22S02

Our group project for SL day focuses on spending a day with the elderly at Lions Befrienders Senior Activity Centre. We started off the day by introducing ourselves and played a simple “Guess the Place” game as an icebreaker. The elderly had to guess iconic landmarks in Singapore and were given a chance to share their experience and stories that they had. This allows us to better connect with the elderly there, which was a great start to our SL day.

The elderly were mostly friendly to us and opened up to us quickly. The next activity with the elderly was folding a paper origami flower. We showed them a tutorial video done by some of our classmates and guided them through the whole process.

The service learning day was finally closed off with the elderly singing along to two NDP songs. We played a video choreographed by us on two iconic NDP themed songs - Count on me Singapore and One People, One Nation, One Singapore. It featured simple exercises and movement and we had great fun dancing and singing along with the elderly.

Xuan Ying:

I have learnt to be a better person through understanding more people's perspective such as the elderly in society. I have learnt to be respectful and opening towards beneficiaries and make sure to understand their needs. I have learnt that we need to plan things step by step and ensure that every thing is considered.

John:

1. I learnt that these people are beyond competent, society tends to shun the elderly and i think that it is nonsensical, these people are very sweet with the knowledge that they can use to apply in their daily work or life

2. Working with these beneficiaries has helped me learn about what they have to do on a daily basis and understand the services they offer to the benefit of out society.

3. Carrying out this project is hard work and i seriously thank and appreciate the slead activists for planning this activity, making sure that all runs smooth. running this project is very difficult and I am very thankful.

Verloy:

I have learnt to be more understanding by to different groups of people in society and learnt to be more patient and considerate to everyone.

The interaction with them was very heart warming and has helped me to be more patient with people and be more empathetic. I think this project was carried out in a systematic way and I really am grateful for the chance given to help out and volunteer in this activity. The preparation behind the scenes were definitely not very easy and I am thankful for the help of Mr Lin and the Slead Activists.

Grace:

1. This sl project has allowed me to gain new skills such as patience and leadership. When carrying out the activities planned, we are required to make quick rational decisions as things may not be going out as what we hv planned. I also learn to be cognizant and responsive to any situation during the activity.

2. The interaction with our beneficiary (the elderly) has been very meaningful, I learn to be more empathetic and understanding of them. Even though, i struggle with language barriers, I think by being enthusiastic and helpful helps me to ensure that this activity is meaningful for them.

3. I think this project is organised and well-rehearsed as the facils have prepared for this project beforehand. However, there are some limitations such as the technical issue that we face before we start the 1st session which is ‘guess the place’. Fortunately, this issue has been resolved by our teacher and slead facils. We would improve it by being more prepared in our future sl project.

Keying:

It’s quite a meaningful service learning journey for me. I was initially unsure of how to interact with them but once u started talking to them they would open their hearts for you. I think they enjoy our company and activities, they smiled a lot. However, they find the folding paper activity complicated. Maybe next time we could have two simpler shapes to fold.

Kiefer:

It was a very engaging session for me as I got the chance to interact with elderly and lead them in certain activities that they do not usually participate in. I think they thoroughly enjoyed our company and would definitely remember it forever. The origami chosen was abit too confusing for the elderly and it would be better to choose a simpler design.