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FAST
SINGAPORE: Every morning, Roger Tan opens his laptop, brews a cup of tea and begins sending out emails. But these messages are not for colleagues, friends or family, let alone people he has met. They are for prison inmates.
“I’m writing to about 25 inmates right now,” he shares. “It could take an hour to even three hours each time.”
For those who are cut off from the outside world, there is no shortage of things to write about.
The former bank risk manager fills his letters with snippets about everyday life, from how to use banking app PayNow — introduced in 2017 — to reviews of films inmates only get to watch about two years after they were first screened.
“(The letters) could be educational, … informational (or) just for entertainment,” the 49-year-old says. “(I’m writing) to help them stay in touch with society, so that they don’t feel left out. … And it’ll be easier for them to reintegrate (later).”
Tan wrote a review of the film, Avengers: Endgame, for his inmate pen pals.
He has kept up this daily routine since June 2022. In that time, he has written more than 28,000 letters to inmates, mainly from Changi’s maximum-security prison and some from the Tanah Merah Prison School.
Behind the prison walls, his efforts have not gone unnoticed. What began with one or two pen pals grew, at its peak, to nearly 100 of them as more and more inmates asked to be included in his “mailing list”.
He is among several individuals featured on the On The Red Dot series, Hidden Heroes, which sheds light on ordinary Singaporeans who step up when no one is watching, often at personal cost.
Tan shares why he writes, how he navigates the emotions inmates sometimes share and what keeps him going on his mission to offer comfort and hope, especially while living with terminal cancer.
WATCH: Why I write to prisoners every day, despite terminal cancer diagnosis (11:15)
Tan’s journey with inmates began in 2018, when he started volunteering as a para-counsellor in a Buddhist charity. The role did not require him to be a fully certified counsellor but involved offering emotional support and, importantly, a listening ear.
He met them in groups of about 30 to 50 in monthly sessions and gradually built trust and rapport. But those sessions came to a halt in 2020, when the pandemic hit and in-person counselling was suspended.
So he emailed them instead. His decision to write every day, he says, was inspired by an inmate who shared that his friend had loved ones, such as parents, siblings and girlfriend, who took turns writing him an email daily.
“He wished something like that could be done for him. So I thought, ‘Eh, that’s a good idea. Why don’t I do that for them instead?’” Tan recalls.
A group of cells in one of Changi Prison’s maximum-security institutions, where many of Tan’s inmate pen pals are housed.
The most challenging part of writing every day to inmates he has never met is not the time commitment. It has to do with feeling the weight of what they sometimes share.
Some of them write about feeling suicidal. Others speak of their sadness and helplessness, especially when loved ones outside prison are seriously ill and there is nothing they can do.
“I can only advise them to be patient and wait (it out),” he says.
Among those he writes to are death row inmates who have asked for help on “how to handle fear, how to handle death”.
One letter, in particular, stands out as being “the most touching”. The inmate wrote of his fear of facing the gallows and also addressed his email to his mother, who had abandoned him.
“Dear Ma,” it read. “I was a drug addict. Now I’m a prisoner, and my crime is so serious that they sentenced me to death. And I’m sorry for whatever my actions did to you.
“Whatever you did or choose to do, I forgive you. I love you, Ma, and goodbye.”
Tan getting emotional after reading the death row inmate’s letter aloud.
The letter was personally meaningful to Tan, who found himself able to relate in part to the feeling of facing impending death.
It was in August 2024 when Tan went for an annual check-up, whereupon blood tests and multiple scans revealed stage three liver cancer.
He underwent surgery to remove the tumour, but follow-up consultations brought worse news. His liver was severely weakened, with no further treatment options. By December 2024, his doctor’s prognosis was that he had less than 12 months left.
Tan’s first concern was the volunteer work he had started. He wondered how he could continue writing to inmates daily and supporting ex-inmates too, as he thought it would be “quite a waste” if it stopped there.
That led to the publication of his letters. Working in partnership with Ambulance Wish Singapore, he compiled his correspondence and released a book last May, titled Dear Inmates: Daily Emails to Prisoners.
Tan published his book with the help of Ambulance Wish Singapore, a charity that fulfils the wishes of terminally ill patients. (Photo: Reshma Ailmchandani)
“This could let people know (how) something simple like (writing letters) is helping so many people, and then people (can) get to know the inmates better,” he says.
Alongside the book, he continued building his non-profit initiative, the H Project — H stands for hope — which he started in June 2022 for ex-inmates to do voluntary work such as packing goody bags and serving meals at nursing homes.
Activities are held once or twice monthly. The group call themselves the Robin Hood Squad, a reference to society’s underdogs doing good for others.
“Getting (ex-inmates) to do all this prosocial stuff makes them realise … they can do good,” Tan says, “which helps them feel that they’ve redeemed themselves, (making it) easier for them to reintegrate (into) society.”
Roger Tan and H Project volunteer Max D’Ryan Tan (left) serving a resident of the Lee Ah Mooi Old Age Home.
He hopes his efforts will outlive him and is in the process of registering the H Project as a legal entity. This would allow it to attract more volunteers and operate on a larger, more professional scale.
“(Roger) is very positive about his illness, … because he’s still doing his best to serve people,” observes ex-inmate and current volunteer Max D’Ryan Tan, speaking on the sidelines of an H Project event at a nursing home.
“Every single cent that he spent (on) this event … came out of his own pocket.”
For now, Roger Tan also continues to write to inmates every day, knowing that many of them are waiting for his emails.
“I’ll carry on writing these until I can’t any more — until I die,” says the cancer patient, who takes a chemotherapy tablet daily.
He is now scheduled for surgery this month to stabilise his condition after doctors found new tumours in his liver in November.
Watch this story in the Hidden Heroes series here. The programme, On The Red Dot, airs on Channel 5 every Friday at 9.30pm.
Source: CNA/fl(dp)
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FAST
SINGAPORE: Every morning, Roger Tan opens his laptop, brews a cup of tea and begins sending out emails. But these messages are not for colleagues, friends or family, let alone people he has met. They are for prison inmates.
“I’m writing to about 25 inmates right now,” he shares. “It could take an hour to even three hours each time.”
For those who are cut off from the outside world, there is no shortage of things to write about.
The former bank risk manager fills his letters with snippets about everyday life, from how to use banking app PayNow — introduced in 2017 — to reviews of films inmates only get to watch about two years after they were first screened.
“(The letters) could be educational, … informational (or) just for entertainment,” the 49-year-old says. “(I’m writing) to help them stay in touch with society, so that they don’t feel left out. … And it’ll be easier for them to reintegrate (later).”
Tan wrote a review of the film, Avengers: Endgame, for his inmate pen pals.
He has kept up this daily routine since June 2022. In that time, he has written more than 28,000 letters to inmates, mainly from Changi’s maximum-security prison and some from the Tanah Merah Prison School.
Behind the prison walls, his efforts have not gone unnoticed. What began with one or two pen pals grew, at its peak, to nearly 100 of them as more and more inmates asked to be included in his “mailing list”.
He is among several individuals featured on the On The Red Dot series, Hidden Heroes, which sheds light on ordinary Singaporeans who step up when no one is watching, often at personal cost.
Tan shares why he writes, how he navigates the emotions inmates sometimes share and what keeps him going on his mission to offer comfort and hope, especially while living with terminal cancer.
WATCH: Why I write to prisoners every day, despite terminal cancer diagnosis (11:15)
CARRYING THE WEIGHT OF THEIR WORDS
Tan’s journey with inmates began in 2018, when he started volunteering as a para-counsellor in a Buddhist charity. The role did not require him to be a fully certified counsellor but involved offering emotional support and, importantly, a listening ear.
He met them in groups of about 30 to 50 in monthly sessions and gradually built trust and rapport. But those sessions came to a halt in 2020, when the pandemic hit and in-person counselling was suspended.
So he emailed them instead. His decision to write every day, he says, was inspired by an inmate who shared that his friend had loved ones, such as parents, siblings and girlfriend, who took turns writing him an email daily.
“He wished something like that could be done for him. So I thought, ‘Eh, that’s a good idea. Why don’t I do that for them instead?’” Tan recalls.
A group of cells in one of Changi Prison’s maximum-security institutions, where many of Tan’s inmate pen pals are housed.
The most challenging part of writing every day to inmates he has never met is not the time commitment. It has to do with feeling the weight of what they sometimes share.
Some of them write about feeling suicidal. Others speak of their sadness and helplessness, especially when loved ones outside prison are seriously ill and there is nothing they can do.
“I can only advise them to be patient and wait (it out),” he says.
Among those he writes to are death row inmates who have asked for help on “how to handle fear, how to handle death”.
One letter, in particular, stands out as being “the most touching”. The inmate wrote of his fear of facing the gallows and also addressed his email to his mother, who had abandoned him.
“Dear Ma,” it read. “I was a drug addict. Now I’m a prisoner, and my crime is so serious that they sentenced me to death. And I’m sorry for whatever my actions did to you.
“Whatever you did or choose to do, I forgive you. I love you, Ma, and goodbye.”
Tan getting emotional after reading the death row inmate’s letter aloud.
The letter was personally meaningful to Tan, who found himself able to relate in part to the feeling of facing impending death.
SO THAT THE WORK LIVES ON
It was in August 2024 when Tan went for an annual check-up, whereupon blood tests and multiple scans revealed stage three liver cancer.
He underwent surgery to remove the tumour, but follow-up consultations brought worse news. His liver was severely weakened, with no further treatment options. By December 2024, his doctor’s prognosis was that he had less than 12 months left.
Tan’s first concern was the volunteer work he had started. He wondered how he could continue writing to inmates daily and supporting ex-inmates too, as he thought it would be “quite a waste” if it stopped there.
That led to the publication of his letters. Working in partnership with Ambulance Wish Singapore, he compiled his correspondence and released a book last May, titled Dear Inmates: Daily Emails to Prisoners.
Tan published his book with the help of Ambulance Wish Singapore, a charity that fulfils the wishes of terminally ill patients. (Photo: Reshma Ailmchandani)
“This could let people know (how) something simple like (writing letters) is helping so many people, and then people (can) get to know the inmates better,” he says.
Alongside the book, he continued building his non-profit initiative, the H Project — H stands for hope — which he started in June 2022 for ex-inmates to do voluntary work such as packing goody bags and serving meals at nursing homes.
Activities are held once or twice monthly. The group call themselves the Robin Hood Squad, a reference to society’s underdogs doing good for others.
“Getting (ex-inmates) to do all this prosocial stuff makes them realise … they can do good,” Tan says, “which helps them feel that they’ve redeemed themselves, (making it) easier for them to reintegrate (into) society.”
Roger Tan and H Project volunteer Max D’Ryan Tan (left) serving a resident of the Lee Ah Mooi Old Age Home.
He hopes his efforts will outlive him and is in the process of registering the H Project as a legal entity. This would allow it to attract more volunteers and operate on a larger, more professional scale.
“(Roger) is very positive about his illness, … because he’s still doing his best to serve people,” observes ex-inmate and current volunteer Max D’Ryan Tan, speaking on the sidelines of an H Project event at a nursing home.
“Every single cent that he spent (on) this event … came out of his own pocket.”
For now, Roger Tan also continues to write to inmates every day, knowing that many of them are waiting for his emails.
“I’ll carry on writing these until I can’t any more — until I die,” says the cancer patient, who takes a chemotherapy tablet daily.
He is now scheduled for surgery this month to stabilise his condition after doctors found new tumours in his liver in November.
Watch this story in the Hidden Heroes series here. The programme, On The Red Dot, airs on Channel 5 every Friday at 9.30pm.
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Source: CNA/fl(dp)
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