Wednesday, April 21, 2010

MAKING WISHES COME TRUE FOR OLDER PEOPLE

 
I recently stumbled upon a couple of websites devoted to making wishes come true for the elderly. Wish of a Lifetime grants wishes to underprivileged, low-income older people. So does Twilight Wish Foundation (TWF). 

I love what TWF is doing. Since its inception in 2004 TWF has granted 1,241 wishes to seniors in America who are over 68 years old and have an income of less than 200% of poverty level.

We can do the same here too - making possible the small wishes of deserving senior citizens who do not have the means to do so. Think of it as personal social responsibility (PSR) as opposed to CSR. The amounts are small and can be given discreetly.

Click here to read chapters from the book.

There is a Children's Wish Society here in Malaysia that's doing good work, but no similar organization for senior citizens. Not yet, anyway. Old people do not ask for much. Their wishes are simple - perhaps a water heater, a wheelchair, dentures, a new bed with mattress or a trip to their hometown.

Big corporations are not too interested in helping individuals. Their CSR programmes are aimed at welfare homes or community centres. The media usually highlight the plight of needy children. I suppose old people are not newsworthy enough, except during Chinese New Year or Hari Raya when CSR teams make their annual charity visits to distribute goodie bags to the elderly.

Old people certainly deserve better.

1 comment:

Paul said...

Just think what a good government & civic-minded society can do for the poor & well-deserved public & kids instead of all the wasted & squandered billions of ringgit through corruption, cronyism & nepotism by the UMNOputras. ~ Paul (http://p21chong.wordpress.com)