Ever wondered how a clinic is operated – especially one that is a charity? With a small staff count, everyone has to cover every task and quickly adapt to volunteers and how they are allocated, testing your own adaptability! Tasks vary from keeping the maintenance of the clinic and sanitation, to aspects such as screening patients and assessing their cases, to taking their blood samples!
With a schedule that varies from the normal 10am to 6pm, but 2 to 10:30pm from Tuesday to Thursday, some may be turned away from a schedule that disrupts their daily schedule. While that may be true, you eventually get used to it and find that helping migrant brothers is very rewarding. Lots of these brothers have difficulties accessing basic healthcare services due to employers not buying health insurance for them, and more have difficulties understanding their own conditions and medical needs.
Volunteers range from university students to doctors that just finished work – giving interns a chance to meet lots of different professionals of different backgrounds. With persistence and a willingness to learn, tasks will come as second nature, and you can truly appreciate the joy of servicing those in need and working as a unit with complete strangers.
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Zachariah Chan
Placement Site: HealthServe, Singapore
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