DBS Foundation launches $7.3m initiative to support vulnerable seniors
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Residents at DBS Foundation's Community Pop-up Market event in Khatib on March 29.
ST PHOTO: NG SOR LUAN
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SINGAPORE – A $7.3 million programme to enhance vulnerable seniors’ physical and social well-being will be rolled out by DBS Foundation from June, the bank announced on March 29.
The initiative, which aims to address nutritional and social isolation gaps, will see a twice-weekly distribution of nutritious meals to 6,000 lower-income individuals aged 60 and above over two years, across 12 towns such as Ang Mo Kio, Bedok and Queenstown.
Volunteers from the bank’s 14,000-strong workforce will also befriend the seniors via monthly bonding and enrichment activities. In addition, there will be quarterly grocery shopping trips to stock up with $60 worth of items.
DBS Foundation said it will work with community partners as well to facilitate regular social engagement among the seniors.
The new programme, one of the bank’s ways to commemorate Singapore’s 60th birthday, was announced at the foundation’s Community Pop-up Market event in Khatib on March 29. Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam and his fellow Nee Soon GRC MPs Louis Ng and Carrie Tan were also in attendance.
Speaking at the event, the head of DBS Foundation and DBS group strategic marketing and communications, Ms Karen Ngui, said that apart from household and nutritional needs, isolation and loneliness are key concerns that the bank wants to address.
Of the new initiative, she added: “We hope that this will further strengthen the Singapore social compact. One of the things that the DBS Foundation is actually wanting to catalyse is mindset shifts around ageing.
“All walks of society will either be seniors of today, if not seniors of tomorrow. We want to work together to create that paradigm shift, to enable all of us to live with purpose and dignity, and to age well and strong. Together we can make Singapore a healthy, strong and vibrant aged society.”
The event in Khatib is the final instalment of a series of 38 pop-up markets that DBS Foundation has held over the past seven months.
The foundation said it has contributed $3.8 million and deployed 2,000 volunteers for the endeavour which has benefited more than 30,000 households.
Those from lower-income households can select around $100 worth of groceries and essentials for free, on top of picking up financial planning and nutrition tips.
Ms Karen Wee Siew Lin, executive director at Lions Befrienders Service Association, one of the foundation’s community partners, said the pop-up market has been “a vital platform for connecting vulnerable seniors with essential resources and social support”.
“We look forward to the DBS Foundation’s new SG60 programme, which will further strengthen these efforts, empowering communities with greater access to care and meaningful engagement,” she added.
