Since I was young, I have enjoyed volunteering at different charity organisations. I feel grateful for what I have, and I want to give back by helping those who are less fortunate. Two organisations I have volunteered regularly with during school holidays are TOUCH Community Services, where I like helping the vulnerable elderly, and Toa Payoh West Community Club, because I live in the same constituency and want to support my community.
1. Holiday Science Workshops for Children from Low-Income Families
(i) 8 September 2024 (6 hours)
(ii) 9 March 2025 (6 hours)
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Science is my favourite subject because I enjoy doing fun experiments and making new discoveries. I found out from the Internet that we can do many science experiments at home using simple ingredients from the kitchen, like baking soda, vinegar and turmeric powder. ​Since I enjoy the experiments so much, I wanted to share this excitement with other children who might not have the chance to try out experiments and learn from them.
During the school holidays in September 2024 and March 2025, I organised 2 sessions of free 2-hour Science workshop for 20 children from low-income families, with support from Toa Payoh West Community Club. I carefully planned the experiments and prepared all the materials, while the Community Club helped with publicity and registration.
For the first workshop in September, I chose "Earth" as the theme. I led the children through exciting activities such as journey to the centre of the Earth, a tornado-in-a-bottle, and a volcano eruption with overflowing lava and billowing smoke created using dry ice. The theme for the second workshop in March 2025 was "Explosive Science", where we explored capillary action by creating rainbows with coloured water, wrote invisible messages, inflated balloons using carbon dioxide, and demonstrated static electricity - plus another fizzy and sizzling volcano eruption again!
The children had so much fun, and most of them said the volcano eruption was their favourite part! It was a fun and exciting day for everyone. I hope to try out more new Science experiments and teach more children in the next holiday workshop.
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2. Meals-on-Wheels for Poor & Frail Elderly Living Alone
(i) 7 - 23 Jun 2024 (24 hours over 8 days)
(ii) 27 Dec 2024 - 1 Jan 2025 (24 hours over 8 days)
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During the June school holiday in 2024 and December school holiday, I volunteered a total of 48 hours over 16 days to deliver meals to more than 200 poor and frail elderly living alone in their flats in Ang Mo Kio. At the Touch Community Services branch, I helped to pack lunch and dinner packets before my mum drove my younger sister and me to various blocks to deliver the food. Each trip took about 3 hours to deliver about 12 to 15 packets of food, as we had to refer to the GPS to drive to the correct block, find the correct lift lobby, take the lift to the right floor, and locate the unit. My mum would wait at the carpark while my sister and I delivered the meals to the doorstep. Sometimes, we couldn't find the flat and there was once, I even delivered the wrong type of food an elderly but fortunately I managed to retrieve it in time.
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If no one answered the door, we would hang the food neatly on the door handle. I felt especially happy when the elderly opened their doors to receive the food and thanked us warmly. It gave me a strong sense of satisfaction to know that I had helped someone so that he would not go hungry. Some of the flats were very old, with dark corridors and unpleasant smells, and I felt a little scared - but I pressed on because I knew the elderly were counting on us for their meals.
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I will continue to volunteer to deliver meals to the elderly as long as I can still help.
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