This event was organised by six individuals who came together with a common passion for the special needs community and the desire to raise awareness of the PwD (Persons with Disabilities) community in NTU. As part of an effort to spread effective messages about the PwD community, the team collaborated with the Singapore Disability Sports Council (SDSC) to create the Carnival.
The event consisted of two parts – a volunteer orientation and the actual Para Games Carnival. The main aim of the orientation was to introduce volunteers to the different games played at the Carnival and teach volunteers how to facilitate those games.
The Highlights
The main highlight was the Carnival itself held at Canopy Stage @ North Spine on 4 April 2019 which attracted approximately 169 participants. Even though it was under target, the team felt that it was a good start, and most of their post-event survey respondents stated that they would like to see similar events in the future on school campus; this unexpected response served as a very big encouragement for the team.
The team featured four para-sport activities at the Carnival – Boccia, Goalball, Seated Volleyball and Wheelchair Basketball. In addition, the team also collected well wishes at the event for the Para-Athletes competing in the upcoming Singapore 2019 World Para Swimming World Series.
The Memories
Reflection #1 – The Challenges
Date of event.
It was difficult to get volunteers from the NTU community despite trying to organise the event before examination period and volunteer recruitment being done a month ahead of event day. Maybe in the future, such events could be held closer to non-peak periods.
Having said that, it is important to not give up and lose your purpose in conducting such events.
Limited manpower.
The Volunteer Orientation went ahead as usual, even though there was only one volunteer (other than the main organising team). The team believed that it was necessary and that small event allowed them to practice facilitating the games themselves and provided an avenue for them to make short videos in order to brief other volunteers.
Having limited manpower also meant that each volunteer need to increase their workload in order to drive the whole project forward.
Reflection #2 – The Takeaways
Working as a small team undoubtedly means that you really have to tap on your partners. For the team, SDSC provided a lot of support (resources and logistics) for the event and this allowed them to carry on with the project.
As the project developed and event day drew nearer, some plans were inevitably changed according to situations. It is important to be comfortable with this as a team and recognise that in spite of differences, there were still common goals to be achieved.
The team considered this event to be successful and do not believe this to be a end goal but rather, a good testing bed for such events to be welcomed in NTU in the near future.
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