Sophie Melia Chandra, 15

School: St. Margaret's School (Secondary)

Topic: An email on a VIA project to honour deceased donors

Award: Second Place, Senior Category, 2024

Dear Mrs Foo,

I am writing this email to propose a Values-in-Action Project. This project is to honour deceased organ donors and remember the legacy that they have left behind. The school’s Student Council would be in charge of this project and I can assure you that if given the opportunity, we would ensure that it is a meaningful and touching project for the whole school population and the families.

This project would honour deceased organ donors. During a family gathering at my distant aunt’s place, there was a jar of stars placed in her living room. After talking to her, I found out that the paper stars were folded by some students, as a way to honour and appreciate my aunt’s mother, who left behind a legacy through organ donation. Although my aunt’s mother passed away a few years ago, my aunt still keeps the jar of paper stars in the living room, where everyone can see and admire. The jar has stars of a wide variety of colours, showing how many students had folded the stars and contributed to the jar. Despite the fact that my aunt and I are not very close, seeing how her eyes lit up whenever she looked at the jar, truly touched my heart. Hence, I want to carry out this project to help commemorate all the other deceased, who have also left behind such a legacy.

For this project, I feel that we could distribute heart-shaped papers to everyone in the school. We could then get the students and even the teachers to write heartfelt messages on the papers and stick them onto small cardboards. The cardboards would then be delivered to the families who have a deceased parent, sibling or any relative who has donated an organ.

The messages could be words of appreciation, personal stories or even just words of encouragement and support. These messages would move the families who receive them as they would understand that their family member’s act and sacrifice has been recognised and appreciated. To collect the heart-shaped papers, there could be boxes placed outside the student council room and during student council meetings, we would check on the boxes and collect the pieces of paper. After collecting the papers, the student council would gather and paste the papers onto the boards where they will also be decorated with hearts, flowers and other decorations.

After speaking with the teachers-in-charge of the art department, I have learnt that they will contribute the paper and boards for the project. The paper would be cut into hearts, to show our love and appreciation for the organ donors, making it more meaningful and moving. The papers would be distributed to the students during their CCE period and they would be given the time to write their messages. Members of the student council would gather in school during the June holiday to paste the cards.

During the June holidays, the students could complete the project. Furthermore, to make the project extra meaningful and touching, after finishing all the boards, the student councillors would hand deliver the boards to families with a deceased relative who was an organ donor. Every time the families look at the boards, they would feel moved and happy. Hence, I am confident that the hand delivered boards would make the families feel touched and they would definitely appreciate our gesture.

I believe that this project would benefit the student population as writing the messages would allow them to think deeper about how the families with a deceased family member might feel. It would allow them to learn the value of empathy and the importance of showing appreciation to people even if they do not know them personally. The student population would learn how to show care and love, through the heart-shaped cards. To add on, they would also learn to be more compassionate as the family members would have probably suffered a lot due to the death of a loved one and hence they can show their compassion through the words on their hard cards. The student council members would benefit greatly from this project as they would learn how to carry out such a big project that requires the efforts and contributions of the whole school population. They would also learn empathy as they have to hand deliver the boards and talk to the families. Therefore, I feel that through this project, the whole school population would learn many valuable values like empathy and compassion.

I strongly believe that honouring deceased organ donors is very important as they made the decision to donate an organ after their death. Their donated organ saved a life and honouring their sacrifice would not only show that we appreciate their sacrifice but also show our support to the families with a deceased relative. Honouring deceased organ donors could also convince the younger generations to donate their organs too after they pass away. Statistics have shown that fewer people are willing to donate their organs before and after they have passed away. Hence, by honouring deceased organ donors, we can educate people on the importance of organ donation and how the donated organs can save a life. Therefore, I feel that honouring deceased organ donors is very important as we would be recognising the sacrifice they have made, to save the life of another person.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to share my proposal with you. I hope that you will take my project into consideration and if given the opportunity, I would ensure that the project would be a heartfelt and touching one for the students and families with a deceased organ donor. Thank you.

Yours sincerely,
Sophie Chandra
Executive Committee
Student Council

Disclaimer: Please note that the views and opinions expressed in the essays for the Live On Festival 2024 are those of the participants and are not endorsed by the National Organ Transplant Unit (Ministry of Health).

To learn more about organ donation and organ transplantation in Singapore, please visit www.liveon.gov.sg