Advocate for Seniors Gets Creative

Eleanor Yap is a freelance writer/editor and an advocate for seniors.

She got involved in ageing/seniors back in 2000 when she was the editor for one of Singapore’s earliest seniors’ magazines. After her foray into ageing, in 2006 with a business partner, she started two seniors’ magazines. She went on her own in 2009 when she started Ageless Online, a free e-magazine for those 50 and above.

Through her advocacy work, she went on to start several other initiatives including Time Traveller, an online museum; FACEUP, a youth initiative where they write about seniors; and Makan with Seniors, a community initiative where youths and seniors get together over food and understand each other more. During the pandemic, she started Project BUDDY where lonely and isolated seniors got a volunteer buddy to check in on them regularly over the phone.

During the pandemic, she got into pottery thanks to her sister who was in Project BUDDY and got to befriend a master potter. However, she has since veered to a different kind of clay, polymer clay and is using this medium to make earrings under her brand claymate. She is learning new approaches to using polymer clay and Pinterest is her best friend!

“I strongly believe in learning. No matter what age you are, you should try new things to keep the mind going and this will help especially during this time, when one’s mental health can go haywire. Doing this as a hobby has kept me active, given me a break from my writing, and connected me to my sister.”