Jerome blogs about a nondescript building that housed an agency that changed the social landscape in Singapore. Do you know where this place is?

Standing at 26 Dunearn Road, this building once housed the Singapore Family Planning Unit, whose most memorable achievement was to lower the birth rate in Singapore – some might argue too successfully. Jerome writes:

I suppose that most of my generation would remember the Board’s efforts in the 1970s more than the building, with its distinctive logo and its slew of posters and slogans which one really couldn’t miss, which sought to remind us with what was usually a picture of two girls, that, “Girl or Boy, Two is Enough”. This was everywhere, and with the powers of persuasion that most couldn’t really afford to ignore, the programme was one of the more successful ones, which many now feel contributed to the current low birth rate amongst Singaporeans. The campaign had been part of the Board’s second (of three) five year plans, launched in 1971, the first being aimed at selling the idea of family planning to 60 percent of married women aged between 15 and 44, and the third being to persuade the young to delay marriage and have children later. Based on available statistics, the success of the policies initiated by the Board can be seen in the total fertility rate falling from 3.07 in 1970 to 1.82 at the start of the 1980s. The total fertility rate in 2010 was 1.16.

You can see some of the ‘Two is Enough’ campaign materials in Jerome’s post here. I wonder, if the Family Planning Unit was so successful in reducing the rate, why would not the reverse be true? Today, the unit is no more, but the building is still home to a number of health-based groups like the Breast Cancer Foundation, the Epilepsy Care Group and the National Stroke Association.