Substitute Civilian Servicemen from Anding District
Deliver Compassion and the Spirit of the Chinese New Year to Senior Citizens
With Chinese New Year on the horizon, Anding District Office carried out the 2018 Substitute Civilian Servicemen End-of-the-Year Caring for Elderly in Single-person Households and Helping Clean Up Their Living Spaces Program, which was organized by the Ministry of the Interior’s National Conscription Agency. From January 24 until right before the beginning of Chinese New Year, the district’s substitute civilian servicemen were assigned times to go to the single-person households of senior citizens, and while there they cleaned and even put up Spring Festival couplets. These caring acts helped old folks who struggle to move around and tidy their house be able to enjoy having a living space that’s clean and organized while they welcome in the new year with joy in their hearts.
Mr. Wang was a recipient of this benevolent program; Wang is only able to walk about if he uses his mobility aid. Seeing the substitute civilian serviceman earnestly cleaning his house, he kept on telling the young man he wanted to help out, too; it was a touching scene that effused with the spirit of the Chinese New Year.
Helping put up Spring Festival couplets made their newly transformed houses radiate with the atmosphere of this ethnic Chinese holiday season. The young men also delivered New Year-themed gift boxes, which ensured that the senior citizens could feel that the new year was quickly approaching.
Anding District Chief Liu Shih-Hsiung explained that in the past few years the district’s elderly population percentage has been higher than Tainan City’s, meaning Anding needs to have more complete measures in places that provide welfare and care so that issues concerning an aging population can be handled properly. Liu said that the district currently has services that accompany senior citizens to the hospital, ensure the underprivileged stay warm during the winter, deliver Chinese New Year meals, and help the elderly apply for Senior EasyCards, thereby allowing them to travel on public transportation at discounted rates. The district is also constantly seeking to further improve these services. In addition to this, the district is working to incorporate the central government’s Long-term Care Plan 2.0 policies so that Anding’s elderly population will be happy and feel blessed to live here. In short, this simple house cleaning effort carried out by local substitute civilian servicemen embodied the spirit of the community caring for its elderly so that they, too, could feel the warmth and compassion that emanates during the Chinese New Year.
Contact: Anding District Office, Social Affairs Section, Li Chia-lun, Phone: 5921116 Ext. 128