ELAINE WONG, an artist and co-founder of The Hatchery Place, an in-home coworking, coliving and co-learning space, had reached an epiphany about human connections during the pandemic.
“During the two years of the pandemic, I started to realise that I needed friends that were not online. Zoom calls and electronic communications have taken a toll on me, and I craved physical connection, even if it’s just from my immediate neighbourhood,” Wong said.
“I also realised that we have started to take online groups like WhatsApp group chat for granted, a feeling like we are ‘somewhat connected’ but in actual fact, the connection is not real.”
She wanted to rekindle the rukun tetangga spirit that has long been lost in modern neighbourhoods, where we are now only connected through online group chats or Facebook.
In simpler times, we used to meet our neighbours in person, eat together, do gotong-royong, help each other, and had a common purpose to look after each other.
She was lamenting this situation to a friend from Spain, who then suggested the concept of timebank.
What is a timebank?
A timebank is a reciprocity-based skills sharing model in which hours are the currency, instead of cash. One person gives an hour of service or shares skills to another and in return, receives one time credit.
The receiver then uses the time credit to get a service or lesson from another teacher.
A person with one skill can also exchange it for an equal hour of work in another skill, instead of paying or receiving cash for their services.
There are four main kinds of timebank exchanges:
0 One-to-One, which means one person giving another, for example, giving a ride to a doctor.
0 One-To-Many, which means one person sharing skills with many people, like when a yoga teacher earns credits teaching four or five members.
0 Many-to-One, where four or more people take a job, like doing a garden clean-up for senior members, to earn credit
0 Many-to-Many, where a lot of people earn credits by organising and participating in a community pet-parade.
The concept of timebank was designed by Edgar Cahn and is popular in the USA and United Kingdom and in Asian countries like Japan and South Korea.
