TF LEaRN Week 2 - Volunteer in Anglican senior centre

September 28th TF Volunteer in Anglican senior centre

     This was a special volunteer experience for me. It's my first time really went to the elderly‘s home. At first, I am a little nervous. I thought the elderly's home might be messy cause they live alone and they were too old to do the housework everyday. However, when I opened the door of our first elderly' home, I was surprised. The house was clean and the environment in the house represented the culture of India. The elderly was a cute Indian grandma. She was enthusiastic towards us. What she need was clean all the windows, the toilets and the kitchen. Soon, we finished all the work and had some games with the grandma.

     After our first cleaning job, we continued to a Malaysian grandma' s home. Like the previous one, her home was clean and tidy. She even introduced the Malaysian culture in her house to us. After we finished simple cleaning, she kept saying thank you to us. But at that moment, I thought I should say more thank you to her. Thanks her, I can experience a Malaysian style house, I could understand more about Malaysian culture in Singapore.

     I found I had lots of misunderstanding about the elderly who live alone. In the past, I thought the elderly living alone were all very poor and the house they lived in had very bad condition and they hated to interact with others. By this chance, I could really enter a elderly's house and knew what was the real life of the elderly living alone. I really impressed by the Singapore government's rule to the elderly, they gave the elderly a very good place and environment to spend the rest of their life. Hope Taiwan government can learn from the Singapore, giving our elderly such a good care.
 

TF LEaRN Week 1 - Volunteer in NKF Bedok Centre

September 17th-18th TF Volunteer in NKF Bedok Centre

     
     I have done some volunteer works in Taiwan like teaching students in the countryside or being the translator in some international activities, but chatting with patients is my first volunteer experience. At first, I was afraid that both the patients and I would be embarrassed since this was our first meet and didn't know what to say to each other. However,  the result turned out that both of us chatted happily with each other and I learned a lot from the patients.

     Even though they are facing much difficulties cause of the failure of their kidney, they are still very optimistic and passion towards me. They not only shared their stories with me but also taught me how to keep my kidney healthy. They were willing to let people know how important the kidney is through their personal experience, which really impressed me a lot. During the volunteering time, we also played Bingo Games with the patients there. In the game, they act like children and there were always big smiles on their faces. Their smiling faces touched me a lot, which I hoped to keep on their faces forever.

     From this experience, I gained much knowledge about the Dialysis and Kidney. The most surprising thing to me is that if once one of a person's kidney fails, the other one fails too. And one should do the dialysis at least three times a week from the time both of  your kidneys fail to work. Thanks to TF program, giving me such a meaningful chance to interact with the dialysis patients. The time in the NKF was delight but their stories makes me sad. However, they were still positive to face their rest life and didn't make any complain with their condition. Their strong made me moved and let me know being a healthy person is such a blessing thing. Hope all the patients there can get the chance to replace the kidney with a healthy one and say goodbye to the dialysis soon!

All Exchange TF Students ~ From China and Taiwan  

DAY 1 _ Chatting With the Blind Auntie

DAY 2 _ Chatting With the Uncle Yap (tourist guide) 

NKF Bedok Centre