abigail@blog

Through these 7 sessions at PACE@MARS, what I have concluded is that the youths there are neither misbehaving nor rebellious, they may seem to be fierce or cool on the surface, but they are all very nice and cute youths. I believe there must be something that affects them to cause them to be different on the surface, as some of them might have been facing family problems, financial problems or problems with friends. Some of them are actually more mature than we expect, not only through what they say but also the things they do. In the first session when I first talked to one of the girls, I tried asking her about her problems and shared my experience too, but she surprised me with a very mature perspective that I have never thought of. There was also another boy who was going to help his parents with food delivery after his N levels. It suddenly struck me that given the circumstances they are being put in, they did not let those issues hinder them, and it is really very nice to se...

Challenges.  Before we started volunteering, I always thought that everything would have a solution as long as you are willing and determined to do so. However, through the weeks of volunteer in PACE@MARS, I realized there are things we did not manage to fully overcome.  One of the challenges I faced was the inability to change their perspectives I guess. In the centre, the youths there were in the age of around 13 to 17. It might probably the environment or the age as children at this age do not really have any idea of what they want to do in future. On one of the days, there was a girl who told me she wanted to buy food but she does not have money, and I told her that I would give her a treat. While we were on the way to the nearest shop, we talked about how her exam was, and what does she usually do at home. I also asked about what she wanted to do in future and she told me she wanted to become a doctor or lawyer in future. She was also keen to find out more about the co...

Marsiling RC Zone 7 What? On 3rd September 2019, we went to a Residents' Committee at Marsiling for Learning Journey. When we were there, Nick briefed us on what we were going to do (house visits, cleaning etc) for that day and the things to look out for in the process of volunteering and afterwards, we moved off to the respective houses. For my part, Karen and I went to visit one of the residents, Mdm Y ap, and brought her out for lunch at the nearby coffeeshop. Mdm Yap was an elderly who stayed alone, as her husband was hospitalized due to medical conditions. She recently undergone an operation on her foot, and due to her having diabetes, her wound took long to recover resulting in her having to sit on the wheelchair when we were out. After fetching her from her place, Karen and I then brought her to the RC to do a quick checkup where she also had fun talking to the nurses. Next, we brought her around the neighborhood to look at the new shops that have opene...

What is experiential learning? According to David Kolb, experiential learning is when the core of learning is one’s own experience. Professor Kolb also has a experiential learning cycle which I would use an experience I have had to apply on. Concrete Experience (1) and Abstract Conceptualization (3) are different ways to grasp experience, Reflective Observation (2) and Active Experimentation (4) are ways of transforming experience. I believe through real life experiences, it is a more efficient and effective way of learning. Concrete Experience. This was during my internship when I went for Work & Study Exchange in Shanghai. As part of our internship, we were given the chance to teach about recycling in one of the schools in the neighbouring city – Changzhou. We were told that students from the school are from families who do not do very well financially. When I first stepped into the class, I did some warm-up activities with the class and they actually made ...

What is Poverty? One of the definitions about poverty would be the inability to provide for basic needs such as food and shelter. Poverty also equates to the continuous problems such as lack of education, being unhealthy, inability to make rational decisions and criminal offences. Why Poverty? Poverty, being one of the world’s top 10 most serious problems, does not seem to be a problem in Singapore. However, Singapore being a country with high costs of living and great income gap, it is hard to assure that people with lower income are not struggling in poverty, and it is an issue that affects a lot of people until today. According to the 2015 statistics from Ministry of Social and Family Affairs (MSF), there were up to 29,511 families who were relying on ComCare assistance as they were not able to make ends meet. Hence, poverty does not affect only the elderly, it affects generally all age groups even the youths and working adults. Poverty being a continuous c...