Clean hands, open hearts

Extract From Author

As the world deals with Covid-19, the recently declared global pandemic that has claimed more than 6,000 lives and infected over 162,000 people, a quote by Dr Abdu Sharkawy, an infectious diseases specialist in Canada, stood out: "Facts, not fear. Clean hands. Open hearts."

Author’s Reflection

What is your personal takeaway from your SOAP story?
Stories, in any form, have always been to inform and educate, sometimes entertain.  Journalism gives us a front row to life and its ups and downs. It comes with a responsibility to document, show and share. The challenge is to convince others of the value of seeing and knowing. Sometimes we do, sometimes we don’t, but hopefully we don’t stop trying.  My earliest lessons about life, empathy and values were through the bedtime stories my dad told us. May everyone’s stories, in all forms, continue to do the same for others through our ups and downs.

Now that your story has been published for some time, do you have any reflections to share post-publishing?
As a photojournalist, the challenge when working on stories is access. It is important to show members of the public the reality and what goes on behind the scenes, because it is important to document this chapter in our history, both good and bad. There are a lot of issues out there that we need to discuss constructively and in order to do that we need knowledge, awareness and empathy. I thank Singapore General Hospital for letting me in then. My deepest respect to the healthcare workers, in various roles, who have been tirelessly giving their all for others. Like how viruses, fear and panic are contagious, so is love, calm, and kindness.

What did you hope to convey to readers through this story?
People always fear the unknown, so telling stories to me has always been about creating awareness and empathy. In the earlier months, there were reports of discrimination of healthcare workers, so I just wanted to show what goes on behind the scenes. Healthcare workers are on the front line daily doing what they do, and all of them have families and loved ones back home. The hope is always that with understanding people's sacrifices and circumstance, that we can choose to be kind.

How do you feel for being recognised for your work?
I see my work as a social responsibility to document, inform and educate. The recognition is an encouragement to us as visual storytellers that what we do matters and we should continue knocking on doors and keep going.

Photographed by
Neo Xiaobin

Friday,
1 May 2020

Merit Award, Visual