Heart over Minds

Hello! We are a team of students, from Ngee Ann Polytechnic, who have come together to serve the vulnerable population during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the recent month, the COVID-19 pandemic has been worsening rapidly and the government has implemented a set of circuit breaker (CB) measures to contain the spread of the virus.These measures are to protect those who are more vulnerable to the virus, especially the elderly. To reduce their exposure to the virus, the measures include safe distancing, restriction of movement and staying at home. However, there have been reports where many continued to head out and socialize. Hence, it is of utmost importance for us to remind them to stay safe at home instead. Due to closure of many senior-centric centres and lesser opportunities to socialize and interact with other elderlies, more senior citizens are at risk of having heightened depressive and anxiety. Hence, we believe that it is important to connect with the elderly constantly, keeping them engaged with the world around them.

The target group will be the elderly (including those staying alone / elderly couples / staying with family members). For the pilot programme, we will be working with 30 elderlies from a partnered SSO or FSC during our pilot run.

Our project initiative is called 盒你们; With You.

We aim to keep the elderly engaged in physical/cognitive/social activities from home during this pandemic. Each elderly will receive an activity box per week filled with 7 different activities, a total of 3 boxes during the pilot run. The activity box will include cognitive activities (i.e hand-made jigsaw puzzle), life skills activities (i.e gardening), physical activities and befriending. We will be providing step-by-step pictorial instruction leaflets in 4 languages. We aim to provide opportunities for the elderly to socialise from home through befriending volunteers, the elderly can video/phone call their buddies to share about their day etc.