INESC2 Individual Assignment

Both Singapore and Japan face a growing challenge in their ageing population. In fact, both countries’ old age support ratio of 5.1 and 1.3 is alarming. The demographics for the elderly between Singapore and Japan is largely similar, with a little difference in some aspects. Firstly, the elderly in both Singapore and Japan struggle financially. Most of the time, it is due to the hospital bills and daily expenses, especially when they have retired and no longer earn an income. Of course, both governments implemented policies and initiatives to help these elderlies cope with their living expenses, which to a certain extent helped the elderly financially. Secondly, there is a significant number of elderly suicide cases in both countries. However, the reasons behind these suicide cases are largely different. In Singapore, elderly who committed suicide were lonely. They faced social isolation because their family stopped visiting them for a long time and they weren’t under any care. Th...

On 2 January, I went down to the rental block at Toa Payoh for a befriending session. The void deck area was specially arranged to fit about 70 to 100 elderlies for them to engage in activities. Most of them were chit-chatting with one another while having their lunch, while some were reading newspapers or playing chess. I was tasked to give out lunch packs to the elderly since the kitchen was conveniently situated at the same void deck. The kitchen helpers are all volunteers like me and they shared how they enjoyed serving the elderly because unlike other Singaporeans, this area of residents have mobility issues and face financial struggles. With the service of the volunteers, the elderly can enjoy free lunch every day, under their void deck. Who says there is no free lunch? Haha jokes aside, I really felt the passion behind the volunteers who willingly gave their time to serve the elderly at the rental block. They may not go down to volunteer every single day but they come often eno...

The first step to volunteer is to contact the organisation(s) and confirm the volunteering schedule. In my action plan, I mentioned that I would be working with AWWA Family Services for all three volunteering sessions. However, Faith  (the person I contacted from AWWA)  informed me that there were no events lined up in December since the year 2017 was coming to an end.  The last-minute news definitely came as a shock to me because this means I had no other secured avenues to volunteer. It was hard but thankfully, I had another organisation that I can potentially work with. Care Corner SAC (Toa Payoh) is an organisation that deals mainly with low-income elderly, so they serve a whole block of one-room rental flats. I contacted the in-charge, Ron Tan, and managed to secure events and/or ad-hoc voluntary work in late December and early January.  In the afternoon on 29 December 2017, I was tasked to go down to Blk 5 Lorong 7 Toa Payoh for my very first voluntee...