Bright Home programme, initiated by Central Singapore CDC, was started in 2004. The programme offers volunteer groups and community partners that are interested in collaborating with Central Singapore CDC to assist in meeting the home-based needs of lower income elderly residents in the Central Singapore district. Volunteers visit elderly residents in their homes to offer basic services like cleaning, minor repair works and organising activities for residents. They also help to do basic assessment and refer residents to the right social services.
Since last August, I have volunteered for this programme at Blk 31 Toa Payoh. The programme called for a once a month interaction programme over a six-month period. I worked with Moral Homes, who also plans activities for the residents besides providing free lunches for the residents. I saw how lonely some of the residents were. Through the 6-month programme, I have learned many things including the residents' quality of life, the care received, and the environment surrounding them.
People need help and kindness all through the year, but sometimes they need a little extra when the holidays roll around. It's supposed to be a time of happiness and celebration, but for people who are alone or struggling, it can be a painful, lonely time. With this in mind, when planning the activities, we try to conduct our out reach programme to coincide with a major event for that particular month. Since then, we have conducted out reach programme celebrating National Day, Mid-Autumn Festival, Hari Raya Adilfitri, Christmas and Chinese New Year. For each of these event we planned activities that has a linkage to these festivals. Besides these, we also have birthday parties, outings, karaoke sessions and exercise days.Besides the project period, I also regularly drop by to visit the eldlerly, helped them to upkeep their little vegetable/herbal garden, read them letters etc. I also took them them out for lunches and walks. The elderly enjoy personal attention. They also enjoy having volunteers who can chat and listen to their stories.
I have had many good experiences both volunteering and befriending the elderly. Through my volunteering I have made new friends. Our friendship grew through the project period. Through our conversations, I get to hear about their life experiences during and after the Japanese Occupation. It is also a good opportunity to preserve life stories of the elderly. Precious life stories are lost every day as the elderly die or are lost to the ravages of stroke, and other ailments. My volunteer experience had shown me that I can bring joy to older people. Everyone will have to face having parents and grandparents growing older and becoming dependent on their children. Dealing with this situation has made me a stronger and more caring person. I believe in helping people BUT I am also well aware that it takes more than one person to help, it takes a team. Hopefully, more people can come forward to volunteer to make a difference in their lives.
1 comment:
From the age of 16 to 21 (nearly 2 decades ago), I volunteered with the AMK Social Service centre. We befriended the elderly living in one-room flats in Ang Mo Kio. It was an enriching experience and I have learnt much from the senior citizens we have befriended and also from my other volunteers. We were also provided training which resembled much of the corporate team-building programmes when I started working later on :-)
We will all grow old, it is good that there are volunteers still out there befriending the elderly.
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