Volunteering Stint

I have always wanted to do some volunteer work.

When I was a teenager, I was actively involved in church activities. My church friends or cell group mates had done street-witnessing (approaching strangers to talk to them about Christ), gave out pamphlets for our church rallies, crusades and different services on the streets and door-to-door in housing estates, helped out with area cleaning, meaning cleaning the church office and rooms and baked cookies to raise funds among others.

It was meaningful, fulfilling and fruitful. Now that I look back, I think the church was right to engage energetic teenagers in lots of activities. 

A churchmate mentioned that she was giving out a pamphlet at a flat when one of the adults who was playing mahjong asked her in Chinese,"Girl, do you get paid doing this?" When she said no, the aunty turned to her mahjong kaki and said,"See? What do kids know about money?"

Although I had been a parent volunteer in Baby's school and joined a friend in her outreach to distribute food to the needy families, I didn't feel that it was out of an altruistic desire. I benefited from the activities in the capacity of a parent.

William would never think that it was a good idea to do work for free. To him, anything that involves work ought to be rewarded monetarily. Incidentally, Dr Ramani, a psychologist who specialises in Narcissist Personality Disorder, mentions in one of her videos that narcissists place a value on everybody around them. They measure everything using money, which is grotesque.

I didn't want to give myself too much pressure or create problems for others I was trying to help, so I decided to pick a seemingly easy job.

I volunteered as an assistant to help seniors redeem CDC vouchers in hard copies.

It was a 4-hour shift from 2pm to 6pm on a weekday. I turned up at the community centre 15 minutes earlier to be briefed on what to do.

I was partnered with a 31-year-old lady who was doing volunteer work for the first time as well. Through the small chat, I realised that I am not the only one who worries about the emotional impact and commitment of volunteering at children's home or old folks' home. I guess people who volunteer are like-minded at this level. 

The job was quite simple and there was a Community Centre staff who supervised the work done so it was not very stressful.

We were to ask the senior or whoever turned up if they wanted the CDC vouchers in paper or digital form. Most of them preferred the paper form.

After checking with them verbally if they had claimed the vouchers before, we would get their IC from them to scan their identification number into the system and key in their address and phone number. After that, we printed the CDC vouchers out and explained that the vouchers came in denominations of $2, $5 and $10. They would cut out the vouchers or QR code and use them accordingly at hawker stalls or coffeeshop stalls that allow the use of these vouchers. After the hawker has scanned the voucher, they should discard them.

I met an ex-colleague who came for the paper vouchers too.

While waiting for people to come in, the ladies talked about their experiences dealing with nasty people. There have been people who lodged police reports or banged tables over similar vouchers. An old uncle came the previous day to redeem the vouchers but realised that the daughter had redeemed them earlier. As each household is only entitled to $100 worth of vouchers, he would not be able to have a new set of vouchers. He said that his daughter and him were not on talking terms although they were living together so there was no way his daughter would share the vouchers with him.

Afterthoughts:

Spending a few hours at the venue gave me some insights on Singaporeans' behaviour and attitude towards these vouchers.

I used to think that most people would not be bothered about these vouchers since it's quite a lot of hassle to claim them or the amounts are too small for the affluent population to bother itself with. What I gleaned from these ladies' conversations was very enlightening. It sounded to me that these vouchers are a big deal to many people. GST vouchers, Singapore Discovery vouchers, Singapore Rediscovery vouchers and the CDC vouchers are often claimed very early and quickly. It made me feel ashamed for thinking the way I thought. $100 CDC vouchers, if properly utilised, are a hundred dollars saved for a year. At that moment, I was inspired to save more for the next year, and be as frugal as I can. 

By joining just one activity makes me realise that volunteers look like they are the giver but actually, the volunteers reap greater, intangible benefits by doing volunteer work. For instance, being inspired to save cannot be taught. It has to be caught. I may have been taught to save when young, but when you are not entirely convinced of the benefits, and saving out of needs, you tend to splurge when you grow tired of saving. After listening to those stories, I suddenly felt that I had not counted my blessings and should start saving properly. This is not something that can be compelled or taught.

I also realised that many of the people I came across soliciting donation of money or items were actually volunteers. I used to think that these people were paid. Now that I know they did those works for free, I have a sense of respect for those people. Time is really a precious resource for people living in Singapore and most people really have the mentality that you must be crazy to want to do something for free.

Just by volunteering for a few hours has enriched my mental well-being and opened my eyes to the common realities. I will try to look out for such volunteering opportunities in future.