Volunteer with us
Mamre Oaks Ltd works closely with the community and welcomes people who are inspired to join us as befrienders of our adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities and to work alongside with them in the daily programs and activities. We are also open to volunteers who may have programs and activities that will benefit our members.
Our Volunteers' Sharing
​"I became a volunteer when MO shifted to St Patrick School. My first impression of people with Special Needs was that they all suffer from Down syndrome. And I had come to help them. But little did I realise that they would be helping me in their own special ways. They are all unique and truly different. Not only have I grown into being more patient and understanding but I have become more accepting and joyful. Kudos to the Staff and other volunteers, too, for their help and contribution in making MO a beautiful, fun-loving place.
I would like to share a special experience which happened on Thursday 25 July 2024. I was feeling under the cloud - very sad and despondent because of a sad news I had received earlier. As I volunteer every Thursday I attended the Mass scheduled on that day. At Mamre Oaks Centre that day, I was assigned to one member who has Down syndrome and is non-verbal. I accompanied her on that day to the Chapel for mass and sat beside. On that particular morning before mass this member acted in a very loving manner. She smiled at me, put her hand on my forehead to bless me. She took my hand to bless her in return. She looked at me with her big eyes, smiling, as if trying to say “Do not worry”. And she repeatedly engaged me in this manner till Mass began. It was during my “Examen“ that night that I realised God was loving and comforting me through this dear member.
And in writing this article, I was prompted by the Word of God. “God chose the weak to shame the strong” [1 Corinthian; 1; 27] “But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things that are not - to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before Him.”
I take this opportunity to thank and congratulate the Staff & Volunteers & all attendees of MO for their good works and may God continue to bless them in the days ahead.."
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Lily Chew
​"Volunteering work with adults with intellectual disabilities (ID) was an accidental choice for me. When I was in my mid-fifties and in the middle of a career change I visited a volunteering fair, clueless of what I want to volunteer as. As it turned out, I ended up with a group ministering to adults with ID in a residential home called Tampines
Home in the west coast area before they were transferred to MINDSville@Napiri. I volunteered for a few years before I stopped because of work commitments.
When I retired in 2015, I began to look for volunteer opportunities as part of my retirement bucket to-do list and meant to fill some of my free days with doing something good for society. I vaguely remembered attending a fair organised by Caritas at Agape Village and signed up at the Mamre Oaks (MO) booth. It had been an easy choice.
Why I still hang around at Mamre Oaks
It has been nearly 10 years now. I have known many of our MO members for years and they, along with staff members and other volunteers, are like old friends to me. I find my volunteering at MO satisfying as I feel our members deserve a normal life as much as possible. We try to provide to our members activities that engage their minds and bodies, the opportunity to socialise and interact with others, the routine that gives them a sense of stability, and dignity and meaning that they should have.
MO, like other day activity centres (DAC), also serve to give respite to our members’ caregivers from round the clock caregiving and to enable some of them to work. Most (if not all) our members have family support and love despite the challenges, and if our work at MO enables the family and caregivers to have rest and some free time for
themselves then I think we are doing something useful.
I have also benefited from volunteering personally. As a retiree, I also need some routine in my life, and volunteering at MO, among other activities, gives me that. Nowadays I come to MO once a week, on Tuesdays, and this has allowed me to commit for the long term. I don’t have any skill to impart but I assist our members in the activities and conduct small chats with them. It is quite stress-free in the sense that the centre can happily go on without me when I go for holidays, doctor’s appointments or am hospitalised.
Further reflections
Volunteering with adults with ID also taught me some life lessons that I will probably never have otherwise. Talking to someone who doesn’t answer back (or worse still, ignore you completely!), or have someone telling you in your face ‘I don’t like you’ can be quite discomforting. However, I have learnt not to take these at face value as our members will warm up to you another time. When we know a person well enough, any initial bias or unfavourable impression can change.
Human life is fragile, and a disability can strike anyone. Intellectual disability (and other types of disabilities) may be caused by a variety of reasons. A disability can also occur to a ‘normal’ person due to
age, illness, accident, etc. – Alzheimer disease and stroke come into mind. I suffered a stroke in 2016 due to an underlying heart condition. By God’s grace, I received treatment for it early but still have a degree of expressive dysphasia (a disability in my speech)
and residual fine motor weakness in my right hand.
As a Catholic, I believe persons with ID (or with other disabilities for that matter) are also children of God, and they are among us for a reason - that God’s love may be manifested in the way we deal with them. Most (if not all) of our members have supportive and loving families and caregivers, and I am heartened to have witnessed that at MO.
Challenges and Hope
Many years ago, when I accompanied a member on an outing, a young boy remarked to his mother that he (the member) looked ‘funny’ (as in not normal) before the mother hushed him up. When MO was at Agape Village, I also witnessed a member having a
‘meltdown’ lifting and nearly throwing down an office equipment until he was restrained by a staff. Despite my years at MO, I am still wary when an unaccompanied neurodivergent stranger sits next to me in an MRT train. I won’t fear him or move away, but wary
what he might do next! These are some of the issues facing our adults with ID – they are still mostly invisible in our society and the public do not know much about, or are wary of, them. I believe that bringing adults with ID into public space and education (especially in our schools) can go some way to dispel misconceptions about people with ID.
My hope is that persons with disabilities or different from the norm - physical or intellectual, neurodivergent - can be accepted for inclusion by society as who we are, and what we aspire to be, as a nation. There is reason for some hope in this regard. As a nation, we are now witnessing a move to be more inclusive and that is a positive development, especially with our government’s support."
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Noel Ho