Being the wise wordsmith that he was, Nelson Mandela once said, "Disabled children are equally entitled to an exciting and brilliant future."
Freshman year is hard. High school in general was a barrel of nerve-wrecking experiences and intimidating peers for many. For a particular girl in my class, this was obliviously true. Aged a couple years older than her colleagues with a unique speech pattern and delays in comprehending information, she did her best to fit in. Fatini was a brilliant and beautiful student born with Trisomy X Syndrome.
Throughout high school, I was fortunate enough to have befriended her. Observing her and the treatments that she received from other peers and teachers had made me wonder if going to a regular school or a school specialised to deliver special needs education would be better for her.
For a long time, I had developed a keen interest in issues surrounding the special needs community. However, it wasn't until December 2019 and April 2020 that I had finally taken a step to contribute physically to the cause. Although I could not stem out the basis of my interest towards the issue, I could indefinitely point out a particular person who had sparked my action to learn and contribute to the community.
As the pandemic hit in 2020, the world became virtual. In April, I was among the 40 students to sign up for AIESEC, a youth leadership organisation with volunteering projects and internship opportunities as two of its main products. AIESEC was my first formal introduction to the Sustainable Development Goals. The first job title I upheld in the organisation was as an Assistant Project Manager of Get Fit Get Inclusive, a social project aimed to tackle Target 10.2 of SDG 10, Reducing Inequalities. The project was aimed to raise awareness on special needs education in Malaysia and to provide virtual workshops for the children.
Getting the responsibility as one of the Organising Committee of the project was such a blessing. Not only was I able to work directly with the children and volunteers, I was also able to learn more about what we lack as a society and a country to support the special needs community from the experts such as the founders of IMC Special Needs Centre in Subang.
In Malaysia, the lack of awareness and inclusivity in regards to special education, facilities and the social aspect is a major problem. Evidently, local children with learning disabilities requires their special educational needs in the integrated and inclusive special education programs. Malaysia education system currently is lacking of a tailored curriculum for certain learning disabilities. As of April 30 2014, the number of children with special education needs in inclusive education program stands at 58,253 while only 1,742 schools in the country offer inclusive education programs.
Negative stigma towards special needs children still hold true in the community in Malaysia. Special Education Needs (SEN) children are perceived to be handicapped and look down upon as ‘welfare’ cases rather than seen as the country’s potential human resources. Many in the society are still unaware of the facilities and educational provision provided for student with special needs.
Hence this social volunteering project had allowed youths from Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Indonesia to plan workshops, create contents, raise funds and learn on social issues in regards to the special needs community.
With my lack of experience and expertise to plan a social project, I was guided by my Project Director, Sasha. The first assignment I was tasked to do was to engage and contact the parents of the the children to remind them of any upcoming activities conducted. It wasn't much per se, but being able to accomplish it independently then felt like an enormous win for me.
We were then tasked to plan out the workshops and events to be facilitated by the volunteers and participated by the parents and children. At first planning an activity sounded like a breeze. However, when I was presented with a blank Google Sheets, I realised that I had no prior knowledge about how to promote motor skills in special needs children, let alone to communicate with them. Overwhelmed, a myriad of thoughts erupted from my precipitous self-doubt. "How do I keep them engaged?", "What should I do to keep them focused and interested?", "Are all of them with the same background?", "What are the different learning disabilities?". In the midst of it all, I had came up with the idea to reach out to my Sign Language instructor and other contacts that I've gained who were specialising in special needs education. With their help, I was able to assemble some pieces together, initiate some ideas and came up with a detailed activity plan with my team.
As dates crossed off the calendar, after multiple meetings attended and deadlines met, soon came the date when we first meet our volunteers. Meeting other passionate youth who were keen to contribute their time and effort to volunteer despite the virtual setting was simply inspiring. They were committed to their tasks and we were able to form a solid bond amongst each other throughout the 4 weeks of project realisation.
Despite being member of the organising committee, I was blessed with the opportunity to crowdfund and conduct a virtual workshop for the children alongside the volunteers. Despite the initial doubts that I had, all the activities held went smoothly. In fact, one of the parents had reported that their children would enthusiastically inquire on when the next session will be held. These small reported wins were shared to the volunteers and the organising parties. The experience had indefinitely thought me that the hardest aspect of a project is the planning process. Truthfully, planning and executing it is a sweat-drenching experience. From the anxiety and the workload, it was not easy. However, visibly observing the impact we were able to make made each obstacles worth it. To see the children enjoying the activities, to witness the fund we've raised transferred to the collaborated special needs centre and to seeing the volunteers bonding and learning; these had made my first 3 months in AIESEC an unforgettable experience.
After 3 months of virtual meetings and spreadsheets to fill, it was time to bid my experience as an assistant project director an adieu. Inevitably, the project had successfully contributed to the targeted SDG. However, looking back I've realised that we had also made other minor sustainable impacts and practices along the way. The youths we inspired and collaborated with were the major impact we've created through Get Fit Get Inclusive. From the education delivered, the soft and hard skills honed, the confidence instilled and the awareness we've further cultivated, some of the volunteers had continued to contribute their time to not only the same cause but ventured to create an impact in other social issues too. Personally, the friends I have gained from this project had given me a more global network of contacts to collaborate with. Dinithi Weerakoon, a volunteer for GFGI who was also a member of AIESEC in Sri Lanka was keen to come back to join us to deliver a session when invited.
John Dewey once said, true the education reformist that he was, “We do not learn from experience... we learn from reflecting on experience.” The skills and knowledge I nurtured from this experience had undeniably shaped me. It is a blissful blessing to have a mere interest and a high school friend to inspire a big step out of my comfort zone.
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