Earning my Singapore Brownie points

In a flurry of arranging team events and sessions at work (as it’s nearing the end of the quarter and I realised that there was a lot of things that we had half planned and not quite finished getting done), this Saturday morning saw me having to skip my Pilates class and gym session in favour of a very different early morning activity.

I often get a bit upset by the elderly poor in Singapore. There are no clear schemes to help care and support the poorer older generation in Singapore, and whilst Chinese family traditions mean that all older family members ought to be cared for by their children, this often seems not to be happening.

            So, filled with enthusiasm to try and help make a change, I signed all my team up for a 5am start at the local soup kitchen where we would volunteer our time for one Saturday morning to help pack up meals, cook up enormous batches of noodles and rice, and peel more potatoes than you can ever imagine.

I was worried that everyone would reject me, but I was impressed when on Saturday morning there was five of us (out of a team of seven, although one was a non-employee who just wanted to join the action) ready to help.

            We cooked, cleaned, packed, peeled, chopped and scrubbed, and we only just brushed the surface. When imagining a soup kitchen somewhere like Singapore I had assumed that there would maybe be ten of us working in a small kitchen, getting enough food for 100-150 people arranged.  This was very much not the case. Whilst we were amongst the first non-full timers to arrive, but the time we left just before lunch there were around 70 people filling the area, working non-stop to get the food ready for the next day now that the days deliveries had been taken out in the back ten very large vans. 

 

It’s a charitable operation, staffed mainly by volunteers, but it’s a huge operation, and I can’t imagine just how much of an impact it must be having on the lives of so many needy and vulnerable older people within the Singapore community.

            I have not yet checked to see if the team would be willing to go again, but I think that maybe once every few months I might be able to get them to dedicate some time to similar or new projects too. Even if it does mean an even earlier start than normal!