The Workers’ Party (WP) Member of Parliament (MP) for Aljunied GRC Gerald Giam recently called attention to the sacrifices of caregivers after having visited an elderly couple during one of his house visits over the weekend.
In a Facebook post on Sunday (18 July), Mr Giam shared the plight of the elderly couple, whereby the wife has been toiling away as the main caregiver to her sick husband for years – despite her own medical conditions.
“The husband is suffering from multiple ailments which renders him unable to move unassisted,” he explained, adding that their children are “as good as non-existent”, in the words of the wife.
Mr Giam went on to say that while he was gathering the couple’s information to prepare appeals for financial assistance from agencies, his volunteer pointed out that it was the wife’s birthday that day.
He proceeded to extend a birthday wish to her, but she was taken aback as she wasn’t even aware that it was her birthday.
“When I wished her ‘Happy birthday’, she was taken aback — she didn’t even realise it was her birthday! No one had celebrated it for her all these years and she clearly had been too preoccupied looking after her husband to bother much about herself,” Mr Giam recounted.
He asserted that such is the sacrifice that caregivers make for their loved ones.
Mr Giam concluded his post saying, “We as a society need to do so much more to recognise their efforts and relieve their burdens, including boosting their retirement adequacy and providing greater support for them.”
Netizens praise Mr Giam and his team for their efforts; call for more to be done for caretakers and elderly people
Commenting under the Facebook post, netizens were quick to laud Mr Giam and his team for their “dedication” and “good work”.
“This is the type of MP we need and not those going around talking about upgrading go that we can sell our unit at a higher price,” said one netizen.
Meanwhile, a few others called for “more to be done” to ensure that the welfare of caretakers and elderly people in Singapore are taken care of.
