Talking to seniors
This year’s SoCh event was all about interactions between our senior friends and the schoolchildren, and letting the children experience the games from the past.
This year at the annual Be The Change Exposition 2015 by SoCh (Social Change) in Action, Ageless Online had two booths where primary and secondary schoolchildren could interact with seniors. The event which is touted as Singapore’s largest showcase of social initiatives by children had 1,500 children and over 20 meaningful activities on various social issues at the Suntec Convention Centre & Expo. This was our third year participating at the event.
At the first Ageless Online booth, we had an activity called “Games from the Past”, where Henry Tio and Joanna Foo got to play childhood games and teach the children, some of whom had never seen or played the games. There were kuti kuti, five stones, marbles/goli, chaptek and gasing/top. There was also the popular current kids’ game kendama and the children were encouraged to teach the seniors how to get the ball onto one of the bases of the pole (and they indeed managed to do it after a few tries). The children also got to see some magic tricks by Henry.
At the other Ageless Online booth, our oldest senior, 80-year-old Amta Taiyeb Mama, and Ellen Cheng and Linda Lim got to share their stories in the activity, “Time Travel with Seniors”. They got to talk about their childhood, present time, experiences in World War II, Singapore history, work, life back then, favourite things and antique things that don’t exist today. The seniors had fun interacting with the children, and gained new friendships amongst themselves. Some of the children even shared that Ageless was their favourite booth! The aim of our booth was to show that age is just a number, that it is easy to communicate with seniors and encourage communication with their grandparents and parents, debunk negative stereotypes about seniors, and for the children to gain some knowledge from the seniors.
Here’s some pictures of the event this week:
Henry showing off his magic skills.
Amta sharing her stories with the children.
Ellen talking to some of the children.
Joanna teaching the children how to play marbles.
Joanna intent on learning a magic trick from Henry.
Henry, Joanna and a child playing chaptek together.
Henry getting a lesson on how to play the kendama.
Almost there! Still more lessons.
Henry is not giving up just yet.
Success at last all thanks to the teachers!! A very important picture.
Joanna having a go too and got the hang of it quickly.
The children were interested and the seniors were more than happy to teach and share.
Amta chatting up a storm with the children.
The children listening to Linda's stories.
Amazing the children with a little bit of magic.
The event is almost over, and Henry and Joanna still having fun.
The colourful Linda.
A fun time together. Thanks also to SoCh volunteers Andrew and Bhageerathi.
0 Comments