Project Smiles

What we do:

Project Smiles serves the mentally and physically disabled residents of the Red Cross Home for the Disabled (RCHD). Volunteers visit the RCHD on every alternate Sunday morning to interact with our residents, who are mostly bedridden and have limited mobility. By playing interactive games and communicating with them, we hope to improve their motor and social skills. More importantly, by keeping them company, we hope to make them feel that they are never alone. Join us in spreading smiles today! We're excited to hear from you!

A (not so) short review:

tl,dr: Volunteers really make a difference in the lives of these people, and in doing so also foster meaningful friendships and build a community! :)

With the recent circuit breaker measures, how many of y’all felt bored at home and were counting down to the number of days left? 😩 Luckily, we have apps like Houseparty to video call and play games with our friends!!

However, what if we had no access to these apps? We won’t have anyone to socialize with. Now imagine being in that situation for a long time to come.

This is what our residents face every day. At the Red Cross Home for the Disabled (RCHD), our friendly residents, who are also mentally and physically disabled, have physical restrictions and limited opportunities to interact with people.

Like us, they have their own interests 🤓 They love ball games, colouring and singalong sessions, and are willing to connect with people from all walks of life!!

However, they do not have regular activities organised to fill their weekends. This is where you can MAKE A DIFFERENCE 🤩

I joined Project Smiles as I realised that we, as a society, tend to gravitate towards helping children, youth and elderly, but not much focus is on people with disabilities. I wanted to challenge myself to work with people with disabilities, to understand them, to interact with them and overall, to get rid of the social stigma that others have planted in my mind about them.

In Project Smiles, we would visit the Red Cross Home for the Disabled every fortnightly to entertain, chat and feed the residents there. My first experience with them was of sadness as most are physically disabled and unable to feed or move themselves without help but as I interacted with them, I learnt to look past their disability and at them as a human being. They may express emotions in different ways but they were just like us, they enjoyed the company and having someone pay attention to them.

One of my most memorable moments was one session back in the previous semester when we brought instruments and prepared songs to sing for the residents. To our surprise, one of the residents started tearing up when we sang “Can’t help falling in love”. We were all shocked as none of us (not even the PDs) have ever seen it before. It showed us that our small actions of entertainment could cause such an effect and it was gratifying to know that our song had touched his heart. Besides this, the caretakers of the facility also started requesting for us to sing certain songs, we became a ‘mobile karaoke band’ that day, making both residents and caretakers happy at the same time.
Join our family in becoming the special someone who brings smiles onto their faces!! Here at Project Smiles, we don't just volunteer. We grow together into confident and emphatic people who are always ready to serve our community 💞

Don’t fret if you don’t know how!! We will help each other along the way so be brave and take that first step!! 👣

Are you game for the challenge? 😉😎

Beyond our cosy Project Smiles family, we also belong to a bigger family, the NUS RCY family!! Here, you'll find many like-minded and unique individuals who will spice up your uni life!! 🔥 Come join in the fun and you’ll find your kakis for life here 😜 We hope to see you guys soon!!

Available committee positions

Project Director

Vice-Project Director

Welfare Director (Logistics and Treasurer)

Marketing Director