Congregants heading to Masjid Yusof Ishak will no longer have to worry about getting wet on rainy days, thanks to a new free shared umbrella campaign.

In response to feedback about the absence of a sheltered walkway from a nearby bus stop to the mosque, Masjid Yusof Ishak launched the share-an-umbrella campaign yesterday.

These umbrellas, which will also be available to residents in the nearby Sembawang area, can be picked up and returned from either one of the two deposit spots at the bus stop along Woodlands Avenue 1 and the rear entrance of the mosque in Woodlands Drive.

The initiative is a collaboration between Masjid Yusof Ishak and the Admiralty Citizens' Consultative Committee.

The initiative is also supported by the Land Transport Authority and food company Goh Joo Hin, which sponsored 300 umbrellas for the campaign.

Mr Vikram Nair, MP for Sembawang GRC, launched the shared umbrella campaign yesterday.

He pointed out that a sense of civic-mindedness was crucial to the success of the campaign.

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Mr Nair, who is also the adviser to Admiralty Grassroots Organisations, said: "The most important thing is for Singaporeans to develop an understanding of what the campaign is about, and it requires a degree of civic-mindedness.

"Residents need to understand that it is more important for them to return the umbrellas after use for this scheme to work. I am positive that people will buy in to the idea and do the right thing."

The mosque said in a statement that the shared umbrella campaign was inspired by the initiative started by a group of Republic Polytechnic students, who came up with the idea for their final year project last year.

Their Sharella, or "share an umbrella", initiative was rolled out in December last year and enabled residents to borrow umbrellas from several umbrella deposit spots in Sembawang.

Mosque chairman Mohammad Ayub Johari said the campaign launched yesterday is meant to ease the lives of both residents and congregants.

He said: "We wanted to ease the way for our congregants and friends at the nearby flats. The absence of a sheltered walkway from the bus stop to the mosque can be difficult, especially if it starts to rain.

"We hope that with this campaign, it makes it a little bit easier for everyone."