How Modern Day Vigilantes Helped Singaporeans Fight The Villains of COVID-19!
Amidst the outbreak of a highly infectious flu virus, uncertainty abound, many scrambled to the malls to grab what little remained of supplies of food, masks, hand sanitisers, toilet rolls and gloves. While panic and fear arose around the rest of Singapore, two seemingly common folk kept their cool and devised a tool.
Mr Jonathan Tan, 33, Administrator and Mr Jerry Lim, 38, Tech Entrepreneur first met as members of the Rotaract Club some 20 years back. Back then, Jonathan, a student of Republic Poly, and Jerry, from Singapore Management University, certainly did not expect their background volunteerism to have given them a drive to do something during a global pandemic.
Now co-founders of the movement Contribute.SG, Jonathan and Jerry recall the initial reactions to the severe impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“On 30 Jan 20, as the Government announced the hand-out of 4 surgical masks per household, I took to Facebook to shout out for ground-up ideas and was surprised at the rush of responses”, said Jonathan as he recounts the initial spurs of this movement.
Mr Jerry Lim, who was working at Megapixel Solutions, shared, “I began with a Minimum Viable Product (MVP), a simple HTML website to allow Singaporeans a basic coordination tool to bring together supply and demand.”
With a total of 6,584 unique visitors and over 12,000 page views, their simple product has helped many Singaporeans reach out and exchange critical supplies of masks, gloves, hand sanitisers and basic home essentials.
“An idea is just an idea but it’s our mindset that enables more love, less hate”
Jerry Lim
The vigilante duo have since gone on to fight the bug with the creation of two additional websites for COVID Circuit Breaker FAQs and COVID Circuit Breaker Resources. They have also launched two campaigns:
- Saluting Tamil-speaking foreign workers affected by the COVID-19 crisis and
- Convincing seniors on the importance of staying home and donning a mask properly
The good work done did not protect Jonathan and Jerry from their share of critics and skeptics.
“There were some that questioned our intent and doubted our genuineness,” shared the two.
With a Facebook page busy with contributors and beneficiaries however, there is little doubt of the movements’ impact. Towards the rest of Singapore, the duo have this to share:
“We only hope our actions spur our youth to step up and be bold to co-create, for the purpose of spreading love not hate.”
Jonathan, Jerry
Written by: Louisa Tan
Edited by: Rovik Robert, better.sg
