Hello! I am Angie and this is my first time volunteering with THES.
This first visit did indeed change my perspective on volunteering. In secondary school and junior college, community service was very common among students. Yet, there is a mix of reasons for why people are actively involved in community work then. However, in my visit yesterday, what I felt was that it was a group of people who are truly passionate about serving the community and doing their own part as students to make a little difference to the elderly's lives.
My group yesterday visited Mdm Cheong. She was really friendly and shared with us many of her old photographs with her husband and her step daughter. Her memory was really good and she could almost recount where each photograph was taken and what was the occasion then. She was really cute and excited when she showed us the book album which had a special feature write-up of her.
Unlike my one-time previous volunteering stints in secondary school and junior college, having a group of people who visit the elderly regularly creates stronger attachment between the volunteers and the elderly. And something I thought was really different was the debrief where the volunteers clearly shared with others the updates about the elderly, be it their surgery dates or their medical conditions etc... It is not just a one-time visit to the elderly to clean their homes, maintain hygiene and then ending the weekly visit. Rather, it is a consistent and concerted effort to be concerned about each elderly's physical and mental health and to help in whichever ways possible, even though it may be small.
I am glad to have come for the visit this time and I certainly look forward to joining more THES visits in the upcoming months :)
Love,
Angie
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