SINGAPORE – At 9pm one night, Mr Mohamathu Abdul Kader rushed to the house of a woman who was too sick to find food herself.

Kader, 54, a volunteer with the Yellow Ribbon Community Project (YRCP), which helps families of prison inmates, was shocked to see the woman in her mid-60s looking very pale.

His son was in prison and he was living alone, so Mr. Kader bought him dinner.

He also arranged for an NGO to distribute cooked meals to him until he recovers.

To help more than 1,100 grassroots volunteers like Mr Kader, training improvements for YRCP were announced at the annual recognition and awards luncheon at the Max Atria @ Singapore Expo on 16 November.

Making the announcements, Minister of Transport and Second Minister of Finance Chee Hong Tat said that a new skills training plan will be created in the first half of 2025 to help volunteers support families in need.

Singapore Prison Service (SPS), which launched the YRCP in 2010, said training will be conducted through e-learning and workshops.

Topics will include how to make friends with families, Singapore’s correctional environment and approach to rehabilitation, and substance abuse.

Mr Chee said that by the end of 2025, a new online portal would provide a central platform for volunteers to access relevant information and record case notes.

To protect the privacy of inmates’ families, volunteers will only have access to information about their assigned cases on a need-to-know basis, SPS said.

Mr Chee said: “Between wanting to do something and knowing what to do, you need to be equipped with the knowledge and skills to better translate your determination and passion into good results and truly help as many families as possible.”

Kader, head of supply chain for a logistics company, has been helping prisoners’ families for more than a decade.