SINGAPORE - To support the expansion of its services and outreach to the community, the Singapore Red Cross (SRC) will have a new eight-storey building in Dhoby Ghaut.
This is expected to cost close to $30 million, and is likely to be ready by 2019, in time for the charity's 70th anniversary.
The building will sit on a 6,000 sq m site next to the SRC's existing premises at the Red Cross House, which is gazetted as a conservation building and will be transformed into a heritage centre. An event plaza will bridge the original and new buildings, creating an additional space for charitable activities.
The new building is designed by Ong & Ong, who beat 48 other entries in a competition for the redevelopment project.
Said SRC chairman Tee Tua Ba: "With the new building, we will launch new services, such as a day activity centre in the city, (a call centre to run) an eldercare monitoring service, and new social enterprises to boost our support for vulnerable groups in our community."
The plans for the new building were announced on Thursday (Oct 6), at an awards ceremony to recognise people for their service to SRC. The announcement comes on the back of the SGSecure national movement launched last month to prepare the public against terrorist threats.
Mr Tee said: "We in Singapore need to pay attention to the call to build resilient communities. We face a volatile global security situation with the ever-present threat of terrorism. We also have an ageing population, where one in five people will be above the age of 65 by 2030."
The SRC will increase its capacity to train more people in first aid, build up its blood donation advocacy programmes, and expand its pool of blood donors from 1.8 per cent to 3 per cent of the residential population.
In five years' time, it hopes to have 100,000 regular blood donors and a million people here trained in first aid.
President Tony Tan Keng Yam, who is also patron of the SRC, said: "I am heartened that SRC will scale up its humanitarian services to empower more people with life-saving skills, and to strengthen community resilience...
"The new building will provide more resources and opportunities for people to embrace volunteerism and philanthropy in their humanitarian endeavours."
From now till November, the SRC is also running an online beneficiaries-fronted campaign to raise awareness and support for its four key community services:
* FoodAid - which provides disadvantaged families with nutritious food
* TransportAid - an escort service to help needy elderly and disabled get to and
from their medical treatment and rehabilitation
* Community-Led Action for REsilience (Clare) programme - which trains and
mobilises volunteers to be citizen first responders to provide first aid, eldercare
and befriending services in their neighbourhood
* Red Cross Home for the Disabled - a residential home and day activity centre for
people with severe and multiple disabilities
For more information, go to www.redcross.sg
