A ground-up initiative that pairs lonely elderly people with volunteers who live within a 20-minute walk of them attained charity status three years after it was launched.
KampungKakis, an online platform that taps people in the neighbourhood to help seniors, has been able to raise funds since getting the nod from the Commissioner of Charities to register as a charity in May 2023.
“We are able to tap the Enhanced Fund-Raising Programme by the Tote Board to obtain dollar-for-dollar matching for every dollar raised. We need to be more meticulous with our processes and screening of volunteers. We also have to do proper due diligence on donors,” said KampungKakis executive director Ho Kah Yoke, 35.
She said it received small donations from anonymous strangers and friends in the past.
KampungKakis is the brainchild of financial technology executive Mae Tan.
Ms Tan was Case No. 827 at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. She had just returned to Singapore from New York, where she was working.
While hospitalised in an isolation ward at the National University Hospital, she could not check her e-mail messages or get onto social media platforms “because of the weak Wi-Fi connection”.
“I became fully aware of the goings-on in the hospital (and saw that) many of the older patients found it hard to be alone as visitors and friends were not allowed into the hospital,” she said.
“My mind then wandered to those elderly who live alone and how isolated they must feel, not being allowed to come out to see their friends or socialise.”
Ms Tan was also inspired by the many healthcare personnel who risked their own safety to be on the front lines and felt compelled to pay their kindness forward.
It was from this that KampungKakis was born.
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Denne historien er fra January 02, 2024-utgaven av The Straits Times.
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