By Lee Siew Hua
Senior Correspondent
siewhua@sph.com.sg

 

LITTLE Adelyn Koh was laughing and twirling for photojournalist Samuel He’s camera, when I met her a couple of weeks ago.

Though the nine-year-old has unseeing opaque eyes - a rare affliction called Peter’s Anomaly - she was high-spirited and didn’t seem to have a fear of falling or twirling into a wall. How unusual, I thought.

But it struck me later that Adelyn was so normal, too, in the way she wanted to show me her toys, room, everything.

Also like girls her age, she tells her Mum she wants to learn ballet. Somehow ballet has a big fairytale pull for girls the world over, and Adelyn is among them. But then, dreams do not end with disability.

Neither can diseases - or disenfranchisement - squelch the human desire for something a little better in life.

UNMET NEED

So the 10 people profiled by The Straits Times each represent an unmet need of others in their vulnerable situation.

Whether it’s dentures for an elderly person or a flat for a child with no permanent address, their Christmas wishes are unusual, mainly because most have teeth and proper shelter.

Receiving dentures, a flat, or childcare, is of course more complex than getting a gift that can be bought and wrapped.

Yet these wishes are not outside the realm of possibility, in a country as endowed with talent as Singapore. In fact, the nation takes special pride in nurturing its own talent and also attracting bright sparks from other lands.

As Make-A-Wish Foundation or Boys’ Brigade will tell you, successful wish granting involves as much heart as tactical partnership. For that, they rope in people with the right talents, or resources.

So Make-A-Wish has corralled owners of luxury cars to rev up in a convoy to the home of four-year-old leukaemia patient Justin Lim, who wished to drive fast cars.

And the Prison Fellowship Singapore, which has ukulele and dance practitioners in its pool of volunteers, asked them to teach these skills to children of inmates and uplift them through the arts.

Mr Patrick Koh, 34, a Boys’ Brigade volunteer since he was 13, says it well and simply: "As years went by, I began to realise that helping people could be very easy."

Easy, when a talent or two is shared, beginning at Christmas.

siewhua@sph.com.sg

Read the full story in Saturday's edition of The Straits Times.