I spoke about mental health in these Covid times last week. There is one segment of society that is hit much harder then all of us during these times. I had the opportunity to interact with this group a few days ago.
In normal times, a segment of the population is already struggling to survive while they are forgotten by society in general. I am referring to the elderly who are living in old housing estates.
Being less mobile due to a weakening body and with limited financial resources, their daily needs are a constant struggle to achieve. They may not have family support and could be living alone. Their biggest asset is likely to be the apartment they live in, but they may still need assistance to support themselves financially. They may be asset rich and cash poor. Some might not have amassed sufficient retirement funds via CPF or other financial means. The constant money outflow eat into their reserves. A sudden medical need might even consume a large part of it.
The government had started to build a lot of public housing since the 1960s to upgrade many from dilapidated housing to newly built modern high rise estates with running water, electricity and plumbing. My family was one such fortunate party to have moved to a new 3 bedroom flat in 1969 to Toa Payoh. It only cost us SGD 6,900 then, which was still a lot of money for my dad who had to support all 8 of us with a single income.
These housing estates have become old through the years. Some were either upgraded with new facilities or the residents were told to swtch to another newly built flat. My dad was lucky as he managed to upgrade to a new flat in 2008. It was a bigger 4 bedroom apartment which was nearer to the town centre. He had to pay SGD 250,000 for it but the authorities bought back his old 39 years apartment for SGD 191,000. The top-up of another 59k was totally worth it. I always joked that this could have been his best ever investment for a return of 27.7x (6.9 vs 191k)… LOL
Till now, there are still many flats built in the 1960s and 1970s that are still around in the Toa Payoh estate. It has the distinction of being one of the oldest in S’pore. I think Queenstown and Tanglin might be older. There are still many people who had moved in then and are still currently living in these apartments. They would be in their sixties or older by now.
One of my good uni friend had been regularly doing a lot of charity work and was always looking to rope friends in to help her. We chatted and she mentioned that she was on the Meals-On-Wheels program. She tries to volunteer once a week to deliver meals to the doorsteps of the elderly. https://www.touch.org.sg/getInvolved/Detail?ID=f3ea6c70-19d2-4972-9d37-cadec19d2e1f She drives to the centre to pick up the meals for lunch or dinner a few hours earlier to deliver them. Having someone to help her as a runner to bring the food to the apartments while she waits in the car would facilitate a quicker delivery time.
On hearing that it was in Toa Payoh, I was interested in helping as this was the estate I grew up in and I know it like the back of my hand. I used to roam around this small community as a kid with my neighbourhood friends, especially during the school holidays. It was a fun big playground for me to kill time and discover new things in our housing estate.
We picked up 14 individually prepared meals at 9 am on Wed from the collection centre. The organizers had already neatly arranged the pre-packed food with fruits on the tables set out in front of their office. Our distribution work area was confined to a few blocks of flats in a certain area for ease of delivery.
My more experienced friend instructed me on what needs to be done, like the labelling of the meals with various requirements like Halal and non-Halal, brown rice or porridge etc. All the recipients had a metal hook on the front door metal grille for us to hang the plastic bag of food. We are supposed to ring the doorbell or knock on the door. It does not matter if they open the door as some may choose to take their time to collect the food much later. One delivery came with a special request to take a photo as evidence because the person had previously complained that they did not receive the meal.
It was nice to do something good and most households belonged to nice elderly aunties. Strangely, there were very few male recipients. I guess women lived longer and were more open to asking for assistance while men were the opposite. Some do look forward to having a visitor and having small talk with a stranger as their highlight of the day.
The one delivery that stuck in my mind for a long time afterwards was to an apartment that I thought was abandoned. It looked so run down on the outside and the windows were caked with dust. There was no metal grille and the door looks like it was about to fall apart (see photo below). I was worried that I might have gotten the address wrong. So I made more effort knocking on the door a few times to make sure that there was actually someone living there. I even tried to open the door. It would have given way if I had pushed it with force.
Finally, I heard some sound and the door opened. I saw a tiny lady who was very pale looking opening the door and stretching out her hand to receive the meal package. While I was relieved that someone was home, my heart really dropped to see her living in such a condition. I might not have had a chance to peep into her apartment because it was so dark, but it cannot be too far off from what I saw from the outside. This apartment really stood out from the rest on this floor as it didn’t even have a metal grille, which was a standard item for public housing estates.
These are the forgotten people that the community volunteers make an extra effort to support and take care of. My hats off to them. It is just a small effort on my part to help and it really opened my eyes beyond my cocooned world. As we count our blessings in these Covid times, let’s remind ourselves that there are those who are struggling even more during these difficult times. I will try to do more of this with my friend in the future.
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