CAPTain Spotlight 9 of 9: A Dose of Kindness

Article written by Mark Ngoh, Angelica Ang, Bryan Goh & Grace Cheong

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought unprecedented upheaval to the world, and to Singapore, forcing the nation into a period of Circuit Breaker in efforts to curb the spread of the virus. Even as our economy and society reopen, it is evident that the pandemic has brought, and will continue to bring unique challenges to different communities in Singapore.

Although these times have been rife with uncertainty and unknowns for many of us, several CAPTains, both past and present, have gone above and beyond to play their part in making a difference — no matter how big or small — in our community. The Active Community Engagement (ACE) wing in CAPT has launched an initiative, CAPTain Spotlight, to share the stories of these CAPTains. Through this initiative, we curate and share the narratives of nine individuals/groups of CAPTains who have embodied the ACE spirit – actively engaging with the communities in their midst. This is the ninth and the final one of our ‘Spotlight’ stories.

CAPTain Spotlight 9: A Dose of Kindness

With patient numbers that had been steadily climbing each day, the COVID-19 pandemic has indeed put healthcare systems around the world to the test, with Singapore’s being no exception. Taking the helm at the forefront of the fight against the virus are our nation’s frontline healthcare workers, who have been working tirelessly to keep the virus at bay.

Stephanie and Janice (both CAPT alumni), who are pharmacists by training, are two of the many who have stepped up to volunteer their expertise and services in the fight against COVID-19.

Stephanie’s Story

As part of the COVID-19 relief efforts, Stephanie volunteered to be deployed to the Community Care Facility (CCF) at the Singapore EXPO to support the pharmacy service. As a pharmacist, she was responsible for overseeing the supply of medication to all halls, as well as conducting clinical checks to ensure that the medications ordered were safe and effective for the residents. In addition, she also helped to provide medication counselling to aid patients in better understanding their prescriptions and condition.

When CCF @ EXPO was first set up, there had been a call for volunteers to be deployed to support the pharmacy services. Stephanie had been wanting to do something more in the global fight against COVID-19, and when this opportunity came up to serve the migrant worker community, she decided to take it.

However, her journey was not a bed of roses. Given that the CCF was set up within a short duration of time and the constantly evolving nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, there were several bumps and teething issues that needed to be overcome along the way. Hence, there was a lot of learning, adapting and problem-solving which took place on the ground. Despite this, Stephanie remained unfazed by the obstacles thrown her way and instead focused on tackling one issue at a time, which helped to simplify her challenges, no matter how overwhelming things seemed to be.

Although COVID-19 has undoubtedly presented us with a challenging set of circumstances, it has also brought us the valuable opportunity to re-engage, or even start engaging, with communities that we hold close to our hearts. It was during an ACE Migrants’ Trail that she had joined in back Year 1, that had provided Stephanie with her first chance to interact with migrant workers. During the trail, she also chanced upon Karunya Community Clinic that served the migrant worker community in Little India, where she then continued to volunteer for the next four years.

The migrant community faces a unique set of problems, including being far away from their families, worrying about their health condition and its impact on their current and future financial situation, and learning to cope with living in isolation. COVID-19 has also shed light on the many underlying social issues that they have been facing for a long time. Stephanie is heartened that more conversations have been initiated, and believes that we will emerge from this crisis as a better society.

Janice’s Story

When the COVID-19 pandemic began to intensify all around the world, Janice decided to return to Singapore to help out as a frontline pharmacist as she had both the availability and ability to do so. In a huge leap of faith, she decided to take a Leave of Absence (LOA) from her graduate studies in America to return to Singapore to lend a helping hand to support the local COVID-19 relief efforts. Unlike most of her peers who had been working in hospitals, she had a more flexible schedule as a graduate student and was thus not bogged down by the constraints of her job. Furthermore, she has been keeping her pharmacist license active.

However, the decision on whether or not to return to Singapore was not an easy one for Janice to make, as it required her to take an LOA right before a major exam. Thanks to the support from her professor, laboratory and qualifying exam committee, who had been extremely understanding and accommodating during these special times, she had fortunately been able to return home to join the fight against COVID-19.

As part of her day-to-day job scope as a frontline pharmacist, she helps with the supplying of medications to COVID-19 patients, which involves reviewing doctors’ prescriptions and making dosing recommendations for the patients. In an interesting twist of fate, she also found out that care for the COVID-19 patients also involved a large amount of inventory keeping and patient tracking. As someone trained in basic bioinformatics, she was able to assist in writing scripts that aided the formatting and merging of different databases together, hence, greatly reducing the number of man-hours needed to process them.

Through volunteering with HealthServe during her time as a student in CAPT, Janice had learnt a lot from the migrant workers about gratitude and brotherhood. Despite their circumstances, she shared that the migrant workers have always been very appreciative of the help rendered, often thanking the volunteers with many kind words. She also found it heartwarming to see the migrants step in to help one another when language difficulties arise during the dispensing of drugs. She feels that these things make working with our migrant brothers special for her.

“We cannot all do great things, but we can do small things with great love.”

— Mother Teresa

Thank you for following us through these nine Spotlight stories. These stories are all about ordinary CAPTains in extraordinary times. Even in the midst of uncertainty, CAPTains have found ways to build bridges with communities, some even from their own bedrooms! We hope that these anecdotes have provided you comfort and warmth from reading how some CAPTains are making a difference in the lives of others, and encouragement that even the smallest actions can result in unexpected ripple effects. Therein lies the beauty and power of community engagement; via the formation of relationships and understanding, interactions can lead to actions, some of which we cannot foresee. Remember that our ability to carry out community engagement is only limited by our imaginations!

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