7 in 10 Singaporean seniors visited by Pioneer Generation Ambassadors

SINGAPORE: As of June this year, 7 in 10 Singaporean seniors above 65-years-old have been visited by Pioneer Generation (PG) Ambassadors in their homes, the Pioneer Generation Office (PGO) said on Sunday (Jul 23).

The PGO said about 90,000 additional seniors were included in its latest outreach programme, following the expansion of the initiative to all Singaporeans aged 65 and above in July last year. Of this pool, 41,000 of them have been successfully engaged.

At the same time, PG Ambassadors have also visited 310,000 of 400,000 pioneers from its first wave of outreach initiative.

The PG Ambassadors Programme was created in August 2014. The ambassadors, who are volunteers, carry out personalised outreach to seniors to explain the benefits of the Pioneer Generation Package (PGP). They also shared with them details on MediShield Life and related support measures, such as subsidies and Medisave top-ups.

Speaking at an appreciation luncheon for PG Ambassadors, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said the volunteers played an important part in the programme.

“Because no matter how well designed the package is, we need to close the last mile with the seniors, so that they know and understand what it means to them, and how they can take advantage of it,” he said.

PM Lee also noted how it is not easy to be a PG Ambassador, as they had to learn how to communicate, interact and relate to the elderly who may take a while to warm up to new people.

Moving forward, PM Lee said the ambassadors will continue to play a role in the Community Network for Seniors (CNS) initiative.

The pilot programme was announced during Budget 2016, and aims to integrate and pool resources for senior-related services.

Over 300 PG Ambassadors have joined the programme so far in Choa Chu Kang, Marine Parade and Tampines GRC. This will be extended to more GRCs from next year. There are currently over 3,000 trained and qualified PG Ambassadors.