Uplifting sick children

By bringing cheer to sick children, volunteers can reap good feelings and a joyful experience in life besides doing a good deed.

“Giving ailing children smiles and laughter helps them to better cope with stress and anxiety in facing sickness.

“In turn, the community work made us feel so happy, which came from the satisfaction of showing care and love to the courageous youngsters who are battling ill health and lending support to their parents,” said Jolene Bak Chia Jie, a Cambridge A-Level student at DISTED College.

Jolene Bak shared her thoughts after participating in a caring visit to the Seberang Jaya Hospital paediatric ward recently, which was organized by a group of DISTED scholarship holders under the guidance of lecturer Datin Helen Lim Pin Lean.

“The ill children and their parents were so glad to receive our gifts, which showed that a simple token of concern could mean a lot to the recipients.

“It requires so little effort to share joy with the less fortunate. All it takes is just to give from our hearts,” she said.

Christopher Tan Aik Wei said: “The visit was a practical lesson in community-mindedness to encourage students to contribute to the local community.”

“Prior to the event, we held a campaign at DISTED called Project Teddy to collect used soft toys from the campus community, which were presented to the sick children to cheer them up.

“Apart from 90 soft toys, we also gave them gift packs of colour pencils, milk and biscuits which were donated by the college,” said the Cambridge A-Level student.

Also accompanying the students in the visit were DISTED president Dr Koo Wee Kor and Student Services Department head Tony Toh Chi Eng.