Singapore’s love aid for Australian bushfires

Dear fellow Singaporeans,

Australia has being through a horrendous new year with unprecendented damaging bushfires tearing through vast parts of New South Wales and Victoria.

So far, five million hectares of land were destroyed, half a billion wildlife feared dead, thousands of homes burnt and dozens of people have lost their lives in the bushfires which have being burning since October last year.

The fear is that the worst is yet to come as traditionally Australian bushfires are at their peak towards the middle and end of the summer season estimated to be in end January till mid February.

Right now, thirty thousand Singaporeans have made Australia their homes living in harmony with one another in this beautiful continent - my daughter is one of them.

We have talked at length about the on-going bushfires whenever we met up for our regular meals the past two weeks I am here and sometimes tears would well up when we talk about the lovely animals such as koalas and wombat suffering a dreadful death in the fires.

I have also personally experienced the 47 deg C heat during last Black Saturday weekend and it was a day whereby you felt that the world may end soon.

In this crowdfunding platform, we hope to gather some funds from Singaporeans both living back home in Singapore and those residing here so that we can do something for the Aussies in their time of need.

We have some experience carrying out regional humanitarian aid in the middle east (7 years) for the Syrian/Palestinian refugees and Indonesia in particular during the recent earthquake at Palu (once) and Lombok (twice) two years ago.

We also prefer to bring humanitarian relief personally to the affected areas whenever possible though this is not always feasible due to the risk element involved but we will try our best.

The fires are still burning in many parts of NSW and Victoria and we will be concentrating on the areas closest to us ie. south Australia. It is risky to go alone and we will want to partner with some organisation or local people who are familiar with the area.

We will provide relief aid such as food,water, blankets, sleeping bags, stuff toys to affected victims and hopefully if funds permit we can also donate to the many crisis shelters set up for animals in that area.

If you are a Singaporean residing here and can spare the time to assist us in this humanitarian aid project, do contact us at [email protected] so that we can work something out together.

All in all, we hope that Singaporeans will participate in this relief love aid for our Aussie counterparts affected adversely by this climate change disaster.

On this note, we are also glad to know that our SAF is collaborating with the Australian side providing relief aid on the ground - good job!

Thank you Singapore!

Gilbert Goh

Love Aid Singapore - a humanitarian NGO reaching out to make this world a better place

7 January 2020