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With some of the members of Project: Colour the Rainbow
PROJECT: COLOUR THE RAINBOW
PROJECT: COLOUR THE RAINBOW
Welcome to the Community Engagement page. Community engagement involves students actively participating in purposeful service experiences that address real community needs, in collaboration with the university and local community.
The chosen social cause relates to helping children with special needs. Special needs children require special attention and different approaches in their learning to help them progress in society. For instance, a child with learning disabilities would require non-traditional educational methods to help them learn and adapt. The main issue surrounding special needs children is the preconceived notion that they are very different from any other children and would require a certain skill set and knowledge to interact with them. However, I believe it is important to reach out to these children and support them in every way possible for them to better integrate themselves into society.
This is where Project: Colour the Rainbow, a self-initiative project in partnership with Club Rainbow, comes in to serve and help the special needs children or beneficiaries through various games and activities. I was the logistics in charge of Project: Colour the Rainbow. I ensured all the special needs children who were participating in the sessions had all the materials required for that session, like origami papers for the origami session.
Before the project, I have no prior experience on how to approach special needs children. I had to research online and consult Club Rainbow on the best method to engage and interact with special needs children. I believe that despite having knowledge from online and from Club Rainbow, the main method to learn and adapt to the special needs community is to interact with them. From the interactions, I realised that special needs children are just like any other children, they are hyperactive and full of energy. The main difference would come to their learning capabilities and their lack of social skills which would mean that a special needs children would require more patience.
It is always meaningful and impactful when the special needs children that I personally interacted with have fun with the activities planned. The most impactful moment was the first time I met the special needs children from Club Rainbow. It was a fun and games session with children aged 12 and below and the session focused on playing board games. I was the host of the day and being able to interact with the children really helped me gain confidence in interacting with special needs children. Seeing the children have fun and laugh at my jokes was really fulfilling as it made me realise that a simple 1.5-hour session can create a lot of joy for the children. This was also the day I realised that these children are not so different from when I was young, they are curious and full of excitement. Despite their disabilities, they are still children, and to children, being given the opportunity to have fun and play games would already make their day meaningful.
During this project, I realise that my personality of being calm really allowed me to be patient when interacting with the children. As mentioned, patience is a key factor when it comes to interacting with these children. For example, certain children have ADHD, they have a lot of energy and short attention span, it is important to take not lose your temper on these children and give them clear instructions so that they do not lose focus. Furthermore, during this CE initiative, I learn the importance to be flexible. For instance, there will be certain children that would not be able to take part in various activities planned due to their capabilities, it is important to be flexible so that you can cater to their needs more effectively. Sometimes, I would be unsure of how to proceed when the children are unable to participate, and I would try my best to stick to the original plan. However, there are certain times when the children are just not interested, which would result in an unpleasant situation, creating frustrations in both the children and me. For example, during the board games, certain children did not know how to play games like Ludo and were not willing to learn. Hence, one area of growth is to be more flexible and try to innovate on the spot on the best and most effective way to support these children in their activities.
I believe one area of strength in the community was that everyone approached the planned activities with an open mind. I think it is important to not bring any stigma or stereotypes that an individual might have when going to interact with these special needs children. However, one area of growth I believe is important is always to have some knowledge when it comes to interacting with these special needs children. I think that the lack of knowledge and awareness is an area of growth for the community. More awareness would allow more people to understand how to cater to the needs and support the special needs children. Furthermore, due to COVID-19, most of the project is done online via Zoom. Despite the restrictions, the community managed to adapt well, and the online sessions were still very successful and meaningful.
The fun and games session where I hosted
Teaching how to play the games
Social consciousness would mean being aware of the needs of special needs children. Despite mentioning that these special needs children are like the other children in primary or secondary schools, it is important to understand that they have various restrictions that make them more vulnerable in society. For example, children with ADHD would require more time to understand various instructions. Having social consciousness is to be aware of these restrictions and take appropriate actions to minimise the effect of the restrictions. In my case, I recognise that the children with ADHD would take more time to understand various instructions, so I took the initiative to make sure these instructions are clear and effective. For example, it would be easy to verbally explain the way to use the raise hand feature on Zoom, but to a special needs child, verbal instructions would not be enough, hence the suggestion I gave was to provide visual instructions instead.
Civic responsibility would mean the duty I have when helping and supporting the community. It would be my duty and responsibility to ensure that the special needs children leave the session learning something that could help them better integrate into society. This would include but is not limited to, social skills or various skills and knowledge learned from the sessions like Valentines’ Day that could help them apply to their own celebration at home with their family. For example, learning how to show love and appreciation to their family on Valentines’ Day.
Before starting Project: Colour the Rainbow, my perception of the special needs community is that the children will be vastly different, and they will be difficult to work with. The main assumption I had was that the children would have various limitations that would make them unable to play certain games or follow certain rules and that they would require constant guidance. For example, I was afraid that the special needs children would not be able to follow during one of the sessions where we taught the children to fold origami. To my surprise, not only did the children know how to fold the origami without extra guidance, but some would also even find the origami session to be too easy. Hence, my perception has drastically changed since then as I realise that these children might require additional needs to help them progress in society, their capabilities are not to be underestimated. It helped me learn that it is important to understand each child and know their specific needs as to how to support them in society.
I believe that tangible action that I could incorporate into the future is to be present for the next batch of students taking over Project: Colour the Rainbow. It is important to pass on the knowledge and things that I have learnt to help raise awareness of the special needs children community. Furthermore, as part of my career path is to work in event management, if I have the opportunity to organise and plan events for special needs children, I definitely could use the knowledge gained from this project. Lastly, this project helped me learn to not be apprehensive and be more open-minded when it comes to supporting the community. It helped me understand the importance of being open-minded and not focusing on the perception that resulted in me being apprehensive. In the future, I would first try to understand the needs of the community and support the community in every way possible.
A potential area for advocacy relates to helping others understand that a special needs child are just like our everyday children. I could advocate and help raise awareness of special needs children to help them understand that special needs children might require additional resources to help them integrate into the society, but there are no different from everyday children in terms of personality and their simplicity in wanting to have fun. Therefore, the main area for advocacy is to spread awareness about the way to support special needs children.
Project: Colour the Rainbow has allowed me to understand how certain events can be planned to be more inclusive and more flexible. As mentioned, my career path would be towards events management, and I was able to have a taste of how events can make a meaningful impact on the lives of people. This CE initiative has managed to affirm my aspirations.
My hope as a person is to use events to bring the community together. I believe events can positively impact people’s lives and Project: Colour the Rainbow has allowed me to witness that. For example, a 1.5-hour game session can already bring fun and joy into the lives of special needs children. In terms of professional growth and development, this CE initiative allowed me to understand the importance of inclusivity. For example, making sure the event is wheelchair friendly so that everyone in the society can participate.
One of the beneficiary’s cards made during the Valentine's Day online session
One of the online sessions for Chinese New Year
In conclusion, through this programme, I learned the importance of giving back to society and supporting society in every way possible. I learn to first understand the needs of society through interaction before trying to help them based on my perception. I learn to be open-minded and allow myself to be flexible to be able to cater to the needs of the special needs children. I was also able to understand the logistics aspect of planning and executing an event and ensuring that the logistics required are safe for children. Project: Colour the Rainbow has made me more aware of the special needs community and I believe it would be a fruitful experience for the next batch of students. Overall, Project: Colour the Rainbow has been a very meaningful and impactful community engagement project.
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