Some time last week I received an email about this PRC girl in her final year at NUS needing donations because she is currently stricken with acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

I have to admit that I was a little skeptical at first, wondering whether this is a genuine case of hardship. It has since emerged that this is indeed a genuine case of someone needing help.

It’s quite amazing that within days, more than $100k in donations were collected. I do intend to donate a little as well, since it’s been reported that her medical bills will come up to about $400k in total.

However, I am wondering:

1. If the amount of donations greatly exceed $400k or assuming $400k has been collected but it turns out that the full amount wasn’t completely utilized for the medical bills… what would happen to the balance?

2. Donations are being accepted via cash, cheques, bank transfer and PayPal. Cash payments are being handled by NUSSU and should be alright. However, I presume the cash once collected will be banked to the patient’s personal account. The question is, should the donations go straight to the patient’s personal bank/PayPal accounts?

My opinion is that since NUSSU is coordinating the donation drive, it should have set up a bank account or made use of NUSSU’s bank account to collect the funds, then disburse whatever amount of funds required to pay the medical bills. It’s an issue of accountability and I think a proper system like this should be in place especially when dealing with such large amounts of money (i.e. nearly half a million). Not that I don’t trust the patient, but I believe that when public funds are involved, there should be clear accountability.

3. I am wondering if the same scale of efforts will be put in for local, Singaporean students who are facing similar problems… I am sure there are a number out there who are suffering from dread diseases and need the financial support – even though they are locals and can get subsidies, most of us should know that costs can still run high. I wish NUSSU and fellow NUS students can do as much for other seriously ill students. It’s a good thing that the NUS community is coming together to help this particular student, but I hope people can be equally generous and helpful to other students who are in need…

UPDATE: I sent an email to NUSSU enquiring on the above concerns (1 and 2) and received a reply that NUSSU is addressing those issues.

For #1, donations are accepted through both NUSSU’s account as well as the student’s account. The latter is because it facilitates transfers from overseas donors (I can’t verify the validity of this statement though). NUSSU also mentioned that they have access to the student’s bank account statements and will update the NUS community about the amount collected and disbursed.

As for #2, NUSSU said they are looking into setting up a “trust fund” for excess monies (but no mention of what the “trust fund” is for).

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