Taking the first step is the hardest
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 volunteering service – to clean an
elderly’s home. I arrived at the one-room rental flats, but I wasn't expecting
to see a lot of seniors hanging out at the void deck of Blk 5. I always had the
stereotype that the elderly would rather idle at home or go to work, but this
stereotype was challenged when I saw groups of seniors gather around to
chit-chat and have their lunch together. I must admit, it was my first time
seeing such a sight.
When I first set foot into the rental flat, it was considerably
clean apart from the clutters here and there. I met with the two owners, 80
years old Mr Lee and 60 years old Mr Ho. Both of them became friends after they
were arranged to stay together when allocated their one-room flat. The areas I
was tasked to clean were the windows, toilet and the top of cabinets where they
could not reach. With my own cleaning materials, I started cleaning. It was not
a worrying sight to see so much dust and dirt on the window grills and the
windows itself. Too much dust could cause a problem to Mr Lee who has
difficulty breathing at times. With that in mind, I made sure to clean every
corner of the windows. When I cleaned the toilet and top areas of the cabinet,
I thought to myself about how dangerous it would have been for two elderly man
with physically limitations to clean the house on their own. I realised that
volunteering may look small and irrelevant to youths like me, but it makes a
great difference to beneficiaries like the elderly.
On top of the tasks I was assigned to, I took a step further to
clean the dusty fan and sweep the floor. I managed to engage in small talks
with Mr Lee and amidst that he even offered a small packet of chocolate milk to
me. Small gestures to say “thank you” goes a long way for me, it inspired me to
volunteer more because moments like this reminded me of the reason why I joined
the Diploma in Business and Social Enterprise.