Summer's Journey

Last Sunday at JEM, I sat in a forum "How can we create a better world?", under a project by Care Positioning System ' From Singapore, With Love '. It included Ms Sylvia Lee, Founder of EmancipAsia, Ms Hannan Leong, Founder of Engineers Without Borders Asia, and Mr. Thomas Wee, Founder of Willing Hearts Orphanage. Several questions were discussed and the one question which I found most difficult was "How do we encourage Singaporeans to do more volunteer work and be less apathetic?" Ms. Sylvia Lee made a good point. She mentioned that volunteerism has been oversold in Singapore. Since primary school days, or even preschool days, children have been 'made' to do volunteer work. To many of them, as they grew up, 'volunteer work' became a bad word. As for me, I would encourage everyone to pause in their business in life and think about what is life-giving to them. I am sure everyone has an innate passion which drives them on in life. Don&#

Yesterday afternoon, I had a session with one of my oldest client, WN. She is a 11 year old girl with Autism. When I first started working with her 1.5 years ago, she had little speech. Her only phrase at that time was ' I want.. mama.. '. The desired item was always called 'mama'. And she always used that soft weak voice. Three months into speech therapy, WN spontaneously told her mum ' I want swimming .' Awesome! Her mum brought her swimming immediately. This motivated WN to keep saying ' I want swimming .' even at the most inappropriate timings. Six months into speech therapy, WN was able to say ' I want go toilet.' and ' I want water. ' All these spontaneously. Critical communication skills achieved! A year and a half into speech therapy, WN spontaneously told me ' I want biscuit. ' It was halfway through a session. I replied ' later ', thinking that I may have heard wrongly. Five minutes later, she repeated aga

Yesterday and today evening, I was invited to speak at a public exhibition of Singaporeans who have participated in community work overseas. It is really my honour to be one of the 50 Singaporeans to be featured in this project, From Singapore, With Love . It is an initiative by Care Positioning System (CPS), in celebration of SG50. I really like what they are doing because CPS aims to gather all the like-minded people who are doing community work overseas, so that resources can be maximised and projects will have continuity. Find out more at www.inspiration.volunteerbetter.com In my sharing this evening, I highlighted the lack of Speech Therapy services in neighbouring countries. For countries such as Nepal and Myanmar, the profession does not exist at all. In my last community work trip to Myanmar in March 2015, it breaks my heart to see that the children do not get any support for their needs, especially those with severe communication difficulties and swallowing difficulties.

Today is 12 July 2015. It has been a week since the birth of Summer's Therapy Services. And I am loving it. I look forward to the future, to reaching out to children with special needs and their families. Having been in the Speech Therapy profession for nearly eight years and being in community work for more than 20 years, I have come across many helpless families who do not know what to do to support their child with special needs. As a Speech Therapist, I do not aim just to teach their child to talk. I also want to be part of their child's learning journey. I want myself and my staff to be the shoulder to lean on, the listening ear to woes, the source of referral to other required services, the consultant for future educational plan, and much more. As the ancient African proverb says 'It takes a village to raise a child.' Wouldn't it take much more than a village to raise a child with special needs? With this belief and our vision of 'self-determination