A clean home is not only comfortable to live in but essential for good mental and physical health. However, some seniors who live alone find it a challenge to care for themselves, much less keep their homes clean.
To improve the living conditions of elderly residents in its neighbourhood, the Singapore General Hospital (SGH) recruited 850 volunteers, including doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and physiotherapists, for its 7th annual Project GroomOver today.
This is a record turnout for the Project, and possibly the largest number of hospital volunteers ever recruited for such a cause. Another milestone for the Project is the participation of volunteers from KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital (KKH) for the first time. Before, participants had come from SingHealth Group institutions on SGH Campus, including Duke-NUS Medical School and SingHealth Polyclinics.
The volunteers worked in groups of 7 to 10 to remove unwanted clutter, scrub the floors, clean the windows, and paint the walls of 110 homes in the Henderson, Bukit Merah, Lengkok Bahru and Banda Street areas. Each resident also received a gift of daily necessities worth more than $70.
These homes were selected based on recommendations by the voluntary welfare organisations, grassroots and community groups in the central zones. Working together on this project has laid the foundation for future partnership with community organisations that will help support patients after their discharge from SGH and the new Outram Community Hospital.
Project GroomOver is one of the many community outreach efforts by the SGH Volunteer Club which started in 2006 with just 200 volunteers but which has grown to 2,500 now.
