PSSA 2002 - Informal Group Category Award Winner

Dover Park Hospice Mandarin Group

Formed in 1997, the Dover Park Hospice (DPH) Mandarin Group is named as such because all 100 members are Mandarin and dialect speaking.

Many of the volunteers have close links with Buddhist organisations and hence are able to spread the message of loving and caring beyond the walls of the hospice. Their genuine love and care for the hospice patients have since inspired people around them to step forward and lend a helping hand.

The group leader, Mr Koh Wee Chee, is also a cancer patient who shares his personal experiences and battles with other cancer patients. He is a great source of inspiration and hope, and a wonderful role model to both patients and his fellow volunteers.

Patients at DPH are hence imbued with the knowledge that there are still people who care for them, and are willing to be there for them to look after their physical needs and offer them emotional support. Even the families of patients are not exempt, as they also require moral encouragement.

Volunteers in the group hail from all walks of life and they offer their help to varying work areas such as befriending, basic nursing care, organising social activities and patients' outings, counselling, maintenance work and gardening, cooking special meals, orientation of new volunteers and fund-raising.

The group has shown that there is no lack of committed volunteers in Singapore. The members are ambassadors for both DPH and hospices in general as they spread the idea to the Chinese-speaking community, temple and Buddhist groups, and community centres and clubs that hospices are not about dying, but living to the very end.

Other PSSA 2002 winners: