Volunteering

For a while now, I have been talking to my daughters about us volunteering at a local nursing home/old age facility. We have discussed the realities of it- we acknowledge that it may at times be emotionally confronting; we may observe things which may not sit well with us ethically and we know that there may be a whole host of other challenges we cannot be aware of until we are actually there. We also agree that it would be most rewarding and an important experience for our own spiritual journeys; it will undoubtedly teach us many valuable life lessons. Above all, we anticipate that it will be humbling and that alone makes it worthwhile.

So, when I started researching the nursing homes in our municipality and subsequently contacting them very graciously, requesting to volunteer our time, I realised that I had neglected to consider one more thing: nursing home staff (or at least the half dozen facilities that I contacted) do not accomodate volunteering of any sort. Yes, that's right. I was told in no uncertain terms by a number of facilities that they do not take any volunteers there, before they promptly ended the call.

The one place that was willing to entertain my suggestion in the slightest have taken my contact details twice (I have phoned them 4 times over the course of 2 weeks) and have yet to return my calls.

Now, I began to ask myself, how on earth do we engender a sense of community service to our elderly in our youth if we cannot even access them? How do we build citizenship, moral consciousness and compassion for the frail if we cannot volunteer? What am I supposed to tell my daughters who have been very keenly planning and anticipating their service with our grandmothers and grandfathers?

If there are any carers/nurses/aged care workers who would care to respond or better yet, off us some time to give back, please feel free to contact me.

But until then, I shall remain perplexed and dismayed. And a little cynical about the future...