About Donations
When I was younger, every year my school organised a fundraising drive where each student was given a donation card. Everyone was supposed to get our families to sign an amount and collect the respective money. I really detested it; I didn’t like asking people for money, and no matter how much the teachers assured that as long as we did our best, the total amount didn’t matter, it didn’t felt that way.
Fast forward to now, I have just signed myself up to help raise funds for the cancer community in Singapore, I am asking people (you!) for money, and believing that really, just what we can contribute helps.
Recently, I finally opened up my eyes to the huge role money plays in our day to day lives. I still have a long way to go to understand how it drives and facilitates our world, societies and systems, but I now see how it impacts people. The snack you’re eating now, the couch you’re sitting on, the phone/laptop/tablet you’re holding, they are all acquired using money. What are also acquired using money are the medicines cancer patients take, the vehicles they ride on to go for chemotherapy/radiotherapy, the device they use to call the nurse when bedridden.
With the little amount we have and are willing to give, it will not effect a huge change in terms of creating a more sustainable system where everyone doesn’t have to worry about healthcare and living expenses. It will not build a hospital with top notch medical facilities, expertise and research, it will not make sure every patient gets the treatment that is most suited for them, it will not hold up a supportive eco-system to enable all these.
But what it can do is take away the reason for not going for chemotherapy because one has no money to pay for transport. What it can do it is support one more family who applied for assistance, that would have been turned down due to lack of funding. What it can do is encourage fundraisers to continue their efforts year on year to address the immediate needs while buying time for better longer term solution to be implemented.
Not many of us have the ability to help cancer patients with the different aspects of what they go through, but I think a number of us can donate money. Below you can find more information about this fundraising event. If this is not a cause that you believe in, consider donating to another cause today, I am sure they need your help too.
- To find out more about the fundraising initiative.
- To find out more about the Singapore Cancer Society.
- To donate.
For those of us who need the extra push, if you contribute to income tax in Singapore, this is eligible for tax deduction 2.5 times the amount you donate. (Also, if anyone knows how to economics of this works, please share. I am curious.)
