Today, our group visited the Marsiling Self Collection Centre to help out in the house-to-house distribution of imperishable food items to the needy residents in Marsiling. Because our training ended late, and we were unsure how to get to the place, we reached the Self Collection Centre late by 15 minutes. Although it was not very polite for us to be late (particularly when we have promised we will come on time to help out), we were lucky enough not to witness a suicide attempt by one of the residents in Marsiling.

According to Eon (the co-ordinator for this distribution of food), the person had earlier wanted to land himself in the hospital because he was in a sorrowful plight (having no money). He was at the top of the building waiting for the Civil Defence personnel to pump up the “cushion” for him to land safely. However, before the personnel had pumped up the “cushion” properly, the man jumped to his death. It was really pitiful because it shows us how desperate people can get when they get into a predicament (in this case, the victim did not have money). By witnessing and knowing about these kinds of incidents, I feel more motivated to help the poor in Singapore. By just doing simple deeds of kindness, we can prevent somebody from going to the extremes. In this case, the man would not have attempted suicide if he had received financial help and support.

Anyway, the main reason why we came to Marsiling was to experience first-hand the house-to-house distribution of the food items. Our group got to distribute the food items to the needy residents living at the neighbouring block. Despite the relatively small size of the plastic bag which contained the food items, the food items weighed quite a lot. I was really surprised at how the needy can survive on these rations for a month. After all, we are used to being well-fed and constantly have money to splurge on. We carried the food items to the neighbouring block and distributed the items. We had a list of the people who had registered with Food From The Heart with us, and thus we were able to find the households that needed these food items. I found out that many of Food From The Heart’s beneficiaries generally have very low or no income at all. Some of these beneficiaries were elderly or they had to take care of a handicapped family member. What struck me most was the fact that these beneficiaries waited eagerly for the food to be distributed to them. They were so poor that they could not afford to spend money on meals, and thus relied a lot on the food being distributed. When we gave out the food items to them, they were very grateful to us. It was really great to see smiles on their faces after we had given out the food items.

I remember I had a discussion with my sister one day about why she always liked to buy prepaid cards for her online games. One card costs $10.50 (not a small amount), and she bought a few cards just to “buy her gaming character some clothes online”. I have always believed that buying such cards is a waste of money. After witnessing how the needy in Marsiling treated their food, I really felt that the money being spent on these prepaid cards could actually be spent to buy food for the poor. Little as the donated food might be, it meant a lot to the beneficiaries of Food From The Heart.

I thus believe spreading the awareness of the existing problems faced by the poor in Singapore would be very helpful in our cause to help the poor. By encouraging people (especially teenagers) to save money on unnecessary items, and to use the money to buy useful items to help the poor, the beneficiaries of Food From The Heart (or even any other charity organization) can really benefit. What is lacking is the awareness of the situation of poverty in Singapore, and the lackadaisical attitude youngsters now have regarding these issues. Many teenagers I have seen are more concerned about spending money on their computer games and television programmes than about the community at large. I seriously hope that our project can succeed in encouraging more people to help the needy in Singapore.