A former political detainee donated two sofas to a pregnant mother through the Workers’ Party Community Fund (WPCF), which aims to uplift disadvantaged residents and help relieve financial hardship for the needy primarily in WP-held wards.
Since it was founded in 2014, WPCF has provided financial aid or food vouchers to needy families, conducted food distribution and promoted wellbeing by hosting health talks, caregiver training and home visits. It also runs a programme called ‘BlueCycle’, which links needy households with donated furniture and appliances.
On Saturday (29 Aug), WPCF revealed on Facebook that it delivered two sofas to an expectant mother who resides in Sengkang GRC. The charitable organisation added that it was surprised to find that the Marine Parade resident who donated the sofas was once a political detainee.
It shared on Facebook: “We were also pleasantly surprised to learn that an elderly gentleman from #MarineParade who generously donated two sofas was actually once a prisoner of conscience in one of the darker periods in Singapore’s history but still found the love and faith in humanity to help a fellow Singaporean.”
A group of female volunteers, some of whom newly joined the WPCF’s efforts, helped deliver the sofas from Marine Parade to the beneficiary’s home in the Rivervale division of Sengkang GRC. The MP in charge of Rivervale, Louis Chua, also pitched in and helped move the furniture into his resident’s home.
Sharing photos from the activity, WPCF wrote on social media: “Nothing is more powerful than the human spirit. What does an expectant mother, a former political detainee and new female volunteers have in common? It is that indomitable spirit not to bend to the odds that brought all three together for today’s Bluecycle event at #rivervale #sengkanggrc
“Despite the inclement weather, our new (and not so “new”) female #Bluecycle volunteers showed that the fairer gender could play an equally important role as the men in blue (including Chua Kheng Wee 蔡庆威) in bringing joy to the less privileged!”
It added: “And the soon-to-be new Mum? We wish her as smooth a delivery in a few days’ time as we had today and may the sofa ease her back pains as she approaches this exciting new chapter in her life!”
Posted by The WP Community Fund on Saturday, 29 August 2020
This is not the first time Sengkang residents have benefitted from the BlueCycle initiative. WPCF has been delivering donated furniture and appliances to beneficiaries in the ward, soon after the constituency was won by the Workers’ Party in the July election. New MP Louis Chua has also personally lent a hand in the back breaking work of moving donated furniture to his residents, in previous BlueCycle runs.
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