Showing their love for healthcare workers
From donating meals to packing sweets, people are rallying behind medical staff
He wanted to collect online orders to provide packets of chicken rice from his eatery to healthcare workers at the frontline fighting the coronavirus outbreak.
In the first three days since he announced his idea on Facebook last Wednesday, more than 5,000 orders flooded his mobile payment accounts, said Mr Daniel Tan of OK Chicken Rice.
As of yesterday, he had almost 6,000 orders.
Each donated meal is $3, and this helps to cover the cost. At his eatery in Ang Mo Kio Avenue 8, he charges $5.90 for the same thing.
Said Mr Tan, 40: "Every 30 seconds, I see a new notification of a donation coming in. It's almost become a full-time job."
He delivers the meals to facilities such as the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID), Khoo Teck Puat Hospital and Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH).
Despite business at his chicken rice outlet falling by half since the disease outbreak started, Mr Tan said he will be busy delivering to hospitals for at least the next 10 days to ensure every donation is accounted for.
He is not the only one going the extra mile to thank the frontline workers.
Madam Eng Yuwen, 31, who teaches English and social studies at Anglo-Chinese School (Barker Road), rallied colleagues and students to pack sweets and notes of appreciation.
On Feb 9, she texted colleagues about the idea and they responded immediately. Some even made runs to buy more sweets for the packages.
Others invited their students to contribute. Madam Eng said she was saddened to see medical workers scolded when they were seen out in their uniforms.
Her "team" has liaised with staff at TTSH, KK Women's and Children's Hospital and other hospitals to provide the care packages.
She said: "I wanted to do something to show them that there are people who support and appreciate them."
Organisations such as Ren Ci Hospital are also doing their part. Ren Ci's board of directors, who are unpaid volunteers, bought 5,000 bottles of vitamin C supplements for frontline workers in public hospitals with emergency departments as well as the NCID.
Ren Ci's nursing home residents, patients and staff also created a painting made of thumbprints. Each thumbprint represents a "thumbs up" for the work and courage demonstrated by healthcare workers.
On Friday, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong thanked all healthcare workers in a Valentine's Day note on Facebook, telling them their "loving care and commitment makes all the difference".
"We all stand with you and give you our full support," he wrote, adding that they are "going above and beyond the call of duty to keep us all safe and well, and to keep Singapore going".
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