Light of Love: An Encounter across Generations

The following article is about a visit to an elderly’s home in Nanking. The volunteers were organized under the leadership of Light of Love, an organization dedicated to rural health and education. For more information, please click here.
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Volunteers of the Light of Love program came to Yu Hua Tai District office to have the first session of training. The training began with ice breakers, through which everyone got to know each other. Then Dai Xianwei, the leader of Light of Love, explained the program.

26 students from different universities in Nanjing came to the activity center one after another at 1:30 pm. During the activities, volunteers were divided into 4 groups. They quickly became familiar with members of their group in 10 minutes. And then the representative of each group introduced members of his or her group. Everyone listened intently and took some notes. Though mistakes were made, the ensuing laughters eased any sense of embarrassment. The prop of the second game was a black plastic bag, used to cover participants’ eyes. The goal is to find one’s partner while blindfolded. Interestingly, the girls in the group proved much better at this game than the boys.

There are lots of encouraging stories, each of us may become the hero of a story. Perhaps we all start projects with unrelenting passion and dedication, but it is often a challenge to keep up such devotion for months and even years? Once the excitement is gone, do we give up?  We really hope all of us could persist and become successful pioneers in the field of public service.

At 2 pm, three volunteers from Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Nanjing University came to Endocrinology and Metabolism District of Jiangsu Province Integrative Medicine Hospital, accompanied by Dai Xianwei, the leader of Lighte of Love Non-profit Development Center. They carried out a few activities from their program. The hospital offered volunteers a platform to contact with the elderly.

The program aims to help young people and the elderly grow together. It builds friendship between young people and empty nesters by taking care of empty nesters and accompanying them long term.

There are 5 stages in the program.
1. Learn to chat with the elderly and put forward your topics freely   
2. Find partners for the elderly and know their hobbies
3. Help partners of the aged trust in each other and invite them to join activities   
4. Accompany empty nesters in their houses and set up long-term accompanying plan   
5. Keep in touch with these empty nesters

They have set up personal growth files for each volunteer. It shows the growing process of each volunteer. They also made program progress forms which help us know which stage volunteers are in.

With the help of Dai Xianwei, the three volunteers knew the hospital quickly. And then they began to carry out their tasks.

Original article written by Dai WeiXian, translated by ShiShi Ma, and edited by EV intern Sarah Chang.