Every year, the Singapore Kindness Movement (SKM) celebrates the spirit of kindness and appreciation on one special day - Kindness Day SG which falls on the 20th May 2016. In line with SKM's theme, Kindness, It's Up to Us, various exciting and meaningful Group Up Movement (GUM) events are being held this month as follows.
8 May - Home Visits at Jalan Kukoh (Hosted by The Volunteer Switchboard)
15 May - Giving Out Raincoats (Hosted by #ItsRainingRaincoats)
22 May - Kindness Run (Hosted by The Morning Greeters)
Through the GUMs' participation, SKM is able to reach out to various communities such as the elderly and low income households (The Volunteer Switchboard), the migrant worker community (#itsrainingraincoats) and sports enthusiasts (The Morning Greeters).
Being Mother's Day today, I am glad to bring along my mum with me to one of these meaningful activities which is the home visits at Jalan Kukoh hosted by The Volunteer Switchboard.
The meeting point was at Catch Plus Centre where we gather, get to know one another and do the packing of goodie bags.
Packing of eggs with the rest of the volunteers and resident volunteers. We have to cut the egg cartons into size of 6 eggs and fill them up so that it can be fitted into the goodie bags. Mum nearly get blister from cutting the hard egg cartons.
Founder of The Volunteer Switchboard, Li Woon sharing with us the background of this initiatives and briefed us on how to conduct ourselves and what to expect later on.
The Volunteer Switchboard was started with the aim to connect people to do some good work with the organisations and causes that they truly believed in. As every volunteers have different schedule, they make it flexible for the volunteers to register online the activities that fits their schedule. The reason why Jalan Kukoh was chosen is because in this estate, 9 out of 12 are rented flats, and only if your income is $1,500 and below are you eligible to get rented flat.
Feedback from the volunteers were taken into account and every sessions see improvement from the previous. For example, they have thought of putting mee sua which is healthier into the goodie bag instead of instant noodle, but giving mee sua means having to give condiments as well. So the volunteers were briefed to tell the elderly to boil the instant noodle one round first to remove the wax.
Volunteers are encouraged to slow the distribution process to increase interactions and engage the residents. It's not just to go there and distribute the goodies and leave, we are also to make sure the old folks, who usually lived alone can feedback to us if they need any other form of assistance. Thus, survey forms was created for us to write down some basic details, like if there's any bed bugs, if they are living alone or with family, etc.
The meeting point was at Catch Plus Centre where we gather, get to know one another and do the packing of goodie bags.
Packing of eggs with the rest of the volunteers and resident volunteers. We have to cut the egg cartons into size of 6 eggs and fill them up so that it can be fitted into the goodie bags. Mum nearly get blister from cutting the hard egg cartons.
Founder of The Volunteer Switchboard, Li Woon sharing with us the background of this initiatives and briefed us on how to conduct ourselves and what to expect later on.
The Volunteer Switchboard was started with the aim to connect people to do some good work with the organisations and causes that they truly believed in. As every volunteers have different schedule, they make it flexible for the volunteers to register online the activities that fits their schedule. The reason why Jalan Kukoh was chosen is because in this estate, 9 out of 12 are rented flats, and only if your income is $1,500 and below are you eligible to get rented flat.
Feedback from the volunteers were taken into account and every sessions see improvement from the previous. For example, they have thought of putting mee sua which is healthier into the goodie bag instead of instant noodle, but giving mee sua means having to give condiments as well. So the volunteers were briefed to tell the elderly to boil the instant noodle one round first to remove the wax.
Volunteers are encouraged to slow the distribution process to increase interactions and engage the residents. It's not just to go there and distribute the goodies and leave, we are also to make sure the old folks, who usually lived alone can feedback to us if they need any other form of assistance. Thus, survey forms was created for us to write down some basic details, like if there's any bed bugs, if they are living alone or with family, etc.
Finexis and Singapore Kindness Movement provide sponsorship for today's session. TeamSG athletes also participated at this event and there's media and reporters following as well.
Gathered for debriefing. My mum and I paired up with a regular volunteer, Marshook. Lucky for us to have him in a team as he is really friendly and insisted to carry the heavily food items. We visited 11 house in total. The first uncle we met just had an operation done and even showed us. Some of them lived alone as they did not get married in the younger days. In between, there's some friendly residents who invited us in for a seat to chat. One guy cried when mentioned about his family who had left him. We are really there not only to distribute the food items but to provide a listening ears as well.
TeamSG athletes, Feng Tian Wei doing an interview.
Feeling blessed to be able to share kindness and the good fortune.
For more information of SKM's Kindness, It's Up to Us campaign and upcoming activities, please visit http://www.kindness.sg
XOXO
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