The world of Tzu Chi May 2020 (Vol.122)

2020 • 05 32 pecial Feature monthly visits to the settlement and assumed the role of assistant leader in 2000, used to lead other volunteers on visits to the settlement to extend care to the residents. He expressed his admiration for the elderly residents’ deft skills in sorting recyclables, unhindered by their physical impairment. “Sek San was resourceful and competent. He would cut open cardboard and paper boxes with the help of a penknife to compensate for his weak hands and flatten them for ease of storage. Furthermore, the elderly residents from the ward and the wooden chalets were quick in absorbing our sorting guidelines. After a session or two of coaching, the residents were able to sort the recyclables in a highly organized manner and even cleaned the bottles and other containers in advance, in keeping with the principle of ‘purity at the source’”. Back then, the sight of the elderly residents mustering all their strength to haul the recyclables, neatly organized in bundles, from the ward would fill Shiou Long with emotion. Despite their feeble strength, the residents tried their best to arrange their recyclables in piles by their beds, handing them over to the volunteers on their rounds. Occasionally, the residents would store the collected recyclables in their cupboards prior to the volunteers’ visits. The elderly residents living in the wooden chalets were also adept at handling and sorting recyclables. Shiou Long commended the elderly residents for their meticulous attitude towards recycling work, evoking in him a mix of admiration and deep remorse as he admitted that the residents had outperformed his own initial attempts at sorting recyclables. “Even after resigning from the support team, the tenacious spirit of the elderly residents in performing recycling work remains etched in The ward’s recycling pioneer Wong Ping valued each recyclable item he found, even scraps of newspaper littered by the path outside the ward.