There was no better way to get into the spirit of celebrating our home and country in August than with a hardworking group of volunteers from Splunk Singapore!
On 1 August, the group of 20 accepted the challenge of rehabilitating 3 houses in 3 different locations across Boon Keng & Toa Payoh. In the story below, we share the different psychological, emotional, social & financial challenges each homeowner was facing, the scope of work our Splunk volunteers were involved in and the impact they made at the end of the session.
House 1: The Chan Family
Battling complex issues within the family like depression and alcohol addiction led to Mrs Chan develop hoarding tendencies. The family has been receiving financial assistance from the the government to supplement Mr Chan's earnings from his job in the F&B industry. The family has also been working with a social worker for the past 6 years. Previous attempts to clear out the house were unsuccessful because the family was not mentally ready. Years of clutter resulted in the couple's two young children being placed under the Child Protection scheme because their house was deemed an unsafe environment. The family finally expressed willingness to start the decluttering process when Habitat visited them in January earlier this year. Splunk volunteers joined the family's rehabilitation process as part of the 4th decluttering session with the family.
Project HomeWorks Task:
Decluttering
Painting
General Cleaning
House 2: Mr & Mrs Ong
When his wife's health deteriorated sharply in 2017, Mr Ong quit his job as a security guard two years ago to become her main caregiver as she struggled with dementia, stroke and other chronic conditions. Keeping up with daily chores for their house has been extra difficult with Mr Ong's own diagnosis of Parkinsons' Disease, which eventually led to a bed bug infestation. Mr Ong remains unemployed because he couldn't find another security job with hours that match his wife's day care hours. Financially, Mr Ong has been receiving support from other sources. During the Project HomeWorks session, Splunk helped to discard spoilt furniture & declutter the second bedroom.
Project HomeWorks Task:
Decluttering
Painting
Replacement of basic furniture
Professional fumigation
House 3: Mdm Chua
64-year old cleaner Mdm Chua's house used to be hoarded with items she had collected, until her social worker arranged for a group of volunteers to declutter the house. Habitat Singapore was roped in by a request from Mdm Chua's adopted sister to help intensively clean and repaint the entire flat. Volunteers spend a good part of the session scraping off old and peeling layers of paint from the walls and ceiling before a fresh new coat of paint could be applied.
Project HomeWorks Task:
Decluttering
Painting
Cleaning windows
Scraping off old layers of paint
