PGA's Founder, Siti Nurani, started volunteering with Keeping Hope Alive (KHA) and gained a lot of experience from then on. "It was an eye opener for her. In 2013, we learned about a child abuse case and Siti shared the story on Facebook. From there, she got to know many kind-hearted people and Mission in Silence (MIS) was formed," shared PGA member Dilah.
MIS changed its name to PGA in August 2014, and has 40 active volunteers. "We reach out to those who are silently in need, behind closed doors. Generally, we target the needy living in rented homes. Our focus will be old folks living alone. We are prepared to step in for urgent and serious cases as and when, and help in whatever way we can. We'll try to assist the needy towards becoming independent, and hopefully they will be motivated to contribute to help others someday," said Dilah.
PGA organises monthly home visits called "door knocks", monthly grocery distributions to those in extreme need, and supplies adult diapers to the elderly.
"We gather funds amongst ourselves. A lot of our donors buy the items that we need and send them over to us. We only take cash for items pledged to be ordered in bulk when we have projects like this Hari Raya one. We are not from any organisation, we give not because we are rich or wealthy but because we care," said Dilah.
The PGA Volunteer Group is holding its annual grocery distribution on 27 and 28 September as part of its Hari Raya Haji Charity Drive. This year, PGA has identified 350 needy families living in rental houses in central Singapore, and put together a set of groceries to be given away. While Hari Raya is the occasion, the families are from different races and religions. Those interested can donate or buy the items* and hand them to PGA on 27 September instead.
The group has received an overwhelming response for volunteers to help with logistics for the charity drive, but is still in need of groceries.
The next PGA project will be a Door Knock in October, during which volunteers will help to clean homes.
More details can be obtained through Facebook through searching for 'Project Goodwill Aid'.
*Images from Facebook.
*The full list of groceries is available from PGA.