Volunteer braved rain to deliver meals to elderly amid Covid-19
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Sea Wheel travel agency transport manager Goh Jin Xiong (right) receiving the YMCA-Lim Kim San Volunteer Exceptional Award from YMCA chief executive and general secretary Steve Loh on Thursday.
PHOTO: YMCA
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When the Covid-19 pandemic struck, Sea Wheel travel agency transport manager Goh Jin Xiong was worried that the elderly might not have been getting enough food.
So he decided to deliver hawker food to seniors on weekdays for nearly three months, as part of the YMCA Wok The Talk project, where volunteers delivered more than 70,000 meals to vulnerable groups between May and July.
Mr Goh, 35, said: "During the circuit breaker, most food centres and daycare centres were closed.
"The elderly who lived alone might not have been fit enough to cook for themselves, and there was no one to take care of them.
"There were days when I had to deliver over 30 packets of food to flats in 10 (Housing Board) blocks in the rain. But the hard work was all worth it when I saw the elderly folk waiting for me."
For putting in nearly 100 hours of volunteer work, Mr Goh was awarded the YMCA-Lim Kim San Volunteer Exceptional Award on Thursday.
The inaugural award is given to those who made extraordinary contributions in Covid-19 relief efforts. It is named after Singapore's first finance minister Lim Kim San, who was a YMCA honorary life member.
Mr Goh was among the 96 award winners.
They included businesses, educational institutions and individuals who gave their time to charitable causes.
Speaking at the virtual ceremony, Mr Eric Chua, who is Parliamentary Secretary for Culture, Community and Youth as well as for Social and Family Development, thanked the 6,000 volunteers for helping 23,000 beneficiaries and contributing over 89,000 volunteer hours in the past year.
Fourth-year Singapore Management University student Heng Jun Jie, 25, who received the YMCA-Lim Kim San Volunteer Excellence Award for leading volunteer projects in Singapore and overseas, said: "There's a warm feeling I get when kids ask me when I'm coming back again to volunteer, when elderly folk talk to you like you're their own son, and when migrant workers are happy with the initiatives my team and I put together."
