Project Helping Hands

In this day and age where people are living longer, we have an aging population.  An increasing trend is that the elderly stay apart from the children.  The reasons for doing so can be an entire lengthy discourse in itself.  But the problem remains that these elderly often stay and die alone.  In some cases, no one realizes that they have passed on for several days.  Until the obvious signs start to appear to the neighbors.

"THE New Paper, Ngee Ann Polytechnic and Lions Befrienders have jointly launched Project Helping Hands, an initiative to help senior citizens live their golden years safely and with dignity.

It aims to raise at least $1 million by end of the year to support the project. The number of elderly aged above 60 and living on their own is projected to rise from 35,000 last year to 83,000 by 2030.

Ngee Ann Polytechnic devised a hardware for this project - a wireless sensor alert system that can be installed in an apartment.

It tracks the resident's movements and sends an SMS to a caregiver or volunteer if no motion is detected after a pre-set time - for example, if the resident remains motionless due to an injury or illness. 

The system, which was developed, installed and maintained by the staff and students of Ngee Ann Polytechnic, has been tried and tested successfully in two one-room flats in Queenstown and Bukit Merah since last December. 

Lions Befrienders has identified 1,000 needy elderly Singaporeans, living in one-room flats as potential beneficiaries.

The New Paper editor Dominic Nathan said: 'The technology developed by Ngee Ann Polytechnic is key to raising the alarm in an emergency. And if we can help Lions Befrienders build up the network of volunteers, then this could be the perfect marriage of technology and volunteerism.' 

Lions Befrienders executive director Goh Boon Han said such a device would help those living alone and who are frail.

A pledge of $1,000 will pay for the installation of the system in one flat. 

Project Helping Hands also hopes to get families, neighbourhoods, community groups, schools and businesses to volunteer to adopt a senior citizen living on their own. As volunteers, they have to act on the SMS alert they receive and drop in on the seniors weekly to see how they are doing."

If circumstance decide that they have to live where they are, then at least as the next generation, we should do what we can.


Extract taken from The Straits Times, 18 Oct 2010
More information at Official Webpage, Project Helping Hands
Volunteer at Lions Befrienders


Jeremy