On 27 August 2023, Nichiren Shoshu Buddhist Association (Singapore) (“NSBA”) conducted a food and gift pack distribution exercise for needy families in the Macpherson constituency. Since the inaugural distribution exercise held in May 2022, this exercise marks the fifth time that NSBA is actively reaching out to the constituency – a nod towards our commitment in empowering the community and neighbourhood that our temple resides in.
During this exercise, we delivered a total of more than 400kg of rice, over 200 tins of canned food, 450 boxes of tissues, 160 bottles of shampoo and body wash, and many other household necessities for the 100 beneficiary families.
Expanding from our previous efforts, where the volunteer network was supported primarily by NSBA members, we were delighted to welcome our members‘ family and friends to our volunteer network this time.
Dimple, a 13-year-old student, shared her experience of bringing her friend to participate in the distribution exercise:
“I decided to invite my friend, Aricia for the distribution exercise as I wanted to introduce her to this Buddhism and thought that this would be a good opportunity to bring her to the temple. Before sharing about the event, I chanted a lot of Daimoku for her and thankfully, I managed to convince her to come for the event.
As first time participants of this event, even though we had to carry heavy bags to different households, we felt that it was a good way to repay our debts of gratitude to the environment.
I felt very happy that Aricia got to meet compassionate people in the likes of our fellow believers, and got to see our wooden Joju Gohonzon for the first time. I hope that she can come to our temple more often and feel the Gohonzon's power eventually.”
Our efforts do not stop here and we will continue to hold these distribution exercises. For the final time this year, in November 2023, we sincerely hope that more will be able to join us!
Many exciting community outreach activities are in the pipeline. Do stay tuned and check out our website to find out more!
New to Nichiren Shoshu and interested to find out more? Do reach out to us here so we can assist you directly!