House Visit on 25 April 2015 (Elias Road)

This week, the SDA Team, consisting of members William and Aloysius, shadow town councillors Kim Soon and Derrick, as well as members from the DLs' Caring Community, Thomas, were present for the blocks visit session. The targeted block was 614, Elias Road, and visiting commenced at 10.00am sharp.

 As standard protocol, the group combed the block from the highest floor (18th) in descending order, touching base and reaching out with familiar faces as well as new residents here.

While some of the doors remained shut (should be no one at home), most of the residents were very polite and welcoming towards the friendly approach of the SDA team in their signature lime green polo shirts.

 

 

The SDA members reached out by re-introducing themselves and the purpose of the visit, before gathering feedback from the residents and also sharing their joys and grievances of living in this area. Some of them were so comfortable with the members and shadow town councillors that they even began to feedback about issues at their relatives' estates in the nearby vicinity, hoping that these warm-hearted gentlemen could be of assistance over at more areas.

Other residents who were rather reticent at first felt themselves warming up to the members and shadow town councillors gradually, and ended up chatting them up for more than 15 minutes, engaging in discussions on general issues and sharing their own views. There were also those who expressed keenness to see more of the SDA team and offered suggestions on what they would like to see SDA do for them.

Besides feedback about the lack of amenities and dining choices here, some of the residents also touched on issues such as unlevelled employment opportunities between local and foreign applicants.

"The foreign applicants may have the academic qualifications, but do they really understand the nature of the jobs they are applying for, and what it entails?" quips a concerned *Mrs Wong (name changed to protect privacy). "Our company interviewed some of them and all we got were blank faces when we described the jobscope! How are they able to do the job like that?"

Another resident, *Mr. Tham, shared something rather valuable as well. "While we do not condone those who keep shouting 'return our CPF monies' with no better strategies in mind, we appreciate that you guys (SDA) have come up with the idea of reverting CPF back to its original purpose of pure retirement funding!"

In the meantime, the members of DLs' Caring Community, Thomas and Elle, came to understand the deeper and more pressing concerns of other families who'd shared their problems in confidence. They also managed to identify the needs of some other individuals through the chit-chat session, such as neglected elderly citizens and (illegally) harassed units. The DLs' Caring Community will be taking these cases under their caring wings because this is what they were set out to do.

Finally, the visits concluded at 12.14pm, where the members sincerely thanked the residents for their welcome, their feedback and suggestions. This sums up another meaningful session for the SDA members, shadow town councillors as well as DLs' Caring Community members, who not only got to connect with the people they'll potentially serve, but also, learn a lot from these interactive sessions.

Today's block visit is covered by SDA's field journalist, Elle Chen.




If you have any feedback, suggestions or would like to be a part of SDA or DLs' Caring Community, please feel free to get in touch via email or our Facebook page here or leave your comments on this blog itself. If you would like to be a part of this meaningful initiative, please feel free to get in touch too.