Enabling Seniors to get digitally connected in a smart nation
Published on
21 Mar 2022
Published by
The Straits Times
Communities have been coming together in support of the Digital for Life movement to help citizens learn and impart digital skills to enable more seniors to access online services
Whenever she needed to do a bank transfer, Mdm Jaleha used to go to the bank to make the transaction. She knew digital payments could be made on her smartphone, but she was only familiar with using WhatsApp to send text messages.
There will be more digital services she would need to use in future, she realised. So, when she found that her mosque was conducting a digital skills session, she decided to join the group with her friends to improve on her digital knowledge and skills.
With the help of volunteers, she picked up new WhatsApp features, such as video calling. She then followed up by enrolling for a SkillsFuture course on digital learning at the Pasir Ris community centre.
So committed was the 65-year-old to her classes that she even spent late nights completing her homework and revision.
Today, she would rate herself a seven out of 10 for digital literacy, up from the two she would score herself before embarking on this learning journey.
Increasingly, seniors such as Mdm Jaleha are looking to pick up new skills to boost their digital literacy as more services go online and require a basic knowledge to access.
For her, one push factor was the need to use everyday services like TraceTogether and SafeEntry. Taking the first step was important, she said, of the digital lessons at the mosque, which were organised by the Rahmatan Lil Alamin Foundation (RLAF).
The foundation’s Digital Transformation of Seniors (DTS) programme was first launched in 2021 with four mosques and has now expanded to 20. Already, 1,700 seniors have joined the programme.The RLAF’s ground-up efforts exemplify the nationwide Digital for Life movement, supported by the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), to boost digital inclusion and wellness among citizens.
The Digital for Life movement offers an opportunity for like-minded people or companies to work towards the common goal of bridging the digital divide, building a safe and inclusive digital society for all.
To this end, RLAF sessions include one-on-one sessions to teach seniors how to use the praying booking system, for example, but would often expand to other apps such as Health Hub, Zoom, Singpass and more.
It also helps to have passionate teachers. One volunteer, Mr Amirul Husni, has been to mosques around Singapore to teach seniors how to use digital services on their smartphones for the past six years.
The most heartening thing, he said, is seeing how thrilled seniors are when they can use digital services themselves without relying on family or friends.
“We hope that more seniors will open up to embrace digital technology, firstly using the smartphone applications for their daily needs and eventually, for some, carry on pursuing other advanced digital technology applications such as coding,” said Mr Muhd Faizal Othman, RLAF’s chief executive officer.
Living in a well-connected country, the Malay-Muslim community has adopted and embraced technology like any other community here, he noted.
“We read the Quran digitally, book a prayer space in a mosque through a website, pay zakat and donations online, laugh at content on social media channels, and shop online,” he explained.
“Though there may be a small group that need some catching up in embracing technology, there are always hands holding them, to walk in this digital for life journey,” he added.
One broad aim of RLAF, he explained, would be to equip seniors with the digital skills to be independent, so they can be confident to get connected and carry out transactions on their own.
For Mdm Jaleha, the learning does not stop with her. When she strikes up a conversation with fellow seniors today, she is keen to share with them the digital classes available so they too can get connected.
If they are shy to ask questions in class, she asks on their behalf sometimes. On the importance of learning, she refers to the Malay proverb diam-diam ubi berisi.
Loosely translated, it refers to a tapioca that is silent but is loaded with nutrition, not unlike a person who is quiet but smart, always in deep thought and ready to learn.
She hopes other seniors will be able to take up new skills as she did and overcome obstacles to become digitally literate.
Source: The Straits Times © Singapore Press Holdings Limited. Reproduced with permission.
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