Should we give people fish or teach people how to fish? CMEC has explored a new way to help the needy by boosting confidence and pooling wisdom. Since 2018, CMEC and China-East Resources Import & Export Co. (CERIECO) organized two SINOMACH-hosted training courses for the elderly care. By recruiting experts to train professional skills of the elderly nursing and providing internship opportunities, nearly 40 students from poor districts and counties have been assisted in achieving good career development in the sunrise industry of providing for the aged, which has improved their confidence and ability in eradicating off poverty and getting rich. The students are also respecting and loving the elderly with their knowledge and skills, giving back to the society with selfless and great love.

During the Spring Festival this year, the covid-19 epidemic was raging. In this extremely difficult period, many students trained by SINOMACH’s second training course in precision poverty alleviation and elderly nursing (hereinafter referred to as the “second training course”) resolutely gave up the opportunity to reunite with their families, demonstrating their selfless dedication to the elderly care industry.

　　Zhou Guojun: Working Night Shift for the Elderly Care

Zhou Guojun, from Gushi County, Henan Province, is a post-80s student in the second training course for the aged. After graduation, he stayed in the Peacock Branch of Beijing Jintai Yishouxuan Nursing Home to serve as an intern.

During the epidemic, he resolutely decided to stay in Beijing and worked night shift in a bid to share the work of his colleagues. Because of the epidemic prevention and control, the elderly people were prone to anxiety, temper and even crying endlessly. Especially at night, the old people were often excited with rising blood pressure and sudden hypoglycemia. Zhou Guojun patiently comforted them until they all went to sleep.

When living in his hometown, Zhou was never willing to spend money having his hair cut in a barbershop because of financial difficulties. He did it himself. After a long time, he developed a set of haircut skills. Unexpectedly, this money-saving skill played an important role during the epidemic. After working the night shift every day, he would take the initiative to stay and do haircut for the elderly. He has cut the hair of 73 elderly people in the courtyard. The elderly gave their thumbs up happily.

　　Fan Zhiyun: Caring for the Elderly in the Nursing Home During the Spring Festival

　　Fan Zhiyun, the monitor of the second training course for the aged, is a post-60s from Gushi County, Henan Province. After graduating in August 2019, she became an employee of Shanghai Fuxiang Nursing Home for the Elderly. The sudden covid-19 epidemic had disrupted many people’s plans to return their home for the New Year. Ms. Fan was among them. She did not hesitate to stay in the nursing home to take care of the elderly because she knew that they needed her more at this time.

There were not enough dormitories in the Home. Fan made a bed on the ground in the conference room on the second floor without hesitation. In the three months of living on the floor, she worked hard and stuck to her frontline post 24 hours a day, caring for every old people to ensure their physical and mental health.

During the epidemic period, the elderly people were under great psychological pressure, the nursing difficulty was high, and the nursing workload doubled. Often, one person had to complete tasks of two or three people, and the work was treated without discrimination. They had to take care of the elderly’s food and daily life in detail and think about and find ways to relieve their emotions.

Ms. Fan Zhiyun applied the professional psychological counselling method learned in SINOMACH’s training course for the aged. She led the elderly to sing, dance, and do health exercises and handcrafts. She also took out her mobile phone to allow the elderly to talk to their families via the phone and video call, virtually building a bridge of family affection and mutual trust between the elderly and their families and between the families and the nursing home.

Fan said emotionally that she would remember the “pledge for caring for the elderly” sworn in the training course, vowing to give back to SINOMACH and the society with a grateful heart.

　　Li Chaoqin: Nursing Two Elderly Persons Respectively with Parkinson’s Disease and Dementia

Ms. Li Chaoqin, coming from Gushi County, Henan Province, became a “senior citizen” in Jintai Yishouxuan Nursing Home after graduating from the second training course for the elderly. During the Spring Festival, Li gave up returning her home to take the initiative to stay and take care of the elderly.

There were 23 elderly people in her branch. She was responsible for taking care of two of them: one with Parkinson’s disease needs the tertiary-level care, who cannot look after himself; and the other with dementia needs the fourth-level care, a more difficult level, requiring her to be in charge of all things.

Every morning, Li dressed and washed the two old people. Due to the inconvenience of the old men, she was already sweating after this set of work was completed. To enable the elderly to eat hot meals, Li could feed the elderly one spoon at a time before going to the canteen for himself. She often missed the canteen meal.

During the epidemic, the old men vomited because of their bad stomach. Sometimes he vomited all over her body and sometimes his bed. She would clean up the dirt. To ensure the nutrition of the elderly, she also suggested changing three meals a day to six meals a day. Doubling the workload can be imagined.

The epidemic is merciless and human beings are sentient. In the work practice of nursing for the aged, she slowly realized that to do a good job, she really cannot do without the filial piety, love, and sense of responsibility taught by teachers of the training course! She even felt that engaging in the care service is also a process of self-cultivation and inner sublimation.

Li said with emotion that she wants to use the knowledge she acquired in SINOMACH’s training course for the aged to serve the elderly wholeheartedly and that, in exchange for the smile of the elderly and their families, it is her greatest happiness!

By holding training courses for nursing the aged, the students from poverty-stricken areas and counties have achieved better career development. In the future, CERIECO will continue to make innovations with SINOMACH to resolutely win the battle against poverty.