Description of Project:
The goal of our Service Learning project was to interact with the elderly at Ghim Moh Lions Befrienders Centre. We played bingo, coloured tote bags and did an impromptu karaoke session with the elderly. For bingo, we gave the elderly prizes like milo packet drinks and biscuits when they won. Then, we let the elderly coloured tote bags with beautiful Singapore themed stencil designs on them. The designs were of well-known Singapore landmarks that the elderly were familiar with. After they coloured the bags, they got to keep the tote bags as a gift from us to them. Lastly, we did an impromptu karaoke session where we sang some songs with the elderly.
Class Reflections:
For our class, we went through the project with the mindset of helping the elderly and making them feel happy whilst at the same time trying our best to ensure things went smoothly.
During planning, plans and deadlines were put in place to allow everything, especially logistics to move smoothly. This taught us the importance of order and planning as it was through sticking to deadlines and accountability that the logistics and designing could be done smoothly with time to spare.
However, as the actual day came closer, our communication and teamwork started to fail. Hence, causing problems like rushed last minute work. This taught us the importance of being consistent and allocating the right people to get the job done.
As the day came, our class worked together and many stepped outside of our comfort zones to talk to the elderly or go up on stage to speak. There were also problems that arose like a lack of time and language barriers (one of the elderly could only speak Hokkien). However, our class managed to overcome these obstacles by working together and adapting to the situation, whether it is by removing entire sections of our plan or finding people to talk to the elderly without the bag. Through these, we learnt about the importance of adapting to the circumstance and teamwork.
However, our greatest problem was that we brought an insufficient amount of tote bags. This led to one of the elderly being mad that she did not get a tote bag. This resulted in our teacher, Ms Ng, having to talk to the elder in order to calm her down. This taught us the importance of being more prepared and to bring extra logistics so as to ensure that, if anything happens, we still have extras to supply.