Our Conscience, Hands, and Feet

Say “Heartfriends”, and most people immediately think “KopiStop” — but the ministry is really about much more than that, even though the onset of COVID-19 has pushed many of these activities into hibernation. These days, due to gatherings being proscribed, Heartfriends Community Services (HCS) has shifted its efforts to running “Kopi Stop Lite”: distributing about 65 food packets to less privileged households in the area (Blocks 1–5, Dover Road) on Saturday mornings.

The first Saturday of every month sees the Heartfriends Befrienders (a pioneering group of staff and volunteers who have become household names in the area) making their rounds as well, keeping tabs on about 30 listed households. They can no longer hold dance/exercise programmes or other group activities due to safe distancing measures, but home visitation, and assisting the elderly and disadvantaged with clinic/hospital appointments and home repairs/improvements, has intensified in recent months.

Quite often, Heartfriends’ outreach to the poorer residents, usually the elderly or handicapped, involves meeting their financial needs. In this respect, the Heartfriends staff is grateful for the expertise and help of SJSM’s Financial Hardship Relief Committee (comprising SJSMers) which lends support in the disbursement of funds. In 2020, many SJSMers gave towards this cause.

COVID-19 has also seen the emergence of what the team affectionately dubs “Philip’s Home Services”. Staff member Philip Mok has always played a key role in caring for destitute men in Dover, but the pandemic has seen this resourceful gem expanding into all sorts of DIY home repairs and moving services, which are greatly appreciated by the community as many cannot afford to hire help every time they need it.

“It’s interesting how this situation reminds me of the circumstances recorded in the Book of Acts,” muses ministry leader Ds Bessie Lee (Group Head, Outreach & Missions). “Just as persecution and trouble had thrust the early Christians out from their large gatherings in Jerusalem, taking the gospel into foreign places and homes, this ‘forced diaspora’ due to the current COVID-19 safe measures against gatherings in public places has resulted in us engaging in more in-depth interactions with people in their homes.” There are residents, she explains, who welcome the Befrienders into their homes for chats and occasionally for prayer, when they show up at their doorsteps.

• End-2020 to early 2021: 5,900 Heartfriends calendars gifted to Dover and GhimMoh Link residents

• 2021 Chinese New Year Blessing: 5,900 goodie bags containing ang bao packs gifted to residents in Dover and GhimMoh Link

• 2021: Grocery vouchers gifted to needy families for Hari Raya; 670 neighbouring households gifted with a box of masks each & invited to the virtual opening of SJSM Village.

Heartfriends BASC, while part of HCS and largely directed by a Management Committee appointed by SJSM’s Parochial Church Council, was jointly started by SJSM and the Dover RC, and also reports to the Ministry of Social and Family Development. It’s a major node in the community network, as the BASC staff and volunteers have since its inception been actively engaging and connecting with the student’s families and the families in the Dover neighbourhood.

Programmes and events, like the twice-a-week evening outdoor games and chat sessions, and Ice Cream Truck Days, were highly popular and used to attract significant crowds in the community. Outings, Durian Fiestas, Christmas parties and year-end concerts etc. were organised, and families of the BASC students were invited to join in. These days, centre manager Julia Loy and her team are working hard to think outside the box to find ways to maintain the relationships they’ve built with their students, their families, and the Dover community, since face-to-face and physical interaction have been curtailed.

• Sat, 29 June 2019: HCS’ 20th Anniversary celebration (theme: Inclusiveness)

• Sun, 7 Dec 2019: Dover Celebrates Christmas

• Oct 2020: 12 laptops purchased for students’ use in the centre using funds bequeathed by the BASC’s 1st Chairman, Mr Chew Eng Wah’s family

“Our first priority when the Circuit Breaker (CB) was declared was making sure that each of our kids, especially those on financial assistance, had laptops for Home-Based Learning,” Julia shares. “Tapping on the church’s cell network helped us get enough machines for the 10-odd children who needed them. We then moved to organise grocery drops to households whose breadwinners we knew were out of work — here, too, the cells proved indispensable.

“The two months of CB was a long time for us to not see kids that we were previously interacting with almost every day from Monday to Friday. We didn’t think a grocery drop would mean much to a primary school kid so once a week, we would also send a fun meal (e.g. fast food, and not merely nutrition-for-survival) to them. This small gesture was to let them know that we were thinking of them.”

“HCS has served the community well and gained a good reputation, especially among residents in the Dover area, but there are many impediments to our work because, as an entity, HCS is neither registered nor recognised as a social service,” says Ds Bessie. “The social service landscape is evolving as we speak, and in order for SJSM to continue the good work done and the ground gained over 20 years, we are looking to register HCS under the umbrella of Singapore Anglican Community Services. This will help our standing when we work with the government and other social service agencies.”

Julia agrees that making sure we keep our community presence is important. “It’s always easier for the church to go out into the community, than for people from the community to venture into the church. In that, HCF is the bridge between SJSM and its neighbourhood, and it’s really precious that the people here already know us, and trust our intentions.”

“The residents around us respect us,” Ds Bessie notes. “The opening of SJSM Village, with its Nursing Home, Little Seeds Preschool, and Senior Daycare Centre are highly anticipated. Residents have approached us asking if they can stay or work with us, and this ties in well with the Project Spring-Winter vision in meeting the needs of the community. It sounds trite, but it’s true: People won’t hear what you have to say until they know that you care. And that’s what HCS is about.”

Heartfriends Community Services www.sjsm.org.sg/heartfriends.html | 6777 0934 | doverheartfriends@sjsm.org.sg | Ds Bessie: bessielee@sjsm.org.sg

Heartfriends BASC www.heartfriendsbasc.org.sg | 6776 4906 | info@heartfriends.org.sg | Julia Loy: julialoy@sjsm.org.sg