Free funeral service in Singapore
Demand for free funeral services from Nam Hong Welfare Service Society in Singapore has exceeded the organisation’s funds.
The service was launched two years ago, providing free funeral services to seniors which could include collecting the body, cremation and scattering the ashes at sea. It can also include any religious rituals and prayers.
Nam Hong General Manager Aaron Ng said the society’s members realised from their house visits that many low-income seniors were bothered by how they may not get proper funeral rites and rituals when they died.
According to Today Online, Aaron Ng said: “For these elderly, by and large, they’re rather superstitious. They’re concerned about their spiritual status when they pass on because there is nobody to take care of it or conduct ceremonies and they’ll become ‘wandering souls’.”
More than 100 enquiries have been made, although the funds originally raised could only cover funeral arrangements for 70 seniors aged 65 and above.
However, working with the Woodlands grassroots team, the organisation has now raised a further sum to cover the funeral arrangements of 40 elderly people living in the area.
Tags: Asia, elderly, free, seniors, Singapore, welfare