Their Story...

The journey began when the 4 of them were asked to find a community partner to work with for out ITABS and WRICOM project. At first, the 4 members faced many obstacles finding an organization to work with. However, thankfully, after a couple of tries, they managed to hook up with the Asian Women Welfare Association (AWWA) Community Home for the Elderly.

The Home provides accommodation for Singaporeans aged over 60 who are on public assistance or have no family or means of financial support. MORE >>

The group started with asking the organization questions about them which were related to Information Technology (IT) since they were embarking on their ITABS project. They were introduced to the place and thereby coming upon the room which changed their lives - an isolated, cluttered room which, surprisingly, contained 2 computer units, coupled with a wide range of devices.



However, the computers were not fixed up properly and the room was utterly disorganized. This group thought that it would be a waste of resources and space to leave this room at this state.



Thus, they proposed to set up a computer lab for the elderly.

Why?

Not only will it not waste the materials in the room, it is also a good chance for the elderly to pick up new skills, valuable in the 21st century. Additionally, this gives the senior citizens at the home another past time to participate in when they are feeling bored.

Undoubtedly, the person-in-charge, Julia, agreed immediately. She even recommended a volunteer IT expert to assist them with their proposal. Things went on smoothly with the help given by AWWA.

The computer room was duely cleared up and made into a conducive environment for IT lessons. You can see the difference before and after!



Soon, our computer lessons will commence.



They continued to work closely with AWWA.

One day, Julia passed them the activities schedule for the elderly. Member Cassie spotted a slot reserved for English lesson, and it stated there that volunteers were needed. Being rather interested with the idea of becoming a teacher, they went to enquire more about the English lessons only to realize that the lessons were stopped months ago due to the lack of manpower to teach.

After much consideration and thoughts, they came up with their second proposal - to bring back the English lessons. It was a tough call; they were not sure whether they had time to fully immerse themselves into this project, but on the other hand, Julia know that a few senior citizens had mentioned that they were quite sad that it was cancelled and a couple of others wanted to take up a new activity.

This entire thing had led to a new chapter in their lives when they stumbled upon it while trying to work on their projects. They had unknowingly put in time and effort with AWWA.

Their future plans (slated to start in end-August) include, firstly, teaching simple IT and computer skills to the senior citizens in the Home. And secondly, transforming to English teachers for a day to pass on some basic conversational English to the people who signed up.