Challenge ur Limits (CurL) is a special project organised by NTU Welfare Services Club (WSC). The objectives of CurL were:

  1. To allow the participants to overcome their own mental and physical limitations and not be constrained by them.
  2. To provide a platform for community service beyond the conventional volunteering activities.
  3. To create opportunities for interaction between beneficiaries and the general public.
  4. To reach out and benefit as many beneficiaries as we can.
  5. To encourage our participants to look beyond one another’s imperfections.
  6. To raise public awareness of the abilities of the disabled and promote a more inclusive society.
  7. To have a long-lasting impact of our event to all participants, be it members of public, volunteers or beneficiaries, by engaging them and promoting interaction.

The event provided the 46 beneficiaries a marathon experience, where each beneficiary was paired with a volunteer to complete a series of obstacles, including a 3-legged race, a blindfolded run and a deaf run, throughout the race. Some 74 student volunteers and 189 public participants had generously contributed their time and effort to make this event a success!

Through CurL – Pair-a-thon 2016, we hope that between the beneficiaries and volunteers, they may understand each other more, and face each other without prejudice. The important message in organising the race was to promote equality between student volunteers and beneficiaries. We want them to know that Person with Disabilities aren’t that different and they can complete what a normal person would be able to do.

The focus of this race is that it is not a competitive race, but a race that can change the perception of many towards disabilities, and a race to let them feel that they can actually do so much more to help those who are in need. We hope that the participants can have a greater understanding of the beneficiaries who are running alongside with them and remove any prejudice that they may have previously.

The Highlights

Left Behind

Through our event, we realised that as our country develops and move ahead, often people with disabilities are left behind. This has inevitably resulted in a more divided society. Through conversations with the participants after the event, I believe that we have managed to expose the general public to the challenges faced by disabled people in carrying out activities which most people deemed as easy.

Challenging and Scary

Many of the participants like the Blind Run segment most, where the feedback provided was that it was a challenging and scary experience, as they can truly feel how a blind beneficiary would feel in their daily lives, and how dependent they have to be on their partner for help in order to proceed on with the race. This greatly raises the awareness for the blind community.

The Memories

Reflection #1 – The Challenges

 

Involving External Organisations

Liaising with external organisations was very difficult this year, with many planning their own events on the same day as our main event. As a result, we had to contact organisations which were not in our existing contact list. We are very fortunate to have Community Chest’s help this time. Without them, there would be very few beneficiaries who would have been able to make it for our main event.

Reflection #2 – The Takeaways

Shifting the Date

If there is one thing we could change about the event, it would be to push the event to a later date. As our event is just five weeks after our final exams in NTU, and considering the fact that most of us are focusing on our studies during the exam period, there are too many things to be done within the five weeks. More interactions between the beneficiaries and volunteers could be arranged if the event is pushed to a later date. This could help to improve coordination between volunteers and beneficiaries and volunteers. In addition, this could also help improve on the experience of the volunteers.