I am thankful:

For the wife who says,
it's hot dogs tonight,
because it means she is at home with me,
and not out with someone else.

For the husband who is on the sofa
being a couch potato,
because he is at home with me,
and not out at the bars.

For the teenager
who is complaining about doing dishes,
because it means he is at home,
not on the streets.

For the taxes I pay,
because it means I am employed.

For the mess to clean up after a party,
because it means I have been surrounded by friends.

For the floor that needs sweeping,
and windows that need cleaning,
because it means I have a home.

For the pile of laundry and ironing
because it means I have clothes to wear.

For the clothes that fit a little too snug,
because it means I have enough to eat.

For weariness and aching muscles
at the end of the day,
because it means I am capable of working hard.

For the alarm clock that goes off
early in the morning hours
because it means I am alive.

and finally,
for all the tutorials and exams that I have
because it means I can look forward to a school break! ;p

Hello all!

Hope you are all doing fine! :)

This saturday will be the last session that we'll be organizing for MWH residents before we take a break for our exams. It being the last activity that we'll be doing before we take a long long break (from activites, not studying, that is!), we have decided to bring them out to the nearby coffeeshop!

Here are the details:

1400 arrival of volunteers
1420 pairing of volunteers and residents
1430 depart from mwh for coffeeshop
1445 arrival at coffeeshop
1530 departure from coffeeshop for mwh
1600 arrival at mwh/debrief

We'll be walking to the nearby park, then settling down at the coffeeshop to get some drinks for the residents. This time we are requesting for 5 ambulant and 5 non-ambulant residents. For safety reasons, we will require a ratio of 2 volunteers to 1 non-amubulant residents, and 1 volunteer to 1 ambulant resident.

If any of you are interested in coming down, pls let me know ya? I can arrange to meet you at HBF or somewhere :) pls email to mwhvolunteers@gmail.com.

Pls note the time that we need to be at the home (latest by 2pm plus 15min grace) since we are trying to fit into the nurses' schedule of medicine feeding at 4pm. Thanks in advance for your cooperation! :)

Hope to see you all then!

Cheerios,
Esther

Hi all MWH volunteers,
Tomorrow is our second last activity already i guess..correct esther?
And we're playing games! So that's why i'm here..

1400 arrival
1430 start of games
1600 end of games
1630 pack up and go home

tentatively we'll play golf game this week..but i haven't settle it
up. Anyway more details will be provided tomorrow, please come!

One more thing, tomorrow is NUS open house! NVAC MWH will have a booth
in SRC, do come down and feel the heat! It'll be very happening. =)

regards,
loyyong

Just had a long chat with the staff nurse yesterday. Really made me think about a lot of things. And I am really impressed by the way she handled the residents. I have got so much to learn from her.

Having done the recruitment drive thingy a few weeks ago, I really pondered on the question: what will make people want to volunteer with the elderly? Hmm. What makes you keep coming back to MWH week after week? What made you come for the Esplanade outing?

Often, the elderly are one of the most neglected people in our community, especially with an ageing population. I mean, how many of us can really connect with old people, not having gone through the stage of being old? Will we really understand what it means to be old, lonely, and left in a home? Frankly, I don’t.

I must admit, when I first took over the project from Fucai last Sept, I was really apprehensive. There were so many obstacles---I was really new, having joined them only in July. And I couldn’t speak dialect. I think that is already a very very VERY big obstacle. Perhaps that is a reason why many shy away from volunteering with the elderly. But I told myself that it was to be a challenge for me to pick up dialect. (But hmm..haha..still on the way ah. Haha. if anyone knows dialect, please teach me a few phrases each time you see me eh! =P )

Then again, if I was to help these residents, what better way to help them than being in a position where I could do things and bring about changes for the better? Be the change you want to see in the world.

As much as we can do for the residents in terms of planning activities for them, the real part of volunteering comes from the interaction with the residents. One of my regrets is that I am interacting lesser and lesser with the residents each time as I have to oversee activities sometimes. Hmm. Waiting for the time when I can finally step down. Heh.

Speaking about activities, I am still wondering what other activities we can do for the residents. I mean, what is it that we can do for them that will improve their lives? Is it just a few hours of interaction every Saturday afternoon? Or is there more that we can do? Sometimes, I do get hopeless when I see the residents not responding to our activities, and really wonder what we can do for these people. Do they have something to hope for, to live for? I mean, human beings are put on earth for a reason.

I actually thought of this tagline thingy of MWH being Moving on With Hope (I know it probably sounds cheesy to you). But really. What hope is there that we can give to them? I really pray and hope that He will show me what I can do for them.

Brings me back to the question: what makes me keep coming back to mwh? Perhaps it’s the responsibility. But more importantly, I see it as a commitment to the home, to the residents, and more importantly, to those who have been really encouraging and helping me out. =)There’s a hope to see things change at mwh. Because at MWH, Miracles Will Happen.

With each new volunteer that comes, the seeds of volunteerism get sown. And hopefully one day they’ll bear fruit. I don’t know about you, but I am really grateful to the one who first introduced volunteering to me.

Will you be the one to sow a seed today too?

Hello all!

We’ll be bringing the residents of Moral Welfare Home to the nearby coffeeshop this coming Saturday 4 March! Here’s the schedule:

1330 arrival of volunteers
1400 pairing of volunteers to residents
1415 departure for coffeeshop
1445 arrival at coffeeshop
1545 departure for mwh
1600/1615 arrival at MWH
1615 debrief/AOB

We will be requesting for 10 residents (5 ambulant, 5 non-amublant) to come along. We have also told them to prepare 3 extra names, should we have the manpower to bring more. Mainly we'll be walking/pushing them on wheelchairs over to the nearby coffeeshop just for a walk around the neighbourhood. We'll either prepare some food for them, or buy from the coffeeshop itself. It'll be provided this time. ;p

Please do not be late as we wish to be back on time-- the residents need to have their medicine at 4pm.

New volunteers, please do let me (email mwhvolunteers@gmail.com /tag/comment) know if you are coming k? It'll be useful for me to know the volunteer strength in advance and plan the volunteer-resident pairing. And also, if you need to meet me at harborfront MRT k? 115pm.

Hope to see you all this Saturday and all the best for your midterm tests (if anymore)!

Photos taken at esplanade are out!

Please do email me if you want the link to the photos, coz i juz realized there was a policy of not revealing photos to the public. thanks :)

Thanks Jian Xiong, for the photos! =)