Reflection for Wheel, Walk or Jog event

I have definitely benefited much from this event. Initially, I was also quite disappointed at the lack of interaction we, the OT, had with the handicapped, as the goal I started out with initially was to get to know the stories of the handicapped and to have a deeper understanding of their daily lives. However, upon reflection, I realized that I should not be so selfish, and that it is more important for the volunteers to get the interaction with the handicapped people. Thus so, this event has helped me become more mature, and has enlightened me on the true objective of our project. The event has also helped to shed light on the difficulty of planning events, and has helped me to develop a sense of gratitude for those who are planning events in the future, be it school or public events

However, there were certain flaws too that I had to admit. Firstly, for personal shortcomings, I had to admit I wasn't especially enthusiastic during the event. I kept playing phones and engaging in mini conversations during the event, without putting in too much effort in manning the stalls or aiding in advertising our stalls. For a period of time, I even to tally abandoned the stalls, and camped in the library with my friend, of which I feel immensely guilty and sorry of. One of the contributing factors might be the lack of business for our stall, but it is immature for me to blame it all on circumstantial factors. I myself had a part to play in my general attitude, as I did not take the initiative to find stuff to do, and ultimately did not contribute to the project as much as I wanted to. Upon reflection, I've decided to put in more effort next time, and try to distance myself from distractions next time. Another personal mistake I made was the fact that I relied on last minute work too much. I only managed to get my hands on a popcorn machine one day before the event, which made no room for error. Coincidentally, the popcorn machine was filthy and not fit for preparing food, and thus we had to scrap that popcorn machine last minute and had to rely on a single popcorn machine we managed to get, luckily, from a fellow HCI teacher. If I had managed to settle the popcorn machine earlier, we might have had time to get another popcorn machine. I personally feel this is due to my laziness and lack of enthusiasm as stated above, and have decided to dedicate more time and effort to the project that ironically, I started. 

I believe that this event was so successful, due to two important factors. Firstly, the volunteers were much more enthusiastic than I initially thought they would be, and took a genuine interest in conversing and interacting with the handicapped. They also helped a great deal in selling our calligraphy, and was provided help with manning the stalls. Secondly, Ryan Chee, our vice-leader?, put in a great deal of effort, and was basically single-handedly over-seeing all sorts of stuff on the day, from the performance to the volunteers. Thus so, without them , I believe that the event would never be as successful if it wasn't for them.

Ultimately, the event was a success, as we managed to get a rather huge group of volunteers to interact with the handicapped, and raised awareness for these handicapped people. However, I believe that there are many areas I can improve on, and I hope that I can do better next time in future events. 

Reflections for 2nd April

2nd April 2016

  This is an important day for us, our project, and most importantly, the handicapped people participating in this Wheel, Walk or Jog event. Planning for this started weeks before this, not only did we helped to pack goodie bags, but also set up two stalls and recruited about 70 volunteers from 5 different schools for it. Being the organizing team, we arrived at OCBC Square early in the morning to set up the stalls. Soon the volunteers came and the event began. The first batch of volunteers went through a wheel chair training session by HWA, where they learnt the basics and things to take note while pushing a wheel chair. After lunch, the handicapped people came in buses. The volunteers rushed to welcome them, then each of them is paired with a handicapped person. Then the volunteers pushed the handicapped people around the carnival, interacting and played games with them.
  In this event, I was personally in charged of the volunteers, organizing them and pairing them. Most of these secondary 1 boys were more outgoing than I thought, they managed to strike a conversation immediately meeting their buddy, interacting with them and having fun with them. Although I didn't interact with many of the handicapped people, but I have seen their faces as they smiled while interacting with the volunteers. They truly enjoyed themselves. From this, I can tell that many of these handicapped people actually lack interaction and actually have a lot to say. From a feedback of a volunteer, it was said that his buddy and him talked about a lot things throughout the event, such as dialects, education system etc. Being in charge of the volunteers, I worked with the organizers. One of these organizer is a wheel chair bound handicapped person. However, what I have see in him was that he was a very independent and strong person, he was in charged of many of the things. This shows that people are not bound by their disabilities. This changed my perception of handicapped people being weak. Lastly, through this event, we have gained experience on organizing such a big event and handling that many volunteers. This also give us our aim in what we want to do for this project, and for HWA. We want the handicapped people to be more integrated into the society.