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Eden Social Welfare Foundation
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2019-12-09

The smile of the children is my best medicine for happiness


Zhong Muyuan just finished her 8-hour night shift and was immediately volunteering in the next morning. She is leading the residents of Yilan nursing home for community activities. “I am not tired at all, seeing the children’s smile, I feel more energized.” This was what Muyuan kept saying during the interview.

talking with her smile on her face

During middle school, she got the chance to join the Girl Scouts. One of the doctrines of the scout’s leader believed was that “People live for service”. This thought was deeply engraved in her mind. Although she was only assisting on directing the traffic, helping the elders to cross the road and other easier service jobs, Muyuan can never forget the feeling of joyfulness and fulfillment when doing the services.

Muyuan started to have the idea of working to help support the family as both of her children was growing older. In order to balance the family and work, she chose the night shift as caregiver. She has seen many unimaginable behaviors from the residents. However, she always said, “Any situation could happen, you get used to it after a while.”

She once took care of a resident who was seriously ill in bed.  The patient constantly shouted, "Someone wants to kill me" in the middle of the night. All the residents on the same floor were greatly troubled by his behavior. But whenever this patient commenced shouting, Muyuan would just wave her hand while comforting him to go back to bed. Muyuan laughed and admitted, “I was actually terrified.”

There were also residents who were chronically ill and had nothing to vent their frustration on. As a result, one of these patients she took care of often ended up tearing off their diapers and made a mess around them. He was the biggest trouble-maker among the doctors and nurses. Muyuan invariably comforted the patient patiently while helping him to clean his bodies. As time went on, this patient has never caused a trouble during Muyuan’s shift. Treating the patients as her own family is how Muyuan win their hearts.

Muyuan’s experiences in raising her kids are very useful in helping the children in Yilan’s nursing home as majority of them are children. Taking care of the residents of the nursing home each night, Muyuan has bonded greatly with the children. After her long night shift, she did not rush back home. Instead, she became the volunteer in the nursing home and accompanied the children to participate in community activities.

Yilan nursing home

Muyuan said, "Taking a child out and see that he or she is happy to go out and have fun and come home with joy, I feel very happy!" She felt satisfied after seeing the smile of the children. During the conversation, we could feel Muyuan loves these children as though they are her own. Myuan believes being a caregiver is what she should do in her life.

hand in hand

After nearly 20 years of working as a caregiver, Zhong Muyhen has never encountered a patient who she thought was particularly difficult to take care of. She laughed and said that even the children who often have sudden situations such as seizures and so on chose to have emergencies during volunteers’ daytime shifts. Muyuan admits that being a caregiver is not an easy job; patience, perseverance and love are indispensable qualities of this job. She said, "Whether it is a caregiver or a volunteer, always remember to hold on to the spirit of service. It is enough to do one thing with your whole heart."