This group of young people ushered in the Year of the Dragon by spring-cleaning homes of the needy.
By Esther Yap
PHOTOS COURTESY OF W345.
The many enjoyable aspects of Chinese New Year include having reunion dinner and lo hei with one’s family, and visiting the homes of relatives and friends. But there are some tasks that fail to invite as much enthusiasm—one is queuing an hour for bak kwa, and the other is the much-dreaded spring-cleaning.
So it is doubly impressive that a group of young people specially made time to sweep homes this year—and these are not even their own homes!
Twenty-four members from City Harvest Church, under the pastoral care of Goh Yock Kiang, took advantage of the festive occasion to be a blessing to their community by helping to spring-clean four HDB flats belonging to low-income families. The members, who are mostly tertiary students and young working adults, spent eight hours scrubbing fungus off the walls and painting them, and also cleaning the homes.
Most people detest the idea of cleaning, but this team with a different spirit expressed its joy to be able to participate in this exercise, for the strong bonding they enjoyed, and the sense of fulfillment they received being able to contribute to society.
“I think it is fun to do things together and to work as a team to help our community,” says Sean Chua, 21, an undergraduate from National University of Singapore.
Theresa Tan, 20, a student from Temasek Polytechnic, said, “It is a very novel experience for me because this is my first time doing cleaning, and I am glad to have been able to volunteer for such a meaningful cause.”
It proves that any project can be fun as long as it’s done with friends—even spring cleaning!
