The theme for this year’s SSDB project was ‘Our Family, Our Community’ and we focused on befriending people with disabilities and special needs.
We wanted our children to learn to care for people with disabilities as well as learn to accept and support people of all abilities so as to build a more caring and inclusive society.
To set things off, the teachers briefed the children about the whole project and the different resources available. The children watched the SSDB video and was introduced to the different characters and the meaning of the slogan: ‘No one can do everything, but everyone can do something!’
During the launch, teachers talked about ‘Kindness’ and children were asked to think of ways to care and show kindness to others. They were then asked to tell a friend/teacher something nice about them and make an appreciation/‘Thank you’ card for them.The children were then introduced to the different types of disabilities and learn to understand how other people feel (empathy).
Teachers played videos such as ‘Sharity & The Unbroken Hero: Interacting with Persons with Disabilities’, ‘Sharity & An Inclusive Community: Fostering Inclusivity’ and ‘It’s not nice to be alone’ to get children to have a better understanding of the word, ‘disability’ and to reinforce the importance of inclusive and treating everyone with kindness and care. Children also learnt that everyone needs a friend who is thoughtful and kind.
As part of the SSDB project, we also participated in a befriending session programme organised by Children-In-Action/MDAS with the aid of Funworks. The children participated in an online inclusive play activities with children from other schools. The aim of the programme is to promote inclusiveness between children of different abilities, hence building a more caring and inclusive society through fun and play.
K1 children participated in activities such as Simon Says, Freeze dance and Spot the Difference. The children also sang and danced to one of the songs, ‘Baby Shark’.
K2 children participated in a slime-making workshop with their new friends. They had an enjoyable time playing together with their new friends, during which they also discovered that they have common interests.
After the befriending session, we then zoomed in to focus on one type of disability which was ‘visual impairment’. Our aim is to create awareness about visual impairment and ways to care for these individuals in the community.
We started off by getting children to wonder how do people with visual impairment learn and move and how do they perform their daily tasks. After which, we planned activities to raise the children’s awareness on the importance of our eyes and to experience the challenges faced by person with visual impairments. This was done by having the teachers blindfolding the children and get them to try out different activities such as stacking blocks and playing obstacle course, etc.
Teachers then shared with the children the visual aids and accessibility features available for the visually impaired in the community. For example, tactile paving at MRT station and crossroads, braille on lift button, etc. They also learnt about the white cane which is use to aid the visually impaired.
Children were also asked to wonder how the visually-impaired read and write, which brought us to the next topic, braille. For the introduction to braille, the children were given a copy of the braille alphabet and were asked to write their name in braille by shading the dots.
At the end of the SSDB project, we organised an event called, ‘Experience a day in darkness’ for both parents and children. The aim is to get the parents to step into the shoes of the visually-impaired and experience their day-to-day challenges. On the other hand, the children learn ways to support a person with visual impairments.
During the event, three stations were set up in the room: Station 1
Parents were blindfolded and their children guided them in walking through the obstacle course prepared. A white cane was given to the parents at the entrance for them to feel their surroundings for any obstacles. They will then asked to cross the road and board the train to go to the restaurant which will lead them to ‘Station 2’.
Station 2
In the restaurant, the children will assist their parents eating in the dark.
Station 3
Parents were introduced to braille system and together with their children they were asked to decode words on the board by identifying the letters in braille.
In conclusion, we have learnt so much from this whole journey of SSDB! We believe that everyone can do their part in helping to build a more caring, compassionate and inclusive society no matter how small the act is. Every small act will amount to something big ultimately, as long as we believe that ‘No one can do everything but everyone can do something!’
