For many of us, spring cleaning is an annual event with our family members in preparation for Chinese New Year. As we usher in the new year and embrace a fresh start, we declutter our rooms, clean the furniture, and put up vibrant red decorations symbolising a bright future. This year, the NTU-USP Club’s Social Service Projects committee collaborated with Central Singapore Community Development Council (CDC) to organise the annual USPringClean.

Leading up to the event, a few of us conducted door-to-door visits to introduce ourselves and better understand the seniors’ living conditions. These areas included the kitchen, living room, ceiling, doors, and gates. Personally, it was quite nerve-wrecking as I had never painted homes and did not want to disappoint the elderly. Nonetheless, I was looking forward to helping the elderly organise their homes and provide a cleaner and safer environment to live in!

With other NTU-USP student volunteers, I made my way to Whampoa on an early Saturday morning to spruce up the homes of the elderly residents, many of whom are too frail and require help cleaning their homes. We collected our cleaning and painting kits, had one last briefing, and proceeded to the respective units. Each unit had different needs and my group was tasked with painting the door and gate. It took some work to manually scrape off the old paint and clean every edge of the door, but it was definitely worth the smiles on the residents’ faces as they looked at the fresh coat of paint.

While the cleaning and painting was tiring, the most memorable part of my experience was enjoying lunch and interacting with the elderly. As we gathered round a small table in the living room, we listened to the residents talk excitedly about their heritage, children, and grandchildren. Perhaps this was what made all the hours of planning and execution worth it. Simply giving the elderly the time of day and listening to their stories reminded me of the times I spent with my grandparents and made me reflect on the isolation that some of them face daily. The heart-warming conversations with them brought me greater joy and satisfaction than all the cleaning and painting I did.

As the event came to an end, we bade farewell to the elderly and gave them mandarin oranges as a symbol of conferring well wishes. Looking at the before and after pictures of the units, I was pleasantly surprised and very grateful to all volunteers who made time to join the event.

Finally, this event would not have been possible without my main committee: Glendon, Caitlin, Joie, Jolin and Wen Hao. I certainly hope to be back as a participant for USPringClean in the coming years!

Submission by:

Kong Song Wah, Hannah, Year 2, Biological Sciences