out of the work of the Sunlight Alliance for Action (Sunlight AFA), helmed by Senior Minister of State Sim Ann and Parliamentary Secretary Rahayu Mahzam. As part of the Sunlight AFA’s work, the setting up of a one-stop victims’ support centre for survivors of online harms and harassment was identified as one of the needs of the community. Online harms, a growing area of public safety concern, have proliferated in tandem with the rapid developments in technology and social media use, but is an underserved area in community needs.

Minister Shanmugam speaks about the new charity in his speech, with the relevant paragraphs about TSMP’s involvement reproduced here:

28. The Chairperson for SHE, is obviously going to be extremely important because it is a start up with a huge mountain to climb.
29. So Sim Ann and Yen Ling have persuaded Stefanie Thio to do this job. When you think of Stef, those of us who know her, various descriptions come to mind – redoubtable, formidable, indefatigable – you get the picture. She is a bundle of energy. Stef is a member of the Sunlight AfA, and a managing partner at TSMP Law Corporation, a highly accomplished lawyer. Several key members of the Sunlight AfA have also volunteered to serve on the board of SHE.
30. We thank Stef, and her fellow volunteers. This is extremely important work. I hope to see the NGO follow up on the work, the ideas that have come out from the Sunlight AfA, as well as the conversations surrounding the White Paper on Women’s Development.