Personal contribution to the Elderly
I've gotten in touch with the community partner of my choice, AWWA Family Service Centre. In terms of voluntary work, I've set plans to either go down to the centre or make a call to the person-in-charge, Faith Phua, to know more about the voluntary services that suitable for me to get involved in.
Since the Christmas season and New Year is coming up, I personally feel that it's a good time to give back and bless the community. Therefore, in weeks 9 to 11, I will be availing myself to volunteer alongside with the organisation to befriend the elderly. Apart from befriending, I am also interested in doing ad-hoc tasks, such as packing and giving out daily necessities or tidying up the elderly's houses. Reason being, these seemingly small daily tasks to us could be a challenge to these seniors, so making these tasks more manageable for them is a good way to show that their needs are being met.
I plan to render my voluntary services on the 12th, 17th and 19th December for the whole day. Since the organisation would allocate volunteers to the demands of the elderly's needs accordingly, I was told that I can expect to do some ad-hoc tasks first before joining other volunteers to visit the elderly for house-to-house visits. Hence on the mentioned dates, I will start with small ad-hoc tasks and behind-the-scenes work before warming myself up to visit the elderly at the blocks. Hopefully through my service, I can see an evident change in their lives and learn from them as well.
Senior Activity Centre (SAC), currently serves 500 to 700 of such elderly, living in 5 to 6 HDB Blocks in the community. However, the person in charge informed me that not all are known to SAC. Reasons might be because they are isolated or maybe they refuse to connect with the centre. Therefore, I would like to have a chance to be part of the outreach that the SAC provides so that more seniors gain awareness of their surroundings and eventually have someone to look out for them.
Since the Christmas season and New Year is coming up, I personally feel that it's a good time to give back and bless the community. Therefore, in weeks 9 to 11, I will be availing myself to volunteer alongside with the organisation to befriend the elderly. Apart from befriending, I am also interested in doing ad-hoc tasks, such as packing and giving out daily necessities or tidying up the elderly's houses. Reason being, these seemingly small daily tasks to us could be a challenge to these seniors, so making these tasks more manageable for them is a good way to show that their needs are being met.
I plan to render my voluntary services on the 12th, 17th and 19th December for the whole day. Since the organisation would allocate volunteers to the demands of the elderly's needs accordingly, I was told that I can expect to do some ad-hoc tasks first before joining other volunteers to visit the elderly for house-to-house visits. Hence on the mentioned dates, I will start with small ad-hoc tasks and behind-the-scenes work before warming myself up to visit the elderly at the blocks. Hopefully through my service, I can see an evident change in their lives and learn from them as well.
Senior Activity Centre (SAC), currently serves 500 to 700 of such elderly, living in 5 to 6 HDB Blocks in the community. However, the person in charge informed me that not all are known to SAC. Reasons might be because they are isolated or maybe they refuse to connect with the centre. Therefore, I would like to have a chance to be part of the outreach that the SAC provides so that more seniors gain awareness of their surroundings and eventually have someone to look out for them.
I strongly believe that to effectively solve the social issue at hand, it's essential for me to go down personally and find out what the current situation is like. What I have done so far on my part was research based on the various academic studies and getting in touch with the organisation, AWWA. Since I am dealing with the topic of mainly mental well-being of the elderly, covering social isolation and low-income seniors, it's crucial to have proper interactions with the beneficiaries and to observe how they go about living their life. Being a hands-on person, I am more propelled to participate actively by setting aside time for voluntary work, rather than one-time intentions like donating money.
To add on, I realised that I don't have much interactions with seniors above the age of 65 especially when I don't live under the same roof as my grandparents. It dawned upon me that in Singapore, the inter-generational gap is evident. Although there might have been emphasis placed on inter-generational bonding in recent years, there is still a lack of advocacy considering the growing numbers of elderly living in social isolation. Hence, it's personally meaningful for me as I now have an opportunity to understand seniors and better relate to them. I believe it will help me improve my relationship with my grandparents and parents in the future.
After Semester 1.2 during the long semester break, I plan to go down at least every fortnight to help out with the packing of daily necessities, distribute them, tidy up the elderly's houses and spend some time interacting with them. In order to tackle the social issue of the decrease in well-being of the elderly, it's crucial for everyone of us to do our part in serving our seniors.