“The smiles and squeals of joy from those residents who recognise us and await our weekly visits are the most uplifting.”

For Mrs Jackie Collins, visits the Red Cross Home for the Disabled involve “chatting with the residents, playing simple games, painting fingernails, massaging limbs, reading stories and helping with the feeding at lunchtime.”

Besides visiting our residents, Mrs Collins has been teaching English to the nurses of the Home weekly for about 1.5 years. She was invited to do so by another expatriate wife who was involved at RCHD but had to leave Singapore. “I was delighted to help as I had the spare time and I knew I could ease the nurses into life in Singapore, a life which is so different from that in their own country,” shared Mrs Collins.

“The nurses thoroughly enjoy the lessons and appreciate the fact that they have the opportunity to improve their English. They are so happy to see us arrive in the classroom that they overcome their shyness and participate actively. They laugh a lot which shows that they enjoy themselves,” Mrs Collins quipped.

To Mrs Collins, “it is extremely rewarding to note the progress that the nurses make when speak confidently in complete sentences with a good accent. Of course, it is not always easy to make swift progress as they only have one hour a week, depending on their shift or their day off. We now have five qualified teachers working with the nurses. As volunteer teachers we derive huge satisfaction from working with such keen and responsive students.”

Her three children have all visited our Home when they were in Singapore and would definitely consider volunteering in their spare time.

She encourages people to support the work of RCHD as it helps put priorities into perspective. “We all count our many blessings in life and feel humbled by the genuine pleasure that the residents experience from our volunteering.”