Free Dental Services for Nursing Home Residents Announced as KWSH Counts Down to Mid-Autumn 2024

The KWSH premises was all geared up for the occasion with the 10-day countdown to Mid-Autumn Festival. On the evening of 7 September, the Kwong Wai Shiu family – our Board members, management, staff, partners, donors, volunteers, nursing home residents and community clients – came together at our Serangoon Road main site to celebrate this festival of reunion.

Since 2005, beautiful lanterns had been lighting up our premises each year during the eighth lunar month, with a large-scale outdoor celebration held on the evening of one of the weekends. Through the years, we have been heartened to see donors from all walks of life support the event with their donations and adoption of the lanterns made by the volunteers.

While the lanterns were mostly made or painted by our dedicated volunteers in the past, this year we have expanded our team of lantern artists. A big shoutout to the extra pairs of hands who contributed to the lantern-making this year. From our very own nursing home residents and community clients, teachers from the art studio Sage Artelier, to children from Wellington Primary school located all the way in Sembawang, your contributions have made this year’s lanterns display truly a collective community effort!

KWSH was honoured to have Ms Indranee Rajah (Minister, Prime Minister’s Office, Second Minister for Finance & Second Minister for National Development) join us for the celebration as the Minister officiated the light-up ceremony together with Chairman Mr Tang Kin Fei and CEO Dr Mok Ying Jang to transform KWSH into a splendour of charming lights.

Minister Indranee charmed the crowd when she performed the Mandarin classic 月亮代表我的心 with four KWSH beneficiaries – two nursing home residents and two eldercare centre members, with CEO Dr Mok lending his voice to the occasion as well.

In the midst of the festive atmosphere, two new initiatives were announced by Chairman Tang Kin Fei, first of which is “Reminisfusion” – a word play of “reminiscence” and “Rediffusion”, the cable radio service of yesteryear that was the main source of entertainment and information for many in the 1960s and 1970s. This new “reminiscence” activity aims to improve the cognitive function for both our nursing home residents and Senior Care Centre clients with dementia, through nostalgic audio content that will help to evoke their memories. The audio programme selections include the classic Cantonese tales told by the legendary master storyteller Lee Dai Soh, and the content menu will continue to be refreshed with more programmes and songs that our clients can relate to.

At the event, Chairman Tang also shared that free dental services will be rolled out for our nursing home residents, first commencing at our Serangoon Road site from October 2024. This is a partnership with Tzu-Chi Foundation (Singapore) which will be providing the dental station services for KWSH inpatient residents once a month, with volunteer dentists, dental assistants and support staff arranged by Tzu Chi. A mobile dental team will also be deployed to the wards subsequently to care for our bedbound residents. Up to 30 KWSH residents will benefit from this dental service each month and we are grateful and excited to have Tzu Chi on board for this partnership!

As we continue to enjoy the festive joy for the rest of the eighth lunar month, we take the opportunity to thank all our lovely partners, generous donors and sponsors, enthusiastic volunteers and performers for making it yet another memorable celebration for our clients and the community.

Stay tuned for more festive news from Part 2 of our Mid-Autumn celebration to be held at KWSH @ Potong Pasir the following Saturday on 14 September!