More seniors stepping up as volunteers
straitstimes.com/singapore/more-seniors-stepping-up-as-volunteers
Goh Yan Han, Theresa Tan
October 1, 2021
SINGAPORE - More seniors are stepping up to help others, including other seniors.
Three organisations The Straits Times spoke to said they have been seeing an increasing
number of senior volunteers over the years.
At Methodist Welfare Services (MWS), about 40 per cent of its regular volunteers - or
about 500 volunteers - are aged 55 and older, and most of them volunteer as befrienders
who reach out to vulnerable and socially isolated seniors.
Ms Yap Lee Lee, senior director of communications and engagement at the social service
agency, said there were 115 new senior volunteers in 2019, 50 in 2018 and 43 in 2017.
She said that from 2014 to 2017, MWS opened six senior activity centres. This
corresponded with the rise in senior volunteers as more of its members became
volunteers. It has also seen many retirees looking to give back to the community.
A spokesman for RSVP Singapore said it had 2,500 volunteers last year, and had been
seeing a 10 per cent growth in volunteer numbers per year.
About 90 per cent of its volunteers are aged 50 and above.
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And at Lions Befrienders, the number of volunteers aged 60 and above has grown from
148 in 2017 to 239 this year.
There has been some room for growth - a local survey done in 2018 found that the
proportion of senior volunteers was smaller than those of other age groups.
According to the Individual Giving Study 2018 - Silver V Study by the National Volunteer
and Philanthropy Centre, 15 per cent of respondents aged 65 and above indicated in 2018
that they volunteered at least once in the past year.
The proportion was 19 per cent in 2016 and 9 per cent in 2014, and was the lowest out of
all age groups across the biennial studies done since 2010.
However, the study also found that senior volunteers are more committed. The average
volunteer hours per year for those 65 and above was 224 hours, compared with 88 hours
for all age groups.
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The study added that seniors are an untapped potential for society, but that they doubt
their own ability to help and cite a lack of time due to family commitments and health as
top barriers to volunteering.
Organisations have been adapting to such concerns.
A spokesman for Lions Befrienders said: "We have put in place initiatives and curated
volunteer roles to harness senior volunteers' wealth of experience and skills."
She said volunteers aged 60 and above make home visits, do phone check-ins and assist
with activities at senior activity centres.
At MWS, the oldest volunteer is Mrs June Cheong, 92, who has been caring for the elderly
for 40 years and has no plans to stop.
The former counsellor, who began volunteering in 1981 after she retired, is part of an
informal volunteer group called the Sunshine Group, which she and a few of her friends
started in 1981 - with the aim, she said, of bringing sunshine into the lives of seniors living
in nursing homes.
The group would visit the seniors at the MWS Bethany Nursing Home in Choa Chu Kang
once a week and make music with them, using instruments like the tambourine and
piano, among other activities.
But Covid-19 regulations amid the pandemic have meant that the group has not been able
to do in-person visits in the past year.
However, it continues to "show love" by delivering food like dim sum and snacks
occasionally, said Mrs Cheong, whose 92-year-old husband is also part of the group.
She said: "My Christian faith and a desire to serve and help kept me going all these years.
I also find a lot of joy in befriending these elderly people and spending time with them."
MWS' Ms Yap said seniors often better understand the needs of other seniors owing to
similar life stages and wealth of experience.
She said: "Through time, we hope this approach of a senior reaching out or helping
another senior will lead to wider community activation and catalyse a positive change of
mindset towards ageing."
To encourage more volunteers to join them, including senior volunteers, MWS has
launched a time-banking rewards programme, the first of its kind offered by a charity in
Singapore.
The programme allows volunteers to bank volunteering hours and redeem them for MWS
services and merchandise or commercial products or services sponsored by partners such
as Amore Fitness, Domino's Pizza and FairPrice.
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