On October 3, the New Canadian Community Centre(NCCC) held an event at the entrance of Ontario College of Traditional Chinese Medicine to care for the seniors during the epidemic.
This activity is jointly organized by Ontario College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Mapleview Entertainment Inc., Jenny Learning Center Inc., Senior Art with Jenny Inc., Gansu Chamber of Commerce in Canada, Toronto Tianjin Art Troupe, and Yunnan Chamber of Commerce in Canada to send warmth “Caring for the elderly and fighting the epidemic”. This event is also sponsored and supported by Red Cross Canada.
On the day of the event, NCCC was informed by the government that it would reduce the number of people at the event to less than 50, equip them with masks, gloves, and hand sanitizer, and maintain a social distance of two meters. At 1:00 PM, host Melinda Wu announced that the ceremony of sending warmth began. Mr. Yang Haifeng, President of NCCC, expressed the most sincere greetings and concerns to the representatives and guests present. Although the ceremony of sending warmth was brief, care for the elderly was always put in the first place. In order to respond to the municipal government’s measures of epidemic prevention and community distance, NCCC took special measures, guests, according to the order of arrival speech one by one and then leave, the overall scene always keeps within 50 people and implement wearing masks and two meters of social distance.
Seniors are vulnerable groups in society, many elderly people can only participate in activities that can communicate with each other due to the language barrier and traffic restrictions. Before the outbreak of the epidemic, NCCC often organizes the elderly to sing, dance, and paint, Sports, and other activities. In this epidemic, the government stipulates that they can only stay at home. For the elderly who stay at home for a long time, they have no children to accompany and respond to. In addition, the inconvenience caused the elderly to have difficulty in purchasing epidemic prevention materials and daily necessities. Their life situation is worrying. In order to make the elderly feel the warmth from society, NCCC and seven organizations organized a warming-sending event. They sent masks, hand sanitizers, and other anti-epidemic materials to the elderly to show their caring during the special period.
The event was supported by Canadian governments at three levels. Member of parliament Jean Yip, Majid Jowhari, Bob Saroya, and Shaun Chen, Member of Provincial Parliament and Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister for Seniors and Accessibility Daisy Wai, MPP Billy Pang’s constituency assistant Larry Lau, City Councillor Alan Ho, all attended the event. They delivered speeches and sent their caring to the event. MP Jean Yip, a member of Parliament, gave the elderly members of the Agincourt branch of NCCC oranges to show their concern for the elderly in the Agincourt community.
Small Business Minister Mary Ng, MP Salma Zahid, MPP Aris Babikian, Councillor Sandra Yeung Racco, Shelley Carroll, Isa Lee, and Godwin Chan who were not present at the event, also sent greeting letters to express their support for the event.
Then seven organizations on behalf of the Ontario college of traditional Chinese medicine President BinJiang Wu, the president of Jenny Learning Center Inc. And Senior Art with Jenny Inc., the president of Canada Gansu Federation of Chamber of Commerce Zhaoan Sui, the head of Toronto Tianjin Art Troupe Yuan Zhao, the president of Mapleview Entertainment Inc. Fengjie Zhe, the vice president of Canada Yunnan Chamber of Commerce Xiping Huang also expressed their support and greeting for the event. The epidemic in Canada is still severe, but the care and warmth never stop, no matter when and where, the heart is still with the elderly.
The event has been strongly recognized by the community and the government. The elderly told the reporter, “During the epidemic, the elderly often feel helpless. This event gives warmth to their lives and makes them feel that society and the government have not forgotten them.” At the end of the ceremony, delegates and volunteers from various branches of NCCC received 400 of epidemic prevention supplies, and another 200 were later distributed to the elderly who did not receive them.
“At this special period, I think we can do more for the elderly to make them feel the warmth and care of society. It is estimated that we will give the elderly more than 60,000 Canadian dollars for free protective goods and daily necessities. I will speak out with my actions and really care for the elderly.” Mr. HaiFeng Bruce Yang, President of NCCC, said that the team of NCCC is preparing the second batch of warm delivery activities, the second batch of warm delivery activities mainly to the elderly to send food supplies such as rice, flour, cooking oil, gloves, and so on. As rice, flour, oil, and other materials are heavily weighted, NCCC will send them directly to the homes of the elderly through volunteers so that they can feel the warmth of the society without leaving home.
During the epidemic, NCCC will regularly organize various online activities, such as health preservation in Chinese medicine, Chinese QiGong, yoga, and painting to enrich the lives of seniors at home. NCCC also plans to carry out more diversified online activities, such as nutritional meals for the seniors, gardening and planting, handcrafts, Tai Chi, singing and dancing, etc., to provide various online courses and activities for the seniors so that they will not feel lonely and isolated at home. NCCC will especially hire psychological counseling experts to provide online lectures for the seniors during the epidemic to help them reduce their worries during the epidemic, and also provide consultation and help on the financial management of seniors to prevent fraud and other topics. Finally, NCCC will continue to cooperate with the community and the government to organize more online activities and offline condolences to give more support and care to the seniors in our community.
(MP JEAN YIP)
(MP MAJID JOWHARI)
