Retired nurse keeps working to serve the poor

For senior citizen Mona Chin, nursing is not just a career but a calling to help the poor and needy.

Having worked for more than 30 years as a nurse before retiring, Chin had initially felt that her work was far from done.

After her retirement, Chin, now 72, began using her time and energy to serve people in need.

“I don’t worry about money or not being able to enjoy my sunset years

“If I can do just this much by serving them in a compassionate, respectful way, my life will be more meaningful,” she told The Rakyat Post. 

Chin currently is the nurse as well as the clinic manager of the HOPE worldwide Malaysia’s Free Clinic in Sentul, founded in 2000 to provide free medication and consultation.

Hope Worldwide Malaysia is a branch of Hope Worldwide, an international non-profit, non-religious, charity organisation based in the United States.

The clinic has grown to serve more than 56,000 underprivileged patients to date.

Trained in the United Kingdom, Chin began as a nurse at Universiti Hospital in Petaling Jaya before moving on to work at Singapore’s Tan Tock Seng Hospital.

“It was 15 years ago. I was in Kuala Lumpur to visit my brother and that was when I chanced upon an advertorial in a newspaper by a charitable organisation, looking for a trained nurse.

“Helping the poor and needy was something I thought about a great deal. I thought that this would be the opportunity for me to give with both hands and overflowing heart.

“I have held in my hands all that the world can give. In return, I want to give and give generously,” she said.

Although Chin’s efforts are concentrated in Sentul, her work speaks to the larger issue of urban poverty in Kuala Lumpur, where slum areas inhabited by people who come under the Poverty Line Income (PLI) group continue to exist while the number of homeless people has risen almost two-fold.

She hoped her contribution would help inspire people to help the less fortunate on their own free will.

“Volunteerism for the common good can move and alter people in subtle ways because, like love, it speaks through and to the heart,” said Chin.

Mona's undying passion continues to burn as she eventually took up the role as a Trainer, empowering Youths in the Clinic Apprentice Program, a Youth Empowerment Program that aims to train youths from 18 to 25 years old, who are interested in securing a career in medical related fields.

Article written by our volunteer, Mr. Fernando Fong, who is a Senior Reporter of The Rakyat Post. Click here to read the original post: Retired Nurse keeps working to serve the Poor

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