When Rahimah, the project owner, heard about landlords evicting tenants based on nationality, and of fear-mongering by some that Chinese Nationals should be avoided amid the coronavirus outbreak, she felt that something had to be done about this, especially for the youth who are more impressionable.

Rahimah started “Get Well Card” Project, as a campaign with an online and offline component, that took place from Feb until end of March. During the project, Rahimah worked with a team of creative professionals to produce a series of light-hearted 1 min long animated film targeted at younger audiences to show care, empathy and community resilience. The “Get Well” goes out to the victims of the outbreak, including the patients, front-line workers and those who have lost their incomes. This was uploaded onto social media as well as the project website: www.getwellcard.sg

The main activity took place in the classrooms, where primary and secondary school students from 7 schools, including Chappie Tots Centre, Canossian School, Dunearn Secondary School and Madrasah Wak Tanjong Al-Islamiah came together to draw and write 1,000 get-well cards. The children were first asked to watch the short animation videos, and then draw inspiration and lessons from them, to design their own get well cards with their own messages of well wishes. The children also folded one origami plane for each letter, reflecting the Japanese belief that 1000 origami cranes symbolise a symbol of hope and healing. The cards and cranes were then delivered to various healthcare institutions in Singapore.

Rahimah reflected during the project that even a crisis such as COVID-19 could present unique opportunities for lessons on xenophobia and social harmony, and that this had been an opportunity for her to contribute to the community during this time. With the help and support of the MCCY Our Singapore Fund, she was able to kick-start the project very quickly and produced the video within 2 weeks. She is planning to close the project soon, but the website is still accepting submissions during this time.