Key takeaways:

• Teachers from Zhenghua Primary School volunteer to give back to the community
• Through volunteering, the teachers are able to gain insight on how to aid children with special needs and get to familiarise themselves with the resources required to do so

More than 30 teachers from Zhenghua Primary School volunteered on a Friday, 9 March, to spend a few hours helping out with packing work at our sheltered workshop and developing teaching materials at the Building Bridges EIPIC Centre at the SPD Ability Centre. They had a first hand opportunity to learn about the resources needed for special needs children as well as how it aids them in class.

SPD welcomed a group of more than 30 teachers from Zhenghua Primary School on 9 March who spent several hours helping out with packing work at our sheltered workshop and developing teaching materials at the Building Bridges EIPIC Centre at the SPD Ability Centre.

More than 20 volunteers were deployed to help develop learning resources for SPD’s Building Bridges EIPIC Centres. Dawn Wee, programme head for the Early Intervention Programme for Infants and Children (EIPIC) and Continuing Therapy Programme (CTP), introduced the teachers to the programmes and the resources that are used in our classrooms. They were also briefed on how the resources would aid the children in their learning journey.

Volunteers were briefed before working on the learning materials.

This helped to ease the volunteers into their role and, in groups of four to five; they developed seven resource materials in a relatively short time.

“Before we can cultivate good values in the students we teach, we need to first cultivate good values in ourselves. It is our desire to walk the talk and learn more about children with special needs and what resources can help them,” said Mdm Tang Li Tan, one of the volunteers.

The volunteers developing resource materials for the Building Bridges EIPIC centres.

The other group of volunteers headed for the sheltered workshop where they helped trainees with some packing work.

One of the volunteers, Ms Nicole Khor, had this to say: “This is definitely a meaningful experience. We also get the opportunity to interact with people with disabilities and see them at work.”

Ms Pamela Kee, another teacher, commented that the opportunity to volunteer at SPD was also an opportunity for her to give back to the society. Her colleague, Ms Daphne Lau, who shared the sentiment, said: “It is humbling as well! It makes us truly appreciate what we have and the things we can do.”

Teachers helping with the packing at SPD’s Sheltered Workshop.

We would like to express our gratitude to all these volunteers and everyone else who has given us their precious time to lend us a helping hand.

There is always room to give back, and we encourage people from all over Singapore who wish to do so, to reach out to us.

Please e-mail us for volunteering opportunities.