Purpose behind the action – An International Volunteer Day Special  

By City of Good  /
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International Volunteer Day (IVD) is organised by the UN Volunteers (UNV) that commemorates the sheer dedication and hard work of all volunteers across the world every year on 5th December. This year, IVD celebrates the theme of solidarity through volunteering and here at the City of Good, we have heeded that call.

We caught up with two organisations, Children’s Cancer Foundation and New Life Stories and spoke with not just their long-time volunteers but with the volunteer managers from the respective organisations. We dropped by at their centres to see out for ourselves the synergy between the two groups in benefiting the lives of others, and how each organisation, supports and appreciates their volunteers too.

Read on below to find out more about the purpose and passion that drive both volunteers and organisations.

Lifting Lives
by Eddula Jyotsna Reddy 

Richard Wee, a retiree and volunteer with the Children’s Cancer Foundation (CCF), shares his volunteering journey of bringing fitness to the children in a fun way. Together with Victoria Tobias, from CCF’s Volunteer Management Team, he talks about the importance and value of volunteering. 

“Can I help?” – Richard Wee or Uncle Richard’s (as he is affectionately known at CCF) story starts with a question as simple as that.

For the past eight years, he has been a dedicated volunteer at the Children’s Cancer Foundation (CCF). CCF is a social service agency that aims to enhance the emotional, social and medical well-being of children with cancer and their families. But for Uncle Richard, these children are not just children – they are warriors. 

These incredibly young warriors have been through suffering that most adults may not even be able to fathom. And every week, Uncle Richard dedicates his time to bringing joy with a touch of fitness and fun, to their lives.

With support from CCF’s Volunteer Management Team, Uncle Richard organises and conducts the ‘FunFit’ programme at Place of Academic Learning and Support (PALS), which is CCF’s interim learning centre to prepare children who have completed their cancer treatment for their return to mainstream school. FunFit aims to help these warriors improve their physical fitness through fun activities. The joyful laughter of these children reverberates throughout PALS, which sometimes even entices Victoria to join in the sessions. 

Victoria’s role mainly consists of coordinating volunteering opportunities, organising networking sessions for volunteers and supporting the volunteers. Victoria has first-hand interactions with volunteers at CCF and she poignantly describes their invaluable role as- “we wouldn’t be able to do what we do without them.”

Volunteers at CCF complement the work that the staff do, not just by conducting physical activities but also by playing with and befriending the beneficiaries and their families. The friendly staff at CCF are also always ready to jump in and provide support for the volunteers in any capacity. 

This may be through organising meetings with volunteers to give them tips on interacting with children or by helping volunteers better understand their role at CCF by giving them feedback and establishing open channels of communication.

Victoria also describes the importance of not just matching volunteers to the right beneficiaries but also ensuring that they have that spark of passion in them for the work that they do, which Uncle Richard definitely has. 

Uncle Richard even goes a step further to ensure that beyond just passion, he also thoroughly understands the needs of the community he is serving. He is committed to the cause no matter the difficulties.His commitment is evident in how he tried to continue the FunFit programme even during the COVID-19 pandemic when everyone was on lockdown. By engaging the beneficiaries’ parents and siblings as well, Uncle Richard was able to keep the programme going online

Sign up to volunteer with Children’s Cancer Foundation today. 

Befrienders Of Good
by Erin Yeo

City Of Good caught up with New Life Stories and met Noorfaizah, Fatonah and Jeanette, three dedicated individuals who shared with us the joys and benefits of volunteering.

Meet Noorfaizah Hassan, Fatonah Rubaii and Jeanette Lai as they each share their unique experiences with New Life Stories, a non-profit organisation that seeks to restore familial relationships and prevent intergenerational incarceration. 

Noorfaizah is the Senior Manager of the Volunteer Relations team at New Life Stories. She heads the team that is in charge of the Befriending Programme, the backbone of New Life Stories. 

The Befriending Programme dispatches trained volunteers or Learning Friends, to the homes of the beneficiaries where they are mentored and read to. 

She highlighted the importance of volunteers in their organisation, describing them as “the eyes and ears of New Life Stories” as they help to connect with the children in the Befriending Programme on a personal level. They are the ones who are able to observe their home environments and better track the child’s growth and progress from the ground. 

However, being a volunteer comes with a certain set of ups and downs. Fatonah, who has been volunteering at New Life Stories for the past four years, shared her first experience partnering with a child in the programme. ‘The child was initially very afraid and wary of strangers’. When I first visited her, she wouldn’t want to see me. She was crying,’ said Fatonah.  

Despite this, Fatonah continued to try her best to bring happiness to the child through her storytelling. After a few months, Fatonah shared that she started opening up to her, and now she is a close family friend!

New Life Stories also provides support to their Learning Friends by conducting weekly check-ins and providing them with an information portal containing helpful teaching resources that they can use during their Befriending sessions. 

The dedication that each volunteer displays demonstrates the inspiring perseverance and also the deep desire of volunteers to make a positive impact in people’s lives by giving their time, energy and love into the work that they do. 

This begs the question, why do people give? Jeanette, another volunteer at New Life Stories, shared that volunteers have to “find a cause that really resonates (with you)”. To her, closing the educational gap for disadvantaged children was her main source of motivation to volunteer. 

Volunteering is not about achieving a sense of satisfaction after the work is done, it is more about making a positive difference in people’s lives out of empathy and compassion. Your giving is a gift to the people you help. Find your reason that inspires you to give. 

Sign up to volunteer with New Life Stories today.