I participated in a very meaningful event on Sun, 8 Feb - Charity Drive organised by my colleague Aaron & his group of friends.

They have been doing this charity drive once every year for the past 4 -5 years. They collect donations from friends and use the funds to purchase daily necessities and food items from Giant or Sheng Siong Supermarket. These items will then be packed into goodie bags & distributed to old or handicapped folks who are living on their own in one-room HDB flats. These needy people are under the Hardship / Government Aid scheme & the name lists are obtained from CDC. Aaron told a few of my colleagues & me that they need monetary contributions, as well as manpower resources on the actual day of distribution, so I decided to volunteer my services.

This year's donations totalled to SGD 31,350 which was distributed to 550 individuals. Each goodie bag had about SGD 37 worth of items, which included the following:

- Biscuits

- Herbal tea

- Anlene milk

- Medicated oil

- Plasters

- Toilet paper

- Towels

- Etc

- On top of those items, each of them was presented with a SGD 20 red packet.

We gathered at 10am under Blk 14B in Toa Payoh Lorong 7 to pack the goodie bags before heading to the various blocks to distribute the bags. The packing was done very systematically, with 1 person handling each item & the rest of us lined up to walk pass each of them with plastic bags. The items would be dropped into our plastic bags & we would pass the complete goodie bag to the guys at the end of the line to tie them up.

There was this auntie who saw us queuing up with plastic bags to collect the items, came up to me & asked what was being distributed. I told her these items were to be distributed to old folks & she asked if it is open to everyone. I told her that only certain people were entitled to get the free items & her reply was "then how come you can get it when you are so young?". I had to stop myself from rolling my eyes at her! Gosh, some people just cannot lose out on free giveaways. Anyway, I told her I was only helping to distribute the items to the selected needy people & she just walked away.

It was very heartwarming to see the appreciative faces of the old folks when they receive the gifts from us. Some of them are mute or have physical disabilities, yet they are able to look after themselves. I had the chance to peek into some of their flats & I am very surprised to see that their one-room flats are neater than my bedroom! Oops.. I mean, it is really wonderful to see that they can take good care of themselves & live contented lives.

It has been a really meaningful & enjoyable experience for me. Give us a chance to realise how lucky we are & allows us to reflect on ourselves.