Achievements and Students’ Voices

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Students’ Reflections: What does Service mean to me?

Musings by Clara Lim 6.14

Since early August, we have had weekly sessions with the elderly besides a break during exam season. The session that stood out to me the most was the first session. I remember being really excited especially because we had only been able to film videos thus far. However, during the first session, I was really affected when I first greeted an elderly woman lying in her hospital bed. I thought that I would be perfectly fine, but at first sight I began crying because the situation reminded me so much of my grandfather 3 years ago when he was hospitalised for months before he passed away. Because I was extremely distraught, I asked for a short toilet break and tried my hardest to gather myself as quickly as possible. As much as I was affected however, I had the responsibility of continuing the programme and spending time with the beneficiaries as planned, so I rushed back to the session with a smile on my face no matter how much I was struggling inside. The zoom session was actually really fun! During the allocated 1 hour, we had a mini-karaoke session as we sang some iconic National Day songs since National Day was approaching, and also played Pictionary of local landmarks and foods. Although it was such a short time and organised such simple activities, I felt quite close to the elderlies participating in this session, and honestly brought me a lot more happiness than I had anticipated.

Subsequent sessions were still quite bumpy, as we faced a variety of problems. Firstly, because the sessions were online, the audio would cut out sometimes or the screen would fail to zoom in. Some members in the group also would get kicked out or have issues seeing what was being shown on screen due to unstable internet connection. Thus, we have to adapt by quickly switching the roles between members, where the others will for the time being, take over responsibilities so that activities can continue running and will not come to a sudden halt. This meant that everyone had to be well-versed with the entire schedule, but it was made so much easier by working collaboratively since we could consult each other should we have any doubts and plan the best activities possible by playing off each other’s ideas.

Secondly, some elderly were not responsive, perhaps because the activities were not to their interest, other times, they could not participate in the activities due to hindrances in health such as eyesight. To combat this, we would ask the elderly what games they would like to play or what songs they would like to listen to, but because each session has a different group of elderly participating, our prepared material sometimes failed to cater to everyone. For example, one week, there was a group who requested more trendy songs including those from the K-pop genre, but the next week, the group preferred traditional Hong Kong songs. Hence, we tried our best to accommodate there-and-then song requests, but did face time lags.

Beyond overcoming issues, collaborating as a team made each session more dynamic and refreshing, as we each could bring different strengths to the table. For example, one of our members can play the Hulusi, a traditional Chinese wind instrument. Thus, he would play songs for certain sessions to create a change of pace from simply showing YouTube videos and singing along to songs. Other members are also more proficient in certain languages than some. An example where this came very handy, was when I was leading exercises. Personally, my vocabulary in Mandarin is not large, so I struggled to describe the exercises in Mandarin for those who could only speak that language. However, other members helped to translate my instructions so that everyone could better understand instead of having to just view from the screen.

Musings by Candence 6.18

As the year went by and I am now in Year 6, I realised that it required even more commitment and perseverance to continue putting in my best effort into these E-OVIA service sessions. It proved to be a challenge to consistently set aside time every week to arrange, plan and execute all the lessons — to make the most out of the E-tuition sessions, I made it a point to be well-prepared for each sessions by sending notes or lesson agendas beforehand. This is because I generally have a lot planned on Saturdays, which is the day I have E-OVIA sessions such as CCA, cell group, church, and tuition, hence I will always be worn out by the end of the day. However, I reminded myself that this is something that I cannot neglect as I made a commitment and owed it to my tutee to ensure he could gain as much out of the sessions.

On the other hand, these challenges also made my E-OVIA service experience extremely rewarding and meaningful. Seeing my tutee progress in his schoolwork and developing into a more confident student made me believe that the commitment and perseverance I put into the service has certainly paid off. This sense of fulfilment and purpose makes me look forward to my sessions, even if I may be tired or busy.