SINGAPORE: Extreme sports enthusiast Sheila Hassan nearly drowned doing water activities in Australia in 2000, but was saved by responders who threw her a lifeline.
The near-death experience motivated the 52-year-old to become a registered SGSecure responder. Her training came in handy last year, when she was mobilised after a man suffered a cardiac arrest near the gym where she was working.
She performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation on the man, who had collapsed in a toilet, and saved his life.
“I would encourage everybody to step forward, to be there, to make a difference in life,” she told CNA.
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Friday (Jul 28) launched the next phase of the SGSecure movement, which urges Singaporeans to deepen social cohesion and play an active role to safeguard society from terrorism and extremism.
The SGSecure movement was introduced in 2016 to sensitise, train, and mobilise Singaporeans to play a part in preventing and dealing with a terrorist attack.
Ms Sheila is among the more than 140,000 community responders in its network.
SGSecure’s next phase will continue its focus on mobilising the community, as well as engaging youths and strengthening community partnerships.
“The real difficulty with Singapore is trying to persuade people that the terror threat is very real,” Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam said at the launch.
Referring to examples of extremist attacks in other countries, he said that if there were a successful attack in Singapore, the consequences would be “quite far-reaching”.
A terror attack, even one that is foiled, can deepen mistrust between groups of people and create a climate of fear, he said.
“It’s not just a terror attack, it’s what it does to our society and our unity,” added the minister.