Sian Chay Medical Institution (Sian Chay) is a social service agency with a history of 123 years. It upholds the belief of advocating a healthy and happy life, is committed to selfless dedication, and provides free traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) consultation and low-cost treatment to the community regardless of race, religion and social status. We also actively promote racial harmony and social stability; help transform negative energy into positive energy; encourage physical and mental health; reduce health, family and social problems; improve the quality of life; and help others lead a happy life.
Sian Chay's efforts and work
At Sian Chay, we advocate the culture and spirit of philanthropy, and encourage individuals and enterprises to actively participate in charity and community welfare activities, as well as work together to create a harmonious society. By promoting charitable TCM platforms, we hope to help people maintain health, enhance immunity, and promote overall health and well-being. One of our goals is to expand the benefits available to non-Chinese ethnic groups and increase the number of non-Chinese beneficiaries from the current 6% to 10%.
Sian Chay upholds five major core values: forgiveness, universal love, compassion, gratitude and dedication. The institution is also steadfast in our beliefs:
In our pursuit of supporting nation building and creating a harmonious society, Sian Chay abides by the concept of "from the society and give back to society" and carries forward the Chinese tradition of mutual assistance. Compassion is our purpose as we provide the public with free TCM consultations, low-cost medicine, tuina therapy and healthcare services in hopes of serving society and benefitting more people.
We also hope to share the charitable TCM platform with more people through various activities, attract more people to join our works and jointly inject vitality into society. The belief of respect, attitude, action and conduct forms the integrity and virtues of charity.
Between 2014 and 2022, Sian Chay has attended to approximately 3,055,292 patient visits and dispensed 5,974,823 dosages of medication prescriptions. In the next five years, the number of patient visits and dosages of prescription are expected to increase to 2.5 million and 4.8 million respectively.
Every ten dollars of donation can benefit one patient from a low-income family, enabling them to receive free consultation and medicine. And helping just one patient in a family is equivalent to helping all the members of the family, allowing them to escape from the suffering.
In addition to the promotion of TCM in Singapore, Sian Chay also undertakes charitable and humanitarian efforts in Singapore. Every year, Sian Chay organises major events, with the support of grassroots organisations and community partners, to promote community relations and welfare, including occasions such as Mother's Day, National Day and the Mid-Autumn Festival.
Enabling visions for the future
To support Sian Chay's long-term development and plans to expand our charity efforts, we purchased the Sian Chay Charity Centre (SCCC) Building in 2022 for $20 million. This new headquarters is well positioned as a philanthropy hub to promote our pioneers' spirit of philanthropy since 1901. It is not only a physical building, but also carries the significance of promoting the mission, culture, spirit and beliefs of Sian Chay Medical Institution, and serve as a diversified one-stop assistance platform to help more people. This hub will be open for other charitable organisations and community partners' use as well as resource sharing, which will help more people receive support, care and assistance.
TCM talks and conferences by overseas visiting TCM academics and experts can be conducted at the SCCC for the benefit of the TCM community. This fosters closer Singapore-China exchange, enhances the quality standards and professionalism of TCM in Singapore, and serves as outreach to the Southeast Asian nations.
Charity outreach efforts
Sian Chay actively cooperates with national policies, such as the Healthier SG scheme, organises love-sharing activities to keep beneficiaries happy, and promotes the importance of healthy living and physical, mental and spiritual health. By providing relevant health education and services, we hope to help people develop active and healthy living habits, thereby preventing the occurrence of diseases, reducing the social medical burden, and promoting overall healthy development of society. This move is not only beneficial to the physical and mental health of individuals, but will also have a positive impact on society and the nation.
In hopes of instilling in the younger generation values such as compassion, gratitude and giving back to society, a $1 million youth fund has been set up specially to support charity projects organised by the youth, with support ranging from $5,000 to $10,000 per project. Through these efforts, we hope to influence and encourage more benevolent individuals to support charity efforts and welfare causes.
Philanthropy, universal love and empathy, a bright vision together and sharing charity. Sian Chay abounds with gratitude and love – we are one family. All of us at Sian Chay firmly believe that serving mankind is the best job and are committed to making Singapore a "city of good"!
Sian Chay was founded in 1901 by a group of benevolent individuals
The Sian Chay Mother’s Day Celebration on 14 May 2017 was officiated by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Member of Parliament for Ang Mo Kio GRC and Advisor to Grassroots Organisations, as the Guest of Honour