Community event was held on 26 March 2015 from 10am to 4pm at
MINDS organization. We had about 2 weeks to plan and organize this event. We went
to MINDS organization on the week we were given this task to recce and to further
plan for our programme.
Pre-event
preparation
We were informed by the MINDS instructor that there were many
ongoing projects such as Mothers’ Day flower carnation project, making
headphones and tags for SIA and washing and folding clothes at MINDS.
Hence, we decided to contribute for the Mothers’ Day flower
carnation project as they had to do 10, 000 flowers by May.
Preparations
for the event
40 Souvenir packs for the trainees at the handicraft section.
Some props for the games.
Practicing our dance performance.
On the day
of the event
EMRS teams reported at Redhill MRT station at 9.30am, we then
walked to MINDS organization which was about 15 minutes away.
EMRS teams at conference room waiting for the MINDS
instructor to conduct a briefing.
After the briefing, we went to tour the MINDS organization.
We assisted with the flower carnations and then took a group
photo with the trainees and the instructor.
EMRS students assisted at the different stations for the
flower carnations. For example, one group was working on the petals, whilst
another group was doing the stems and the other group was putting the leaves on
the stems.
We saw some of the handicrafts done by the trainees for their
previous projects. They sold their handicrafts to the public and also made
souvenirs for events. Some of the handicrafts they made include colourful
bands, paintings, magnets, bouquets and many more.
We had a game session after lunch but we were restricted from
taking photos of the trainees due to media control.
We had 3 game stations: Poison ball, Ping Pong ball relay and
Cup stack. The game session lasted for an hour. Most of the trainees liked
poison ball game the most.
After which, we had some performances by both the trainees
and EMRS students. The trainees played big drums and had a sing and dance
performance.
Their performances were mind-blowing!!!!!!!!
After their performances, EMRS performed a dance item. The
trainees were such a great audience. We had a mass dance later on, which was
when the large group of trainees and EMRS danced together.
The game props were donated to MINDS after the performance.
Finally, we took a selfie and called it off a day: D.
We have learnt a lot during this event. We had the best
teamwork here and had so much of fun with the trainees. This event strengthened
the bond between us and we got to know the trainees better. After seeing how
happy they were even though they are intellectually disabled, we learnt to
appreciate what we have instead of complaining.
In a nutshell, this community event has created awareness of
intellectually disabled people and it was an eye opening event for us.
