Praba Saundarajoo

MOE Kindergarten @ First Toa Payoh

Praba Saundarajoo
8 Aug 2018

Caring for People with visual impairment - Part 2

We are excited!

After being introduced to ways they can help people who are visually impaired, children were excited and could not wait to begin. Many of them wanted their parents to play a part as well and some of them talked to their parents about it on the day of the launch itself.

Partnerships were fostered with the following organisations:

  1. Singapore Association for the Visually Handicapped (SAVH)

  2. IC2Prephouse

  3. Compass One Shopping Centre

Assembly sessions were held during the month of April to revisit their knowledge on what helps people who are visually impaired. To understand more about how people who are visually impaired are able to do things independently, Mr Wilson from SAVH visited our school to show how he creates bookmarks with recycled stamps even though he is only able to see partially with one eye. Children learned that these art projects, called ‘touchart’ by SAVH, are sold by them. Children were inspired and understood that people who are visually impaired work hard and are capable of doing many things as well. 

Let’s involve the community!

Let’s make a pledge!

Children got their parents to make a pledge to be involved in this SSDB project by getting them to sign the SSDB pledge card.

Let’s create awareness Parents worked with their children to make posters to create awareness for people who are visually impaired.

These posters raised awareness based on various aspects such as

  • Having guidelines on how to approach and help a person who is visually impaired

  • Providing Information about guide dogs

  • Routing for more tactile paving

  • Being kind and caring to people who are visually impaired

  • Embracing diversity and cultivating inclusion

Here are some of the posters that our parents and children made together:

Selected posters were displayed at Compass One shopping centre for a week as part of their collaboration with SAVH for Mother’s Day celebrations. This was exciting as families of our children had the opportunity to raise awareness to the general public. There was a pledge box set-up and many pledged about how they would like to help the visually impaired while others wrote about what they have learned from the posters. We thank Ms Jesmine (Assistant A&P Manager), from Compass One for accommodating us and helping our children to create awareness.

We had many pledges from the public, here are four of them.

Let’s get more pledges!

Children drew the different ways in which people can help those who are visually impaired in Singapore. Some of these pictures were selected and an information sheet was created. The children carried out a pledge-collection project during their June holidays. They had to show the information sheet to friends, neighbours and relatives and get their pledges on how they wish to help people who are visually impaired. This way they not only continued to raise awareness but also motivated people to make a pledge.

Giving back to the community

Let’s make braille books

A representative from IC2Prephouse, Ms Ada, came over to our school and children helped to make braille books on shapes for children who are visually impaired. They were given pages with the braille printed on and they pasted the shapes accordingly. The pages were then bound to create books about shapes to be used by children in IC2Prephouse. Thank you Ms Ada!

Let’s donate

A donation drive was set-up for SAVH and the following items were collected over a period of 2 weeks.

  • Rice, Mee Hoon, milo/coffee/tea packets, biscuits, instant oats/nestum sachets, paper towels, recycled stamps

We thank parents for their generous contributions as we managed to collect up to 20 boxes worth of items! These items were collected by SAVH staff and were distributed to the visually impaired in need.

Let’s have fun

Seven ambassadors were chosen to represent our school to participate in a ‘Kids Konnect’ programme organised by IC2Prephouse for children who are visually impaired. Our ambassadors joined in the fun, exercising, playing and making sandwiches with them. They learned a lot from their experience and were elated to participate in activities with them. They came back and shared their experiences with their classmates.

This is just the beginning!

Our Start Small Dream Big journey for 2018 has indeed been meaningful and fulfilling.

This is just the beginning and we hope we have inspired many others to play a part in giving back to the community!

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