On the 25 Feb 16, about 10 LAS members made our way to the eastern part of Singapore to visit the Singapore Celebral Palsy Alliance Singapore (CPAS). This organisation was established in 1957 to provide persons with cerebral palsy and multiple disabilities with early intervention, special education, rehabilitation services, day activity centre programmes, vocational training and gainful employment in Singapore.
Cerebral (brain) Palsy (lack of muscle control) is an inclusive term to describe a group of non-progressive disorders occurring in young children in which injury to the brain causes impairment of motor function. The degree of the disabilities ranges from extreme tightness or looseness of the body muscles, improper head, shoulder or hip control to speech impairment. Cerebral Palsy is not curable. This can occur during pregnancy, at birth, or in the early years of the child due to illness or injury to the brain.
The centre provides a range of programmes and services to help their clients. We were given a comprehensive tour of its wide-ranging facilities such as the Early Intervention for Infants and Children, physiotherapy department, occupational therapy department, etc. The tour gave us insights to the special and unique needs of persons with celebral palsy and how their life can be improved with tailored treatment and programmes.
The school has its own arts programme where their artist trainees have the opportunity to exercise their artistic talents to create beautiful pieces of art work. These are available for sale and the proceeds are channelled back to the trainees to help generate a sustainable income.
The school arranged for us to participate in one of its art and craft activities; we were invited to make cards for ourselves. The artist trainees were there to help and inspire us as we dived into our project for the day. We had a really fun and fruitful session mingling with the students.
LAS had sponsored the entertainment and lunch for the clients. At 11.00 am, about 120 of them gathered excitedly at the canteen and waited in eager anticipation of the band that LAS had hired. As the band started playing, you could see the happy faces of the clients as they indulged in the rare treat of a live band playing right in front of them. Many of them were clapping, singing along and even dancing to the energetic and joyful music. When it was time to eat, we helped to serve the sumptuous buffet lunch. They tucked in happily while the entertainment continued. The entire visit ended at around 1.00 pm.
We are very grateful to CPAS for hosting us and giving us the opportunity to serve. All of us would agree that it was a rewarding and enriching experience and we look forward to future community service events!
Submitted by Jami So from the Programmes and Social Committee