'Time Bank' deposits new value into community elderly care

At 10:30 am, Feng Lingfang, a 61-year-old volunteer in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, arrives at the apartment of Wu Yuhua, an 89-year-old lady who resides alone in the same community.

Feng's task is to deliver a hot and fresh meal — an early lunch — to Wu. As soon as the two meet, they hold hands and talk affectionately.

"As she lives alone, with few to talk to, she would invariably like to chat with me for a bit when I visit her," Feng explained.

She has been bringing Wu a meal every day without fail since June, when she signed up for a new volunteer project called "Deliver a Meal of Love to Your Future Self" rolled out by Baitaling community.

So far, more than 5,400 meals have been delivered by Feng and her fellow volunteers to octogenarians like Wu or elderly people who have mobility issues in the community.

Living in the residential building next to Wu's, she has also been attending to her other needs, big and small.

Feng is among 76 registered volunteers in their 60s or early 70s working for the community's "Time Bank" program, which the meal project is part of.

As the name indicates, volunteers like Feng can accumulate points called "time credits" for the services they provide, which they can then exchange through an app for similar services when they grow older.

"There will come a day when everyone will grow old and need assistance," Feng said. "Doing voluntary services and saving credits in the Time Bank helps not only others but ourselves."

It is no surprise that such a program was piloted in Baitaling community, which has 823 people aged above 60 years old, of whom 123 are over 80 years old and 49 live alone or are without children.

In Nanxing subdistrict, at the heart of the former imperial palace ruins of the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279) and consisting of eight communities including Baitaling, 135,400 people — representing 39 percent of its population — are older than 60.

With more senior citizens, the demand for diversified elderly care services is on the rise, according to a local official, and the traditional family-based model of elderly care is increasingly insufficient.

"Our aim is to recruit a group of public-spirited uncles and aunts in their early retirement, in the hope of pairing them up with older residents, who they can help with their devotion and love," said Li Jun, Party secretary of the community.

When they grow to a more advanced age, their work can then be reciprocated by people like themselves, Li added.

Based on Baitaling community's home care service center, resources from social organizations and charities have been introduced, and together with the Time Bank credit management system the entire volunteer system is made more sustainable.

So far, the 76 volunteers have served for over 30,000 hours, generating 1,643 credits in the Time Bank.

Qi Xiao contributed to this story.