Volunteer's drive

How would donating your time as a student to the intellectually disabled sound, as an extra curricular activity? While one would normally search for mental or physical forms of enrichment in their academic pursuits, there are some which would very much like to share their moments with the less fortunate.

What are the benefits of having such an ECA? Unlike the charity shows and fund raisers that we see on TV every once in awhile, these students donate both their time and efforts almost every week. Is it an activity that one would face grudgingly, or with charge? For the few hours that trickle away at each event, they interact with people that require much patient and understanding to work with. They are challenged, and face exasperation during the interactions with these people, which are often younger than them. While being friends and playing with the intellectually disabled, these students need also know when to be stern with them, correcting their behaviors when required, setting examples for these children to look up to.

These are some of the activities that the students at NTU's Regular Service Project Intellectually Disabled (RSPID) would face. As I reviewed their mission and activity list on the site, it further fuels my question: What is it that continues to motivate these students to help others? These could lead to further questions, which could be personal, like how it is that these students began helping out in the first place, to their own insights on the overall youth volunteer community in Singapore.

These student helpers work hand in hand with larger organizations such as MINDS, which are often the highlight and beneficiary of charity shows. The usual shows may also try to raise donations by featuring a super star and his/her visit to some home for the intellectually disabled. While it is a serves as a glimpse to the world to these people, whom are often excluded in society, it purpose is to also allow people to donate their love/$ to them. (Personally I think it's alright; Not everyone is trained to handle the intellectually, so, they can help however they can; Just.. whether this money is properly distributed to the needy is another issue..)

The scope of this project should be limited to the level of students. It'll highlight the activities of the RSPID club, which one of our group mates happens to be part of. It would be interesting to provide the personal views of these people, and provide a more realistic kind of approach which could also be just as effective; Choosing to cover the story of students as they work with the intellectually disabled could provide something which audiences could relate to. We'll be conducting interviews with the students (mainly?), asking them about their work, adding their side of the story to the volunteer work issue. The project should raise the awareness of student activity, and through them, the presence of the intellectually disabled in Singapore.

In order to produce this story, we'll be using several multimedia formats, such as images, sound, voice interviews and videos. After looking at the various web documentaries, presentation can be said to be equally important as well, so the application of elements like graphics and typography will be useful in enhancing the experience of the multimedia package. To help share the story of these student helpers, social networking tools can be integrated to let savvy viewers pass on this message on to others, hopefully, helping them better understand the work goes into volunteerism.