Many Singaporeans will recognise the bells that herald approaching Karung Gunis.
Karung Gunis are usually older than our parents. Though some are able-bodied, there are others who are not.
It breaks our heart when we see elderly Karung Gunis pushing heavy newspapers and cardboard from door-to-door to earn a living.
Mr Kilmar Wong experienced this while looking for an elderly Karung Guni.
Mr Wong was informed by his Facebook friends about an elderly lady collecting cardboard in Chong Pang.
To help her, Mr Wong went down on Sunday morning (17 Mar) to find her. However, he couldn’t find her.
After looking for more information from neighbours, he found out that she hasn’t been seen for 2 days.
Luckily, Mr Wong decided to wait for her around the area and finally managed to find her below one of the blocks in the area.
According to Mr Wong, the granny is only earning $200 a month.
This may be because the prices of cardboard and newspaper have dropped by almost 5x since 1997, from $0.28 to $0.06.
Though Garung Guni is considered a blue-collar profession, they earn significantly less than other blue-collar workers.
If your heart goes out to this granny, there is a way you can help her and others like her.
Mr Wong is the founder of Bread & Butter, a Social Enterprise that assists elderly cardboard collectors.
The company makes requests for large organisations and individuals for newspaper and cardboard donations.
It then sells the donations and distributes the profits to elderly beneficiaries.
For those with newspaper and cardboard boxes to throw, the company’s warehouse is located at 1805 Geylang Bahru #01-02 Singapore 339703.
Netizens praised Mr Wong for his contributions.
It is extremely heartening to see Singaporeans such as Mr Wong and his team of volunteers actively helping Singaporeans in need.
Hopefully, more Singaporeans will follow in his footsteps and help our fellow citizens.
Feature image from Facebook.
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