Mobility Aids — Customers Service — Galashiels

Description

This is a role providing much-needed support for people who are accessing our service. Based at one of our mobility aids locations, the main duty of the role is serving the public who require a wheelchair or other mobility aids equipment. This is a role for someone who enjoys meeting people, can show compassion ( 同情), and enjoys being in an office.

Opportunity start date: 17th November 2021

Opportunity end date: 7th February 2022

Minimum (最小的) age: 18

Frequency and commitment (频率和义务) details

A few hours a week on a regular basis with a six-month commitment.

Service time

Typical tasks include

Supplying and receiving wheelchairs (or other mobility aids equipment)

Showing how to use and look after our wheelchairs (and other equipment)

Dealing with questions from people wanting to borrow a wheelchair by telephone and face to face

Receiving payments / donations

Actively promoting the Retail Mobility Aids offer / website

Experience required

Physically able to safely lift or move wheelchairs and other mobility equipment

Some customer service experience

Enjoying meeting people and having good communication skills

Good IT skills and ability to complete online training

Dan McKena’s high school construction class has quietly worked on charitable (慈善的) projects to benefit the Westerly, Rhode Island, community for more than two decades. That suddenly changed when the Internet caught wind that more than ten of McKena’s students at Westerly High School banded together to build a bus stop for a local school student who is wheelchair dependent.

It all started when 5-year-old Ryder Killam’s father, Tim, posted on Facebook in September that the family was seeking (寻找) a bus stop to replace their bus shelter. Tim Killam was trying to find a way to keep his son, who is completely wheelchair dependent, sheltered from the unpleasant New England weather while waiting for the school bus. The Facebook post caught the attention of a local guidance counselor who told the Killams to reach out to McKena.

McKena had been sitting with one of his students, Mason Heald, trying to figure out a senior project when Tim Killam’s email reached his inbox. It was perfect timing. “I looked at him. I said, ‘You’re designing a bus stop,’” McKena said. With the help of 14 other students, Heald got to work.

After about a month of hard work, Killam’s replacement — which was designed so he could actually sit in this chair and see the bus — was finished. The end result was a hut (小屋) with two windows that is up to ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) standards.

After the community caught wind of the story, someone dropped off a blanket (毯子) for Ryder, Tim Killam said. The Killams were blown away by the support from the community.

It “makes getting on and off the bus perfect,” Tim Killam said. “The size is perfect and because it’s up to ADA standards, we are able to be inside with him. Ryder can get anxious (焦虑的), so having one of us with him is so important.”

With just a towel around Mr Goh Sia Hock’s neck to soak up ( 吸入) his sweat, the 54-year-old landscape worker continues to work outdoors under the midday sun. For five-and-a-half days each week, he spends hours outdoors. “But I have been doing this for about one-and-a-half years now, so I’m quite used to it.” Even so, he admits that the recent weather has been testing his limits.

Last month, Singapore saw 14 days where the daily maximum ( 最高的) temperature reached 34 degrees. The southern and south-eastern parts of the island also saw warmer nights with a minimum temperature of around 28 degrees.

As temperatures climb, experts said people may have a higher risk of developing heat-related injuries or illnesses and special focus should be paid to these diseases. Currently, cases of heat injuries and deaths in Singapore are low compared to places such as India and eastern Europe, where deadly summer heatwaves have killed thousands of people. According to data provided by the Ministry of Health, between 71 and 124 people were admitted to hospitals for heat-related illnesses each year from 2010 to 2020.

But with Singapore heating up twice as fast as the rest of the world, temperatures could soar ( 猛增) to new heights in the coming years. According to the National Climate Change Secretariat, Singapore’s yearly mean temperatures have been continuously climbing over the past few years, increasing from 26.9 degrees in 1980 to 28 degrees last year. Seven of the top ten hottest years fell within these ten years.

“The sort of issues that Singapore will be facing won’t be things like wildfires, but rather a gradual increase of warmer temperatures,” said climate scientist Winston Chow, an associate professor of science, technology and society at the Singapore Management University. “We might see temperatures over 36 degrees at some point, but sooner rather than later. The likelihood of heat stress, heat injuries and deaths will increase because of increase in exposure ( 遭受) to a warmer climate.”

On 4 December, Mount Semeru volcano, on the island of Java, erupted. Mount Semeru is 3, 676 metres above sea level. It is one of Indonesia’s most active volcanoes and often has small eruptions that send ash ( 灰烬) around 4, 300 metres into the sky. Its last eruption was in last January but fortunately no one died. This eruption was much larger, though, throwing ash more than 12, 000 metres into the sky. Eko Budi Lelono, the head of Indonesia’s geological agency, has said that the eruption was caused by the volcano’s crater collapsing ( 火山口塌陷) after heavy rain.

Around 11 villages in East Java were covered with ash. Around 3, 000 houses are thought to have been damaged. According to Indonesia’s National Board for Disaster Management (BNPB), 38 schools have been damaged by the eruption. At the time The Week Junior went to press, 34 people had died; 100 had to be treated in hospital for their injuries and 22 were missing.

Rescue workers are still searching for people who are missing. However, bad weather has slowed rescuers down. More than 5, 000 are thought to have been displaced (forced to move) by the eruption. Around 2, 000 people are staying in temporary emergency shelters produced by rescue teams. The shelters are giving out food. Parcels ( 包裹) of blankets, clothes and food have also been sent to the places hardest hit. On 5 December, a group of 10 sand-mine workers were rescued. On 6 December, BNPB agents examined the affected areas from a helicopter.

The head of the BNPB has said that it will try to rebuild destroyed homes. Equipment, such as bulldozers, is being sent to the area. The government will help people to move from the places that have been hardest hit and give them money every month while they’re waiting for their new homes to be prepared. Meanwhile, people have been warned to stay more than three miles away from the crater of the volcano.

A tsunami can occur after an earthquake, an underwater landslide, or a volcanic eruption. Large amounts of water are displaced and form into walls of water. The name, tsunami, means harbor (海港) wave.     16     But when a tsunami reaches shallow water, it can build up to an enormous height before hitting the shore. Some of these waves look like four-floor buildings. They are also fast.     17    

People have little warning when tsunamis hit. In the Pacific Rim countries, the population knows to be careful after an earthquake or volcanic activity.     18     Underwater shelves (陆架) form where rivers empty into an ocean. Seismic (地震的) activity can cause the shelf to break. A tsunami can result from the displaced water.

Japan is the unlucky recipient (接受者) of the most tsunamis. Next in line are Chile and Hawaii.     19     In 1958, a couple named Bill and Vivian Swanson were fishing in an Alaskan bay (海湾). At ten o’clock, they felt the boat shake and saw a rock avalanche shower down from a nearby mountain. The resulting wave moved toward their boat at a speed of 100 miles an hour. Luckily, they had enough time to escape.

Since 1900, more than 380, 000 people have lost their lives to these great waves.     20     Scientists, however, are working to develop new ways of discovering tsunamis so that better warning systems can be created.

An 11-year-old girl helped save a dog from a house fire after spotting (注意到) smoke coming out of her neighbor’s home and quickly calling 911.

Mackenzie Jenkins was in her yard, when she noticed smoke alarms ________ inside the house as well as the eight-month-old dog, Fiona, barking (吠叫).

“I came outside to play on my swing and then I saw the ________ coming out of the front door and the bedroom window,” she told the news station.

The grade school student called 911 to report the ________, likely saving the dog’s life. “I was ________. I was mostly worried about Fiona because I didn’t want her to die,” she explained.

Thankfully, firefighters ________ Fiona. They thanked Mackenzie for her quick ________ to the fire.

“They just said that they were happy that I ________ the house and the dog, because the fire could have gotten worse if I didn’t ________ in the next five minutes,” she said.

Mackenzie’s grandfather Michael Jenkins told the news station he is also very ________ her.

The firefighters ________ Mackenzie with a Community Recognition Coin for her ________ actions that saved her neighbor’s dog and prevented further ________.

The Cape Coral Fire Department also ________ Mackenzie on its social media page after the ________ while sharing photos of her posing ( 摆好姿势) with her award.

“When firefighters were able to make entry, they knew to search for a dog thanks to the ________ provided by Mackenzie,” the post explained.

An earthquake early warning system     36     uses AI technology to predict how the ground will move can give several seconds’ advance notice that the shaking is coming.

A similar system already exists — ShakeAlert. It uses     37     (tradition) computing power and works by     38    (record) the first waves of an earthquake — P waves — and then predicting when the set of waves that cause most of the shaking — slower-moving S waves — will arrive.

The new system     39    (call) DeepShake, and it also intends     40    (provide) a few seconds’ warning of imminent (即将发生的) shaking once an earthquake has started. However, DeepShake uses a type     41     AI learning technique. This could lead to faster processing across different earthquake regions.

“When we set out on this project     42    (we) goal was to beat previous prediction equations (方程) that are     43    (current) used to program earthquake warning systems,” said Avoy Datta, who was part of the team that developed DeepShake. “They are very slow     44    (compare) with DeepShake. They need supercomputers and take minutes and hours to process. If we run 25 DeepShake models,     45     only takes around 6.1 milliseconds to process on a single research GPU. This is going to be very fast.”