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23YO Used Her GST Payout to Buy Food & Daily Necessities for the Elderly

Chew Ming Hui

2022-12-05 , 8:25 pm

Planned what to do with your assurance package payout yet?

If not, here’s an idea—why not use it to help the less privileged in our society?

That’s exactly what a nurse in Singapore did. Here’s why.

Singapore Nurse uses GST Payout to Buy Food and Daily Necessities for the Elderly

The assurance package payouts announced in Budget 2022 are currently being disbursed to all eligible Singaporeans.

The payouts were disbursed to cushion the impact of the increase in GST over the next couple of years.

While some of us might have already spent the sum on that Nintendo Switch sitting at the top of our wishlists or even set it aside for our 12.12 shopping spree, a Singapore nurse decided to use her GST payouts to help others instead.

Ms Ye Yongan, a nurse at Alexandra Hospital, decided to use not some but all of her GST payouts to buy food and daily necessities for the elderly.

The reason why?

She had always had a soft spot for the elderly and their welfare and wanted to use this opportunity to support the elderly.

The 23-year-old shared that at the height of the pandemic two years ago when Singaporeans were rushing to stock up on daily necessities, her grandmother was unable to as she couldn’t stand for extended periods.

While we were rushing to supermarkets to stock up on toilet paper and creating TikToks making quips at the most kiasu Singaporeans, others were struggling to even make their way down to the supermarkets.

Nurse Hopes to Bring Warmth to the Elderly

Ms Ye then thought of helping other elderly folks who might experience such difficulties, be it due to financial problems or simply because they lived alone.

We’ve already heard the horror stories of a nurse’s workload during the COVID-19 period, and the same goes for Ms Ye.

Yet, despite her heavy workload, she forks out her hours off to engage in social work to bring warmth to the elderly as well as other low-income families.

Indeed a noble cause.

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As early as 2020, Ms Ye has been preparing and distributing care packages for the needy, containing food and daily necessities.

In December 2020, the nurse and a group of approximately 50 volunteers handed out a “Christmas Care Package”.

In February of the following year, the group also handed out a “Chinese New Year Care Package” to the needy.

The whole process of handing out these care packages isn’t easy as well. It can take up to four months before the care packages are finally ready for distribution.

During this period, Ms Ye works with organisations like the People’s Association (PA) and the Temasek Foundation, as well as friends and family, to make the distribution events a success.

In the past three years alone, Ms Ye has managed to organise four rounds of care package distribution and has helped almost 300 elderly folks.

Grandmother as an Inspiration

It appears that Ms Ye’s grandmother was quite an inspirational figure to her. Ms Ye had become a nurse to follow in her grandmother’s footsteps.

Her 83-year-old grandmother had dedicated almost half a century of her life to being a nurse.

Hence, after Ms Ye graduated from the Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT), she became a nurse too.

Not your usual Singaporean doctor-lawyer ambition.

The 23-year-old intends to do a Master’s in Public Health to better understand the profession.

Assurance Package Converted Into Care Packages

The nurse has used her $150 assurance package payout to fund the care packages being distributed as Christmas 2022 draws near.

She also forked out $568 of her own money and is also in a co-pay arrangement with Temasek Foundation to fund the care packages.

As of date, she has already given out 50 care packages to the needy in Clementi. The care packages contain a variety of essential supplies, including instant noodles, rice and toothpaste.