NYAA Entry - Service - Group Visitation 1

Service Section: Marine Parade Family Service Centre(MPFSC)

Event: Phase 2, Group Visitation

Date: 7th April 2007

Venue: MPFSC

Starting time: 10am

Ending time : 1pm

Today mark our first home visiting session of the MPFSC project. After meeting for breakfast in the nearby coffee shop, we made our way to the services centre at 10am, where we were brief on what to do.

Our duty was to deliver sacks of rice grains to some of the needy families in the neighborhood, in the attempt to befriend and build rapport, get to know them better and understand their needs.

Divide into groups of twos, we then head out to the allocated families to each of our respective groups. Every group brought two sacks of rice along and was to give one to each of the families they were visiting.

Some were lucky whereas some were not. I, paired with Thomas, was fortunate that we were able to deliver the rice and talk to both families assigned to us without much of a problem. But unfortunately, the other groups weren’t as lucky because some of the families were not present that day, having them to return to the centre slightly disappointed. Also this being the first visitation session, and we not familiar with the neighborhood, much time was wasted in the effort to find the right block while carrying the rice sacks, not mentioning having to do that under the hot sun.

The families that we visited that day were mostly Muslims and as they know simple English, it helps greatly in our language barrier. The families were very keen in receiving us, and didn’t mind expressing their needs and problems to us. One of the group even lost track of time as they were conversing with one of the allocated families, an old lady that is living by herself.

After the home visiting and delivering of rice, we returned to the centre and there we were debriefed. Questions were raised and observations made earlier on were also shared. The volunteer there also told us about the system and function of the family centre and about what has been done and can be done. We also discuss about the future plans and possible ideas until about 1pm before we finally packed up and call it a day.

It was enriching and through this experience we gain and the knowledge that there are some people out there who are not as fortunate as others and this boost our motivation in doing whatever we can for them.