This guy (a friend of hub and sis) is the sponsor for the
whole program on Saturday. I heard he actually raised funds through friends and
family in order to do this one-time thing. The plan was to work with other
volunteers in the lion befrienders program, to bring the elderly out for
shopping and eating, follow by a house visitation to end the day.
There are a total of 25 volunteers pairing up with 12
elderly. We are then separated into different groups’ basis our dialect for
smooth communication. I am lucky,
because I was assigned to an elderly who can speak teochew and mandarin. So throughout
the trip, we do not experience language breakdowns =)
These elderly are in the program of lion befrienders. They
are usually alone and living in one room flat. So elderly who can afford the
rent of the entire flat have it the whole one room flat themselves, others shared
the one room flat with another roommate. The room was old, but bright and airy
enough. The flat comes with an emergency bell, whereby if they require any
assistance, an alarm will trigger at the void deck to alert passerby to help
calls the police or ambulance.
Most elderly whom I talked to, have financial worries. They
are given monthly allowances, which after deducting the rent and bills; they
basically left about $10 a day for food/miscs expenses. Most depends on food
ration given end of the month by different charity organization. Sometimes, in
order to save some money, they would not on lights at night, they would not
watch too much television and they would often dine Maggie mee.
As we walked the estate below the blks, many elderly came
up for a chat. Some thought we are painters to paint their flat (other batch of
volunteers) and smile widely; even when we said we are not, their smile stays
and walks away.
I feel so much love on Saturday. Such love, are money
cannot buy.
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