When I was approached to start the National Volunteer (& Philanthropy) Centre in 1999, well-meaning friends counselled me against it. “Singaporeans don’t volunteer”. They’re too busy. They’re not interested. The government takes care of everything. The gotong-royong spirit is dead. It disappeared along with the kampungs”. It was enough to give me cold feet. But as a person who preferred to work in pioneering situations than institutions that were already well-oiled, I took it as a challenge.
One of the first things we did was commission a national survey on the state of volunteering in Singapore in 2000 to benchmark the progress of our promotional efforts. Indeed, the initial volunteer participation rate was a pathetic 9%, compared to 56% in the USA, 48% in the UK, and 25% in Japan.
We went about aggressively re-imaging volunteering to present it as engaging, fun and beneficial. Our first office at MND Building was decked out in bright, cheerful colours with those early iconic Apple PCs dotting our public space. Not your usual staid corporate look. We showcased celebrities to underline the point that one could volunteer from one’s talent and interests across different sectors like the arts, sports, and environment, and not just from compassion for those in need.
Our painstaking efforts paid off because in 2010, 10 years after Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong had officially opened the Centre (above feature image), the rate breached the 20% mark to touch 23%, buoyed by volunteering opportunities presented by the 2010 Youth Olympics. Just two years later, it jumped to 32% and went on to peak at 35% in 2016.
Social researchers who study the tipping point, a concept popularized by Malcolm Gladwell in his book by the same name, when ideas, products, messages, and behaviours become viral, postulate that 25% would be that critical juncture when changes take on a life of its own. If that is indeed so, then we have good reason to believe that NVPC’s current vision of a City of Good will materialise in due course. This notwithstanding that the 2021 figure showed that it had dipped to 22% under Covid conditions, understandably.
What is of particular relevance is that NVPC’s 2018 Silver Volunteer Individual Giving Survey shows that seniors are under-represented vis-a-vis the national average of 29%. Figures show that 25% of seniors aged 55-64 volunteer, with the figure dropping to 16% for those 65 years and older. Seniors have consistently been under-represented through the years.
Seniors’ common reasons for not volunteering were health, family commitments, and lack of time. It may sound harsh, but I have always maintained that when we say we have no time for anything, be it exercising or volunteering, in essence, we are saying it is not a priority. Good friend Andrew Liew from my university days is an excellent example of volunteering in one’s advanced years while still holding down a full-time job. In 2014, when he was 63 years old, he took on chairing Very Special Arts (VSA) while yet the CEO of Hong Leong Bank in Vietnam, and after that in his various stints in Cambodia and Laos.
One might be tempted to think he could not have done an excellent job leading the organisation remotely. On the contrary, he has brought VSA to its current status as a charity independent of its parent organization in the USA, re-birthed as ART: DIS at its recent re-launch.
Today, back in Singapore and retired, he continues tirelessly as the volunteer Chair for this charity which seeks to create learning and livelihood opportunities in the arts for people with disabilities.
Like him, we need to find that spark, which came when he saw how disabled kids enjoyed themselves tremendously in their art class. NVPC’s giving. sg website is an excellent place to start. With time on our hands, longer life expectancy, and generally better health, we retirees have every reason to volunteer at a rate higher than the national average—no more “no time” excuses. And when we do, we will move that needle towards Singapore as a City of Good.
Yeoh Chee Koon
Chee Koon is a Political Science graduate (University of Singapore, 1973.) She was responsible for setting up the National Volunteer & Philanthropy Centre in 1999. She retired in 2008.
