Many people were asking for a write-up on the Ramadan break fast aid campaign initiated about ten days ago and I told them that everything they need can be found inside a Happy Ramadan poster we did for the initiative! Anyway, it all started from a comment I read somewhere about this Malay guy who has no money to break fast with his family after fasting. I later found out that Mosques do provide free break fast rations but maybe he wants to bring his family somewhere nice to break fast together. I never see him as a Muslim in the first place but rather a fellow Singaporean who needs some assistance for his religious practice. But, more importantly, the fact that he could not bring his family out for a nice meal after fasting broke my heart. The person must be dead broke and suffering in other aspects of his life too I thought. How about his kids? Do they even have the resources to celebrate Hari Raya later on? When we started to ask our Muslim friends to write in for financial aid during the campaign if they dont have money to buy food after break fast, I was a little worried about infringing religious boundaries as here I am a Chinese Christian starting something that has religion written all over it. I took the whole day to ponder before putting up the poster and ever ready to remove it if there are many adverse comments but the opposite actually happened. People were quite supportive and I knew we were safe... In Singapore, we are taught not to step on some OB markers and religion is like a mega taboo subject. In fact, its so bad that we cant protest in Hong Lim park if the issue is a religious matter. I find that how the government segregates us into different races and religions have really divide us more than assimilate us as one united people. Its difficult to see ourselves us as one when we first see ourselves as Malay, Chinese, Indian or Eurasian. Now, we have Filipinos, PRC Chinese, India Indians among others and assimiliation seems to be a dirty word now as the different nationalities form enclaves in housing estates and shopping malls. Anyway back to the Ramadan break fast aid, people started to write in and our first recipient is a young jobless single mum by the name of Siti who has a 2-year-old daughter. We provided her $100 and she bought milk powder and pampers for the kid. Someone wrote in and asked for her account number after reading her appeal in our facebook and she bought a lovely pink dress for her daughter during their Hari Raya celebration. Four days after the campaign commences, a Chinese single mum donated the largest amount of $1200 specifying that she prefers to give to people in need with young children. Maybe because she is a single mum, she identifies more with their struggles and want to help them in return. But what surprised me is that here is a Chinese woman donating to a Muslim cause - my heart was unusually warm that day as I thought that only Muslims will take care of their own community but I was wrong! Mr Gani and Robert also volunteered to deliver groceries to affected families and all this was carried out without any prompting from us. They just responded spontaneously and their enthusiasm rubbed off me. Gani must have made at least four trips and more if all those he contacted have responded. Robert made two grocery trips and is ready for more. I must have corresponded more on facebook messages these few days than the whole year put together! I slept late and brought my laptop everywhere I went as the messages kept coming in! The message that broke me came five days ago when Anthony told me he wanted to pay for the groceries of three selected families. The grocery run will be carried out on Saturday and Sunday. He will meet them at the NTUC nearest them and the recipients will simply shop away while he waits at the cash counter with his Atm card! I selected two Malay and one Chinese family for the free grocery run. Can I be there and weep? I asked. He says he just wants to be with the families and prefer to be anonymous. I remembered when I saw the message, I broke down for a good long while. Maybe its the simplicity of his message to bless the three families in need in less than fifty words or the fact that he did something besides giving them money like many others have done. Another request that broke me came few days ago when this jobless guy wrote in saying he needed $250 to pay for his $350 accumulated PUB bill or else they will knock off the water supply to a trickle. He also lost his F & B job to a foreigner who is cheaper and willing to work longer hours. We offered to pay $200 and he promptly showed us the receipt which we posted up immediately. This request brought me back to a similar situation I faced when I was very young. I followed mum round the island who literally need to beg for money from relatives to pay the PUB bill. Many also wrote in asking if we can help a certain family whom they knew are suffering. We say yes to most of them without verifying much as we trusted their judgement. Many people also asked if we have vetted through their requests thoroughl before acceding to their requests. We applied a light touch here and will err on the side of trust than caution in dispensing our financial aid. We also dont have the resources like CDC to go through documents and do home visit to verify the financial needs of the applicants. I am sure that there will be fraudalent cases and we hope that it will be in the minority. If we can assist 90% of the cases who are genuine, we are satisfied. The Ramadan break fast aid campaign has proved that help can be extended to all people from different races/ religions - blurring the racial boundaries. Why do we need to waste precious resources by setting up different aid agencies based on race to assist needy citizens? Why the ugly segregations? Let us dare to break some traditional norm here by helping one another - regardless of our race and religion but more as a Singaporean in need.
Posted on: Thu, 17 Jul 2014 05:07:48 +0000
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