Have you read about our SSDB Launch in an earlier post? Now we are onto Part 1 of our SSDB Project.Our lil’ ones at PCF Sparkletots Preschool @ Tampines East Blk 261 (KN) were looking forward to Mr Kalai’s visit once we knew he was coming.
Mr Kalai is a para-athlete who represents Singapore in powerlifting.
With him, were also representatives from Singapore National Paralympic Council (SNPC) who gave us a brief introduction to the mission and work of the council.
Mr Kalai shared with us all about his journey as a Para Athlete. He can lift up to almost 160kg! That’s about 10 of our lil’ ones put together!
Initially, the children were apprehensive when they saw him and the teachers could tell that they were a little uncomfortable. After all, sometimes, even we, adults may not know how to react to individuals who are different from us.
However, Mr Kalai was really good with the children. He understood their apprehension and interacted with them. Slowly, we could see the children warming up to him.
They asked him many questions and he answered them. At times, he joked about it too.
One of them asked him if he felt sad and he answered them honestly. He said he does feel sad at times but then he thinks about things that he CAN do instead. That cheers him up a lot.
He talked about things he has difficulties doing and taught the children to think about working around the problem and to work on using their abilities to work around their disabilities.
He explained how he had to have his leg amputated when he was in his twenties as he was ill.
The children had fun interacting with Mr Kalai.
He told them to always offer help to others and try not to stare at others who are different as that would make them feel sad too.
At the end of the session, we took a group photo.
It was heartwarming to see our lil’ ones go up to him and shake his hands and hug him on their own accord as he was leaving thereafter.
They even invited him to participate in our ParaSports Challenge in July. He will be out of Singapore participating in a competition and will be back on that day. He promised to join our lil’ ones if he is able to. They are certainly looking forward to that!
Our children were so excited that many went home and shared Mr Kalai’s visit with their families.
One of our children in Nursery 2 even drew Mr Kalai so that her parents knew how he looked like!
We are looking forward to the next two parts of our SSDB project!
Part 2: Quilt Wall of Love
Part 3: ParaSports Challenge @ 261
Stay tuned! And we do hope Mr Kalai will be able to join us!
