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Straits Times
6 days ago
- Health
- Straits Times
Methodist Welfare Services launches platform to match volunteers with suitable opportunities
A demonstration of The Healing Nation digital portal at the launch of the initiative held at the Methodist Welfare Services Nursing Home on May 29. ST PHOTO: GAVIN FOO SINGAPORE – Individuals, businesses and community groups can now be matched to suitable volunteer opportunities on a new volunteer portal called The Healing Nation. Launched by Methodist Welfare Services (MWS) to mark SG60 and the 140th year of the Methodist Church in Singapore, the platform hopes to boost volunteerism here. There are 143 volunteer opportunities with more than 100 charities that cater to different interests, needs and availability. These include facilitating workshops for children, offering seniors barber services, befriending rough sleepers and supporting persons with intellectual disability in water play. The charities work with the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth's 24 SG Cares Volunteer Centres, which are community-based organisations in each town appointed to coordinate volunteer efforts and resources to meet community needs. The charity shared its plans at a media briefing at the MWS Nursing Home in Eunos on May 29. MWS hopes to get people to pledge a total of 1.4 million hours of volunteer service in 2025. Close to 180,000 volunteer hours have been pledged by Methodist schools, churches and individuals since the platform was piloted within Singapore's Methodist community in April. The platform is now open to everyone in Singapore. Built by fund-raising platform the volunteer platform's algorithm uses artificial intelligence to learn users' preferences and improve matches over time. The platform can also track the hours of community service clocked by the individual or organisation. (From left) Kampong Kapor Community Services executive director Lee Yean Wun, Methodist Welfare Services board of governance chairman Eugene Toh, Bishop Philip Lim, Methodist Welfare Services CEO Calvin Ngo, and founder and CEO Pong Yu Ming at the launch of The Healing Nation initiative at the Methodist Welfare Services Nursing Home on May 29. ST PHOTO: GAVIN FOO Separately, MWS also aims to raise $1.4 million to fund social and healthcare services beyond its own services. It will hold an open call for charities to receive funds to help 1,000 families. About $600,000 has been raised so far. Mr Eugene Toh, chairman of the MWS board of governance, said many charities here have been building their own volunteer bases, but MWS hopes to help spur greater partnership in the care sector with shared resources and mutual support. 'In a world where things are interconnected, whether it's ageing, chronic illness or isolation, our response must also be interconnected,' he said. The Healing Nation platform will run until February 2027. Speaking at the Agency for Integrated Care (AIC) Community Care Work Plan Seminar 2025 on May 28, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung had highlighted the growing demand for community care to meet the needs of Singapore's ageing population. He said the 'centre of gravity' of care will shift from hospitals to communities, helping seniors who are healthy to stay healthy, and those with chronic diseases to manage them well. MWS started in 1981 as a small nursing home, and has since grown to 23 centres, with programmes serving more than 16,700 families and individuals who experience poor health and financial distress. The charity provides services such as casework, counselling, medical and rehabilitative care, home-based, community-based and residential care, as well as a debt clearance and asset building scheme. Madam Li Chang, 50, was recommended by The Healing Nation platform to volunteer at the charity Riding for the Disabled Association Singapore in April. The housewife volunteers for 2½ hours on Wednesday mornings, helping to facilitate equine therapy programmes for people with special needs. Madam Li, who has previously volunteered at the MWS Nursing Home in Yew Tee offering pastoral care to residents, said she had wanted to try something new. 'I grew up in the city, so I'm fascinated by horses,' she said in Mandarin. She also hopes to take her 18-year-old son, who has autism, to an equine therapy session. Those interested can sign up for volunteer opportunities at The Healing Nation website at while organisations that wish to upload their volunteer opportunities can e-mail mcs140thn@ Join ST's WhatsApp Channel and get the latest news and must-reads.
New Paper
26-05-2025
- General
- New Paper
Over $36k raised in ground-up effort to help community cat feeders in Singapore
A local crowdfunding effort has raised more than $36,000 in six months to support cat feeders in Singapore who often operate under the radar and reach deep into their pockets to provide for community cats. The amount raised by supports cat feeders in Boon Lay, Sengkang, Circuit Road and the south region, with the organisation aiming to cover feline caregivers islandwide in due course. This initiative first started with 18 cat feeders in Boon Lay, who provide for around 250 community cats in the neighbourhood. Some caregivers would feed 40 cats twice a day - in the early morning and at night. Since December 2024, more than $19,800 has been raised for the Boon Lay cats. On average, $60 is needed to feed one cat every month, covering dry and wet meals, kibbles and supplements, Ms Phoong Kai Wen, a grassroots leader in Boon Lay, told The Straits Times at a fund-raising event for the initiative at Club Street on May 25. The initiative is also supported by the Boon Lay Zone A, C and D Residents' Network. With the amount raised so far, has been able to provide about $300 worth of cat food for each feeder. In Boon Lay, the money is sent to pet shop Pet HQ, where feeders can collect the food items every month. Boon Lay cat feeder Shereen Adwaney said that while the $300 does not cover all the food expenses, it helps to defray a bulk of their caregiving costs. At times, cat feeders also have to double up as cat rescuers if they need to take sick felines to the vet. Veterinary costs are rising in Singapore and the bills are often borne by the feeders. "(This initiative) helps because we're using our own money. The attitude of cat lovers is: The cats must eat first before we do. For me, I'm already tapping my CPF savings to feed the cats," said Madam Adwaney, 66, a quality and training audit manager. Ms Phoong said: "You cannot assume that all feeders are providing for the cats because they have the money and time. We don't have many feeders whose pockets are deep enough." Boon Lay cat rescuer Mindy Cheong spends $4,500 on food every month for her 30 foster cats. The freelance accountant lives in a one-room flat with the cats and is about to move to a three-room flat. " helps to reduce my burden quite a bit. When I rescue cats, the transport fees are borne by me. The vet fees and blood tests are paid for with my personal savings," said Ms Cheong, 45. decided to start this initiative in late 2024 when it noticed several fund-raising campaigns for community cats on its site. The fund-raising platform's founder Yu Ming Pong said: "Right now, most feeders operate in isolation - scrounging from their savings and often burning out. When these longtime cat feeders came on our platform to seek assistance, we decided to step up and support this ground-up initiative." The fund-raising continues as the west region, which includes Boon Lay, requires $138,000 a year to cover up to 30 feeders. At the May 25 event, Madam Adwaney and Ms Phoong also touched on errant cat feeders - well-meaning individuals who feed community cats occasionally when they see them but do not clean up after the cats finish eating. This practice not only tends to attract rodents and roaches to the leftover kibbles, but also, feeding without being aware of a particular cat's dietary restrictions or health conditions could do more harm to the animal, said Madam Adwaney. The Boon Lay feeders are receiving donations at
New Paper
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New Paper
'Tell her you like her': The S'pore social experiment connecting strangers through letters
"I'm at Bar Nkd and I'm absolutely wasted, but hi," reads a letter from a stranger. "I hope you have a good night. And also, tell her you like her. This is your sign. Good luck." Singapore may not have a reputation for being the friendliest city, but one social experiment is telling a different story, one letter at a time. Since March, cryptic QR code posters have popped up across the toilets and walls of 10 cafes and bars in the city centre - from Pearl's Hill Terrace to Ann Siang Hill. Scanning this code leads to a form ( where anyone can write an anonymous letter to a stranger. Every Sunday, participants are matched and receive a letter from a stranger. So far, 94 people have exchanged 104 letters. Once a writer submits a letter, they are matched with another writer and receive a letter from them on Sunday. PHOTO: "I feel very alone here in Singapore, but then I saw this sign and thought, maybe I'm not the only one feeling lonely," reads one anonymous letter. "It's okay not to be okay sometimes. These moments give us the kick in the butt we need. Being able to admit that sometimes things aren't as good as they should be is motivation to make change." Another letter writer confesses: "I fell in love recently. A wonderful type of love, honest, open, true, the kind of love that people long for." "I leave Singapore in a while, so these moments are precious. I will come back. But there's that lingering fear that distance will put a halt to us," the writer continues. Part of the reason for the candour may be because many stumble upon these QR codes late at night in bars after a few drinks. The initiative's creator, Ms Gena Soh, did not expect it to resonate with so many. The 28-year-old, who works for social philanthropy platform was initially inspired by a chance encounter with a friendly Grab driver, who wrote her a long and moving message on Instagram after the ride. "I feel like we don't have enough initiatives to connect with strangers in Singapore. It's always so random and dependent on meeting a nice person and having that serendipitous encounter," she says. "So, I wondered, could we create these serendipitous encounters in more places?" Ms Soh adds that when she was younger, she loved writing letters, especially during her time in girls' schools where letters of appreciation were a common token of friendship. "Adults are so lame because they've lost that spontaneous earnestness," she says. She thus launched this social experiment with as part of its One Million Acts Of Kindness campaign to commemorate SG60. Although she initially expected to end the experiment in April, the letters kept streaming in. She adds: "I thought, why not just keep going?" The project is largely automated. An AI tool screens submissions for inappropriate content and rates them on sincerity and effort. Based on those scores, letters are matched to others with similar ratings and sent out every Sunday. Ms Soh spends around 20 minutes each week overseeing this process. So far, 94 people have exchanged 104 letters. PHOTO: One letter writer, Ms Suranjana Sinharoy, a 23-year-old trainee lawyer, says the anonymity the project offers can be freeing. "I found myself writing more meaningful and heartfelt things. It made me feel closer to myself, and it was interesting to feel a connection like that." Meanwhile, Ms Kathryn Lim, manager of Bar Nkd in Club Street, one of the venues hosting the letter-writing QR codes, says: "It's been beautiful watching people take a quiet moment to write or read a letter." "There's something incredibly grounding about it in a world that moves so fast," she adds. Looking forward, Ms Soh is planning an in-person meet-up in June for letter writers to meet face-to -face. She is also working on convincing more businesses to host her QR code posters. "It's all part of this ongoing experiment to get Singaporeans to connect," she says. Her next goal: getting a Member of Parliament to join in on the letter-writing.
Straits Times
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Straits Times
‘Tell her you like her': The S'pore social experiment connecting strangers through letters
A social experiment started by Ms Gena Soh (left) is connecting Singaporeans through the lost art of letter-writing. PHOTOS: 'Tell her you like her': The S'pore social experiment connecting strangers through letters SINGAPORE – 'I'm at Bar Nkd and I'm absolutely wasted, but hi,' reads a letter from a stranger. 'I hope you have a good night. And also, tell her you like her. This is your sign. Good luck.' Singapore may not have a reputation for being the friendliest city, but one social experiment is telling a different story, one letter at a time. Since March, cryptic QR code posters have popped up across the toilets and walls of 10 cafes and bars in the city centre – from Pearl's Hill Terrace to Ann Siang Hill. Scanning this code leads to a form ( where anyone can write an anonymous letter to a stranger. Every Sunday, participants are matched and receive a letter from a stranger. So far, 94 people have exchanged 104 letters. Once a writer submits a letter, they are matched with another writer and receive a letter from them on Sunday. PHOTO: 'I feel very alone here in Singapore, but then I saw this sign and thought, maybe I'm not the only one feeling lonely,' reads one anonymous letter. 'It's okay not to be okay sometimes. These moments give us the kick in the butt we need. Being able to admit that sometimes things aren't as good as they should be is motivation to make change.' Another letter writer confesses: 'I fell in love recently. A wonderful type of love, honest, open, true, the kind of love that people long for.' 'I leave Singapore in a while, so these moments are precious. I will come back. But there's that lingering fear that distance will put a halt to us,' the writer continues. Part of the reason for the candour may be because many stumble upon these QR codes late at night in bars after a few drinks. The initiative's creator, Ms Gena Soh, did not expect it to resonate with so many. The 28-year-old, who works for social philanthropy platform was initially inspired by a chance encounter with a friendly Grab driver, who wrote her a long and moving message on Instagram after the ride. 'I feel like we don't have enough initiatives to connect with strangers in Singapore. It's always so random and dependent on meeting a nice person and having that serendipitous encounter,' she says. 'So, I wondered, could we create these serendipitous encounters in more places?' Ms Soh adds that when she was younger, she loved writing letters, especially during her time in girls' schools where letters of appreciation were a common token of friendship. 'Adults are so lame because they've lost that spontaneous earnestness,' she says. She thus launched this social experiment with as part of its One Million Acts Of Kindness campaign to commemorate SG60. Although she initially expected to end the experiment in April, the letters kept streaming in. She adds: 'I thought, why not just keep going?' The project is largely automated. An AI tool screens submissions for inappropriate content and rates them on sincerity and effort. Based on those scores, letters are matched to others with similar ratings and sent out every Sunday. Ms Soh spends around 20 minutes each week overseeing this process. So far, 94 people have exchanged 104 letters. PHOTO: One letter writer, Ms Suranjana Sinharoy, a 23-year-old trainee lawyer, says the anonymity the project offers can be freeing. 'I found myself writing more meaningful and heartfelt things. It made me feel closer to myself, and it was interesting to feel a connection like that.' Meanwhile, Ms Kathryn Lim, manager of Bar Nkd in Club Street, one of the venues hosting the letter-writing QR codes, says: 'It's been beautiful watching people take a quiet moment to write or read a letter.' 'There's something incredibly grounding about it in a world that moves so fast,' she adds. Looking forward, Ms Soh is planning an in-person meet-up in June for letter writers to meet face-to -face. She is also working on convincing more businesses to host her QR code posters. 'It's all part of this ongoing experiment to get Singaporeans to connect,' she says. Her next goal: getting a Member of Parliament to join in on the letter-writing. Join ST's WhatsApp Channel and get the latest news and must-reads.
