Minister calls for more interaction with special needs groups

SINGAPORE — Being an inclusive society starts with creating more opportunities to interact with the special-needs community, said Minister for Social and Family Development Tan Chuan-Jin yesterday, as he shared that the steering committee of the next edition of the Enabling Masterplan has received encouraging responses.

Speaking to reporters after a charity mass walk in the Marina Bay area, Mr Tan said: “What we find is that with more interaction, people become more comfortable. It can be fun activities, games or just walking together.”

He added that corporations should be encouraged to participate and support special needs groups: “They don’t have a lot of opportunities to go out, but if you (companies) structure yourself and organise yourself better, you can partner with voluntary welfare organisations.”

Asked for updates on the new Enabling Masterplan, meant to shape the development of policies for persons with disabilities, Mr Tan said that stakeholders have been giving encouraging feedback to the steering committee.

He added: “This is one area we’ll want to make important moves on. Building an inclusive society will not stop with the masterplan but (it’s) also making sure things that were not quite done fully, let’s continue to do it.”

The new masterplan is the third such blueprint for the disabled in Singapore, following two previous five-year plans. The steering committee, announced in April, comprises 22 members from both the public and private sectors, and also includes people with disabilities and their carers.

It is chaired by Ms Anita Fam, a board member of the National Council of Social Service and a volunteer in the social services sector. The committee engaged Singaporeans on their views about the masterplan through a series of sessions from April to July.

The charity mass walk yesterday, organised by the Community Chest and Marina Bay Sands, raised over S$1.9 million. More than 7,000 individuals took part in the 4km walk, fewer than the 9,000-odd that participated last year.

Community Chest chairman Phillip Tan said that he was “quite happy” with the turn-out despite the drop in participation numbers, noting that there were more special-needs participants, although he did not give a breakdown of the figures.

Apart from the walk, there was also a vertical marathon up the 57 levels of Marina Bay Sands hotel and a family carnival with experiential booths. Carnival visitors could try drinking water while blindfolded, or practise their lip-reading skills. At the archery booth, targets of varying heights were available to cater to wheelchair-bound participants.

Explaining the push to include persons with disabilities in the event, Mr Phillip Tan said: “We want to build up voluntarism, not only among so-called normal people. Even people with special needs are volunteering this year packing gifts and delivering them.”

Paralympian Lionel Toh, at 17 the youngest participant in the vertical marathon, made time to train for the event in the midst of his preliminary examinations.

Lionel, who has cerebral palsy, specialises in short-distance sprints. But he included jogging into his training regime to prepare for the vertical marathon.

“It’s a whole new challenge for me and I was afraid I would not make it. For the first 15 stories, I was jogging. But from 15th to 38th floors, I was sort of doing lunges.”

A group of eight seniors from AWWA Senior Activity Centre signed up for the mass walk together. Mdm Chua Chey Wan, 75, started training for it since February, by walking at the park.

Asked if the distance was daunting, Mdm Chua waved it off. “It’s not tiring. Anything longer might be impossible,” she quipped.