SIBU, Dec 13: Sibu Benevolent Society has come out with a video aiming to connect with youths.
The 4 minutes and 27 seconds video was the brainchild of SUPP Bukit Assek youth chief Joseph Chieng.
It was released about a week ago on Facebook and has attracted a lot of attention with 27,000 views so far.
Chieng was the anchor in the video who spoke on the activities of the Old Folks’ Home especially on their Sunday collections of food stuff donated by the hawkers at the central market here.
Vice chairman of the Home Robert Chew explained on the objectives of the video.
“Youths nowadays hardly read newspapers. So we are using social media to publicise our activities to them. We hope they can become our volunteers by helping us in many ways during their spare time,” he said.
Among the activities that youths could work voluntarily are going round the central market on Sunday to collect perishable food from the generous hawkers, cleaning of the Home and grass cutting.
“Before the video was made, I told Chieng that it should not focus too much on the Home and the inmates but more on volunteerism so that people will come forward to do charity work,” he said.
The Home which is located at Jalan Teng Chin Hua currently has enough volunteers but “we need to prepare for the future so that we can maintain the numbers,” he added.
Its volunteers come from two churches namely Catholic Church and Methodist Church. Others include Ba’hai group, and clubs.
The main activity of the volunteers is to go round the central market every Sunday to collect items like vegetables, meat, patries, fruits, cooking oil and others from the hawkers.
Without the generosity of the hawkers and members of the public, he said it would be impossible for them to feed the 31 inmates due to limited funds.
“Without people donating to us, we will have to spend between RM20,000 to RM30,000 a month just on food. That is a big sum which we cannot afford,” he added.
Chew this morning again led a group of about 20 volunteers on their round.
Holding and sounding an old British-made bell, Chew with his cheerful deposition, has made it a routine at 8am on every Sunday. Volunteers from the Home has being doing that since 1950 when the Sibu Benevolent Society was established
“What we have collected every Sunday will be food for the whole of the following weeks for our inmates. We thank all the caring and concerned hawkers who have been answering to our needs without fail,” he said. — DayakDaily
