Our Kampung app launched for seniors to sign up for exercise, dining and other communal activities
Published on
13 Dec 2024
Published by
The Straits Times
SINGAPORE – Mondays and Tuesdays are dedicated to Zumba, and Wednesdays and Thursdays to pilates and resistance training.
This has been Madam Koh Puay Choo’s weekly routine at Lions Befrienders Active Ageing Centre @ Mei Ling in Queenstown for the last eight months.
She is nearly 70 years old.
Madam Koh is among 30 seniors from the active ageing centre who in November trialled a new mobile app that allows users to sign up for exercise, communal dining, gardening, music lessons and other activities at the centre.
She found the app useful and convenient. “Now I don’t have to walk 20 minutes to the centre just to sign up for my exercises,” she said in Mandarin.
On Dec 12, Lions Befrienders, a charity that serves seniors through befriending services, active ageing centres and home care services, launched the Our Kampung app at its active ageing centre in Mei Ling Street.
Other than signing up for activities, the app also allows users to keep track of their health, interact with a pet avatar, and register for volunteer work.
The app, with its intuitive touchscreen navigation, audio messaging and large font sizes, is designed with consideration for seniors who may have visual impairment, motor coordination problems and memory deterioration.
Speaking at the launch event, Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Social and Family Development Eric Chua said Singapore faces a gap between long life expectancies of over 80 years and healthspans (the years lived in good health) which are 10 years shorter.
He said the app is handy for helping seniors stay socially engaged, which is “a huge determinant of good health” for older adults.
Lions Befrienders executive director Karen Wee said the app is an extension of the charity’s i-ok @ LB system that began in 2021. Under the system, seniors get an electronic tablet that allows them to press a button to signal that they are fine, and staff can check on them if they are not.
Lions Befrienders serves more than 13,000 seniors and operates 10 active ageing centres.
The plan is to roll out the Our Kampung app with its full suite of services to 10,000 of these seniors from all 10 centres in the next two to three years. The free app is available in all four official languages.
The project’s sponsors include Singapore Pools and port operator PSA.
The app was developed by Lions Befrienders’ technology and innovation team, together with development studio WeesWares, which charged the charity a discounted rate.
Our Kampung also keeps Lions Befrienders staff updated about the seniors’ well-being, including on their blood pressure and heart rate taken at the centres’ health measurement stations. In addition, it has a pet avatar game where seniors can interact with the avatar of a cat or dog to collect points to redeem prizes from Lions Befrienders’ smart-locker system.
Madam Koh tends to her pet avatar cat, playing with it and bathing it whenever she is bored. “It keeps my mind active. It’s better than staring at the four walls when I have nothing to do,” she said.
The next phase of app development will allow seniors to take on “microjobs” through the app, such as planning events and putting up handicrafts for sale on the Lions Befrienders’ upcoming e-shop. These jobs are broken down so that four or five seniors do what is ordinarily the job of one person, and the jobs pay the seniors an allowance.
Ms Wee cited a scheme by Thye Hua Kwan Moral Charities that recruits seniors to take on simple tasks like delivering meals and giving medication reminders to other seniors, and pays them a small allowance of $1 for each task.
Mr Chua said the app represents a social service agency – Lions Befrienders – coming together to work with corporates, Singapore Pools and PSA, and with volunteers.
“That is how we ought to work together to make sure that in the next lap of Singapore, we can make Singapore work for all of us,” he said.
Source: The Straits Times © SPH Media Limited. Reproduced with permission.
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