On the 10th of July, Jalil Ramla was heading home from work at midnight on his motorcycle when he saw a lone figure standing on the Pan Island Expressway. Upon taking a closer look, the figure turned out to be an elderly man who looked to be in his 80s, dressed in slippers and completely lost.
“I don’t know where I am. I forgot where I stay”, he told Jalil, who felt for his plight and immediately decided to aid him.
Luckily, the uncle had an address in his wallet and Jalil had an extra helmet with him, so he was able to give the uncle a ride to Bukit Batok. From there, he flagged a cab to return the elderly man to his home.
In a Facebook post published a few weeks later, the kind-hearted motorcyclist shared about the incident and added: “If any bikers and drivers see this post, please do help those in need. It’s never a coincidence.”
Good neighbour opens her doors to family who lost home in a fire
When 62-year-old Hafidah’s flat in Jurong East caught fire in early August, her family lost the roof over their heads overnight. The fire occurred after Hafidah’s daughter accidentally left a hair-curler on her bed. Luckily, SCDF responded quickly and the family was evacuated to safety.
In a generous gesture, a neighbour opened her heart and her doors to the mother-of-two and her family. In addition to putting up the affected family, she even took care of their meals and laundry.
While the affected family were given the keys to their new rental flat soon after, it’s unlikely they will forget about the extraordinary kindness shown to them anytime soon.
On why she went the distance for her neighbour, the good Samaritan told Lianhe Zaobao: “We’re neighbours, so it’s only right that we help each other out.”
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When the bus breaks down in Yishun, a community steps up
When strange things happen in Yishun (as they always seem to do), the good people of Yishun rise to the occasion.
On 16 August, an SMRT bus broke down near Yishun Ring Road and blocked traffic in two lanes. Instead of complaining or honking, the people in the area decided to roll up their sleeves and make a real difference instead.
Bystanders quickly came together to push the bus, with motorists spotted exiting their vehicles to lend a hand and even senior citizens coming forward to help. After much effort from everyone involved, the bus was moved aside and traffic congestion was eased.
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Students’ umbrella-sharing project prove that kampung spirit is well and truly alive
Do you need a QR code and credit card details to make sharing schemes work? Conventional wisdom would say yes, but four students from Republic Polytechnic have proven that all you need is good old kampong spirit when they launched Sharella, a free umbrella-sharing scheme in Sembawang.
Developed as a joint initiative with LTA, Sharella lets residents borrow umbrellas from a kiosk on one side of the road and return them on other side. It helps to keep people dry in a part of the neighborhood where there is no sheltered walkway.
At first, the project got off to a rocky start when all of the umbrellas were taken because residents thought it was a free product promotion. After volunteers stationed themselves on both sides and explained the project, the confusion was cleared up. Soon, the umbrellas were promptly returned after their use and some residents even generously added their own umbrellas to the mix.
IT professional Tan Wai Sing, 34, told TODAY: “I didn’t want it to stop (just) because the umbrellas were taken by other people. I believed that if I started contributing some umbrellas, other people would do the same thing.”
Encouraged by civic-minded folks like Tan, the students behind Sharella are already looking into rolling out the same scheme in other spots around Sembawang.
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Sambal Saviour – 10-year-old girl raises $14,000 for cancer-stricken hawker by selling homemade sambal on Facebook
When Phoebe Lim heard that Mr. Tan Boon Teck of the Armenian Street Char Kway Teow was suffering from Stage 3 Colon Cancer, she cooked up a plan to raise funds for the hawker’s expensive cancer treatment – making and selling sambal chilli.
In July, the 10-year-old launched her charity sale on Facebook, asking if anyone wanted to place orders for her homemade sambal, priced at $15 a bottle.
Phoebe and her family expected 50 orders at the very most. Little did they expect that Phoebe’s kindness would go viral, resulting in a hundred, then a thousand orders for her homemade chilli.
Since then, Phoebe’s kind act has also inspired others to join in. A chef offered her the use of his commercial kitchen and helped Phoebe to order the ingredients in bulk.
In the end, our girl was able to raise $14,000 for Mr. Tan’s chemotherapy treatment. The pair met for the first time on August 12 and Mr. Tan received her donation gratefully, promising to treat everyone to char kway teow when he recovers.