More support, training for Yellow Ribbon volunteers

One night at 9pm, Mr Mohamathu Abdul Kader rushed to the home of a woman who was so ill she could not get food herself.

Mr Kader, 54, who is a volunteer with the Yellow Ribbon Community Project (YRCP) which helps the families of prison inmates, was shocked to see the woman in her mid-60s looking very pale.

Her son was in prison and she was living alone, so Mr Kader bought dinner for her.

He also arranged for a non-governmental organisation (NGO) to deliver cooked food to her until she recovered.

To help more than 1,100 grassroots volunteers like Mr Kader, training enhancements for the YRCP were announced on Nov 16, at its annual appreciation and awards lunch at the Max Atria @ Singapore Expo.

Transport Minister and Second Finance Minister Chee Hong Tat, who made the announcements, said a new skills training scheme will be set up in the first half of 2025 to help volunteers support families in need.

The Singapore Prison Service (SPS), which started the YRCP in 2010, said the training will be conducted via e-learning and workshops.

Topics will include how to befriend families, Singapore’s correctional landscape and rehabilitation approach, and substance addiction.

Mr Chee said a new online portal by the end of 2025 will provide volunteers with a centralised platform to access relevant information and record their case notes.

SPS said that to protect the privacy of inmates’ families, volunteers will be able to access information only on cases assigned to them, on a need-to-know basis.

Mr Chee said: “Between wanting to do something and knowing what to do, you need to be equipped with the skills and knowledge to better translate your commitment and passion to good outcomes – to actually help as many families as possible.”

Mr Kader, the head of supply chain at a logistics company, has been helping inmates’ families for more than a decade.

 

Recounting the incident of the elderly woman, he said: “When I visited her, her face was so pale, she spoke softly.

“She would say a few words, and start crying like something was burdening her. But after I encouraged her to attend community events, she smiled.”

Also announced were improvements in financial support offered to the families of inmates.

These included an increase in the value of grocery vouchers for each household, from $80 to $150 annually.

The value of book vouchers for children aged six to 18 was also increased from $80 to $150 per child.

And each family with children younger than five years old will get $150 in grocery vouchers annually.

Around 500 families will benefit from these funding initiatives in 2024.

Madam Agnes Tan, 76, who is the sole caregiver of her two granddaughters, aged 15 and 16, after her son’s incarceration in 2017 and 2021, has been receiving YRCP assistance since 2010.

Having lost two of her three sons to suicide, Madam Tan does odd jobs such as picking up cardboard scraps.

She said YRCP volunteers helped connect her with the relevant social service agencies, which offered financial aid and provided her with food rations from the community minimart.

They helped her apply to different financial assistance schemes to fund her granddaughters’ daily expenses, as well as her breast cancer treatment and her late husband’s medical expenses until he died in June.

Speaking in Mandarin, she said she was grateful to volunteer Khairul Ashraf, who was so dedicated she felt an affinity with him.

She said: “He would quickly respond to my calls whenever I had questions or problems.

“Without these funds that he helped me apply for, I’m not sure how I would have survived.”