COVID-19 Support for Needy Seniors
Training for Staff, Volunteers and Community Partners
Knowledge is our best defense. When news of COVID-19 spread, we invited Mr Hadi (Master of Nursing) to share his experience supporting SARs patients in 2003 for our staff, volunteers and community partners. The talk on Infection Control and Precautions for COVID-19 helps to increase their awareness of how infection is spread in the community, how to protect themselves and share precautions with the seniors under our care.
Essential Services
Our Medical Escort & Transport (MET) Service supports vulnerable seniors who have little or no resources.
Certain treatments cannot be postponed and our service still carries on during the Circuit Breaker period from 7 April to 1 June 2020 with the support from Agency for Integrated Care (Ministry of Health).
We worked with the hospitals to contact the seniors for postponement of critical appointments and reassigned the senior volunteers to other tasks. With the reduction in resources, younger staff from the centre and other programmes are roped in to support the MET service.
Our support to the Seniors during this period is only made possible because of your generosity. Any contribution will go a long way!
Community Befriending Programme
Already at risk of experiencing social isolation, some of the seniors can find their sense of loneliness exacerbated by a loss of routine.
Although we are not able to make physical visits to these seniors, our staff and volunteers have been doing weekly calls to keep the seniors connected and check in on them if they require any assistance. At least the seniors know that they are not alone.
Grocery Distribution
On the eve of COVID-19, we managed to distribute groceries to our vulnerable seniors under our Medical Escort Service and also other seniors- bringing some cheers to them amidst the uncertainties. You can read more about the distribution here.
It is a particularly challenging time for the needy families and a very different Ramadan this year. We are grateful to be able to support Assyafaah Mosque in their Ramadan Drive to put food on the table for more than 200 needy families in Sembawang GRC during this Festive Season.
We also held another round of grocery distribution to low income families in the spirit of Vesak in June 2020.
Community Efforts
The community plays an important role in preventing the spread of the virus and we are pleased to support the Gambas grassroots with the distribution of masks and sanitizers to the community.
