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Name: Ching Hui Ru Nationality: Singaporean Volunteers at: Guide Dogs Singapore (GDS) What’s the mission of Guide Dogs Singapore?
GDS is a social service charity that was founded with the mission to help blind and visually-impaired people achieve their fullest potential within society. We focus on providing orientation and mobility training to the blind and visually impaired, and pairing suitable candidates with guide dogs.
The organisation also actively reaches out to the public to dispel myths and misconceptions about guide dogs and visually-impaired people, and to increase the acceptance of the use of guide dogs in Singapore. It strongly believes that guide dogs can be an even better help and companion for the visually impaired, if they’re better integrated into society.
What do you do there?
As a volunteer, I mainly assist with public outreach talks and event booths, where I share information on visual impairments, guide dogs and the programmes available for schools, companies and the general public.
Why did you choose this particular organisation to donate your time?
Most people that I come across assume that I joined GDS because I like dogs. However, my main reason was my interest in the visually-impaired community. Having worked with visually-impaired colleagues during my internship in Polytechnic, I found that they are a lot more capable than many people think, to the point of being no different from sighted people. The experience made me want to know more about how I can contribute to change people’s perspectives about people with visual impairment. That’s why I decided to work with GDS for my University Service Learning project.
What do you get out of volunteering for this place?
When I’m working at the public outreach events, I find it very heartwarming to see the increase in the number of people wanting to find out about the visually impaired. I hope that through my small action of sharing information about this community with the public, I’ll be able to contribute to making Singapore a more inclusive society, where people won’t be discriminated against just because they’re different.