A ground-up initiative brings youths and seniors together to play the classic game at Tampines and Toa Payoh.

 

Worried of seniors being lonely and isolated, a ground-up initiative was born to help bring two generations together to play mahjong. The group was also concerned the seniors had few opportunities for social interaction to engage their minds and stay connected

Back in 2022, there was no intergenerational mahjong groups in Singapore so a bunch of Dunman High School students decided to start SGMahjongTogether. The group shared: “The goal of the group is to promote a more cohesive society through intergenerational bonding between seniors and youths with the use of a classic game.”

Since its inception, more than 1,000 youths and seniors have come together to enjoy the game, with the youths being between the ages of 16 and 30, and the seniors, above the age of 60, with the oldest being 87 years old. According to the group, there are many youths and seniors who are frequent returnees, who they see at the sessions.

There are three sessions that SGMahjongTogether holds – once a week on Sunday at Toa Payoh West, once a month on a Sunday at Toa Payoh East and twice a month on weekends at Tampines Central (subject to the availability of the SGMahjongTogether team). Each session lasts four hours, culminating in a distribution of prizes to the winners of the games. Light refreshments are also provided at each of the sessions and at the start of each session, the seniors and youths chat with each other at their respective tables.

The group works together with the People’s Association’s Toa Payoh West-Thomson Active Ageing Committee for the recruitment of seniors for the mahjong sessions at Toa Payoh West, Toa Payoh East Zone 7 Residents’ Network for seniors at Toa Payoh East, as well as Tampines Central Community Club for seniors at Tampines Central. For youths, they are recruited through the group’s Instagram page and they come from all over Singapore. The group shared that they do have plans to expand to other regions of Singapore in the future.

The majority of the team running SGMahjongTogether, which changes annually, comes from students from Dunman High School.

They shared some interesting moments during their mahjong sessions – “One of our team members received a mango from a senior after the session because the senior was very happy and grateful that she got to play with them. Also, after one of our other sessions, the SGMahjongTogether team had a mini karaoke session with one of the seniors, since the function room at Toa Payoh West has a karaoke machine. We were all enjoying it together.

“Another time, we had a group of volunteers who came to Singapore for the Taylor Swift concert and decided to volunteer with us! They said that they didn’t win a single match, but brought back some knowledge, and missed our aunties!”

If you are interested in joining one of their sessions:

• For Toa Payoh West – seniors can head to the Toa Payoh West CC’s office and put down their names and handphone numbers. Seniors have to be from the Toa Payoh area to join.

• For Toa Payoh East – seniors can join this WhatsApp group (https://chat.whatsapp.com/I4cqEiz1afvHIi6fB9kC1G) to sign up, and will be contacted by an admin staff for further details. Seniors have to be from the Toa Payoh area to join.

• For Tampines Central – seniors can sign up through the onePA Tampines Central CC ‘Events’ page. Seniors islandwide can join.

 

(** PHOTO CREDITS: SGMahjongTogether)