Volunteers Clear Uncle’s House, Infested With Rats And Cockroaches
The state of an extremely cluttered rental flat was uploaded in a Facebook post that went viral. It belonged to an 81-year-old uncle named Chen Yongfa.
According to Lianhe Wanbao, Chen has been living alone at Toa Payoh Block 64 for the past 4 years. He used to be a “karung guni” who picked up scraps, spare parts and discarded items to resell till the ‘rona struck. The items he collected eventually accumulated as he was unable to sell any of it.
The situation got so bad that the uncle had to sleep in the corridor because he wasn’t strong enough to tidy up. However, due to the items piling up in the house, there was an infestation of rats and cockroaches.
Volunteers from Keeping Hope Alive started cleaning up the flat from 8 am on 6 Sept. Due to the Covid measures, the volunteers had to be decked out in PPE.
The rat problem was really bad. Seems like Ratatouille made his own family in there.
A total of 30 full trash bags were cleared and the volunteers even bought Uncle Chen a new bed for him to sleep on. The house took a total of 7 hours to clean.
A lot of people sympathized with people like Uncle Chen who are badly impacted by the pandemic. His living condition was bad enough with the smell and the infestation, yet no one bothered to ask why he was sleeping outside his house.
The volunteers were thanked for their hard work and it was evident that they enjoyed putting a smile on Uncle Chen’s face.
Reporter’s Opinions: These are the people who fall through the cracks during a pandemic and it pays to be more observant of them.
I cannot imagine living in a space where I know cockroaches and rats are near.
It was lucky they found him when they did. Considering the condition of his house, I won’t be surprised if he decided to sleep inside when it rains and if he had passed on inside there, no one would have known.
I hope he’s happier now.
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