A 58-year-old Indian-origin man was honoured in Singapore with Public Spiritedness Award for his life-saving efforts to help an elderly unconscious Chinese man.
U Silvakumar, a military expert, put his life-saving instincts to practice and used cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) process to help the Chinese man who was lying unconscious near a Hindu temple before the ambulance arrived.
News of Silvakumar’s efforts made rounds online after a Facebook photo of him and other Hindu devotees helping the elderly man was posted on the social networking site.
For his efforts, Silvakumar was honoured with the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) Public Spiritedness Award, the Channel News Asia reported.
In a Facebook post, SCDF said today the group’s response was the “epitome of #CommunityFirstResponders”.
“First at scene, first to render assistance. Community first response transcends all boundaries, and can be embraced by anyone and everyone,” it said.
Singaporean-Indian Hindus, descendents of the early immigrants, participate in fire-walking festivals called Theemithi, taking religious vows in exchange for a wish or blessing from the goddess Draupadi every year.
It is a popular annual festival in which even Chinese people take part while many tourists click photographs as they consider it a unique event.
The Public Spiritedness Award is given to people who have displayed courageous or outstanding deeds to save lives.
