My Volunteer Journey

I believe that I have shared this when some of my new friends, community service partners had asked me about why I am volunteering despite my physical disability.

I have always received help since my school days, where the janitor would carry me to the toilet or classroom when I was in Primary 1. Fellow classmates would help me to buy food from the school canteen. In my polytechnic days, bus captains would wait for me if they see me approaching the bus stop and assist me when needed. These are some of the deeds that I received from such nice people even until today, although I must say that the level of graciousness have dropped over the years.

I started volunteering in 2005, when I was working as a tax assistant in my previous company. The reason was the company had too little personal tax clients and I did not want to lose my personal tax knowledge. As the saying goes, if you have the skill, but if you did not use it, you will lose it. The opportunity came by when IRAS started the Volunteer e-filing program in that year, where they recruited volunteers to e-file the taxes of people who needed help in their tax filing at the various CCs. I was fortunate that the CCs that I volunteered at were conveniently located near my house. When I first started, I never anticipated that I was going to last till the cessation of the program and it actually started my volunteer journey in grassroots in 2011 & Pioneer Generation Ambassador in 2015.

During the course of volunteering all these years, I have learnt many things that enhanced my knowledge about the various government policies, my work and really see the the need that when people need help, they are really in need of help, especially the older folks. This was the reason why I decided to continue to assist people to e-file their taxes, even after the Volunteer e-filing program ceased as my friends and I recognised that these seniors will have problems navigating the IRAS website due to language barriers and not being IT savvy.

The satisfaction is not from I receiving the awards for volunteering my services. I have received quite a number of them. The satisfaction comes from the smiles you see from their faces after you have helped them. It also helps to take away the stress from my work.

I am also glad to share that I made many like minded friends who shared the love of volunteering with me and these friendships have been long. Although, there are volunteers who always crave for awards and recognition, I try my best to stay clear of them nowadays.

I hope with this story, it helps you to understand why I volunteer and maybe inspire you to join me as a volunteer.