She Combines Love For Cats With Her Desire To Do Good
Today is International Cat Day (or World Cat Day), which was started in 2002 by the International Fund For Animal Welfare. And this story is the cat's meow!
Big things often have small beginnings, so the saying goes.
And for Love Kuching Project, it was no different. All that Elaine Chiam and Andy Koh wanted to do in 2009 when they chanced upon a stray cat that had collapsed from exhaustion below their HDB flat in Ubi was to rescue and rehabilitate the pitiful feline.
Thus began the Ubi Kuching Project which was renamed Love Kuching Project a year later when Elaine and Andy's community activism extended beyond the environs of the 50-plus HDB flats that make up the Ubi coimmunity.
In 2014, Love Kuching Project was registered as a society and became a community-based cat rescue group that attracted like-minded volunteers with big hearts. One of them was Camellia Abd Gani who began as a volunteer and now spearheads the project.
A financial consultant by day, Camellia and other volunteers promote the love of cats as companion animals through cat therapy by bringing the lovable felines to special schools and nursing homes.
"We let the old folks play with the cats. We put the cats on their laps so they can stroke or cuddle them," explains Camellia, who recalls a particularly unresponsive and reticent lady who, though sessions of cat therapy, eventually opened up and was even willing to share personal stories.
Here's an IG post of Camellia with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, therapy cat Simba, and a resident of Ren Ci Hospital (Ang Mo Kio) at the nursing home's official opening in May:
As mentioned, today is International Cat Day. So, if you have a feline fur-kid or just simply love cats, we at Wonderwall.sg wish you a Happy International Cat Day!
And if, like Camellia, you wish to be a volunteer and combine your love for cats with a desire to do good, click here. As it says on the Love Kuching Project website, "if you want to interact with our shelter cats on a weekly basis, this is for you!"
If you want to make a donation, click here or here.
And don't miss our story on 200 Lucky Cats decorated by ITE design school students and which are up for auction.
Meanwhile, here are cat pictures guaranteed to make you go awww.
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