Saturday, November 7, 2009 .
11:07 PM

Reflections on DID tour - Cynthia (T02)

Although we’ve attended guest lectures, and learnt about Dialogue in the Dark for quite some time, the feeling is still not whole because I’ve not experience it myself. Upon knowing the news that Ngee Ann Polytechnic built DiD made me really happy. And what’s more when we BZSE students are having the privileged to enjoy the tour ;)

Before the tour, I was looking very forward and excited. It’s my first time going to be in a complete darkness environment. I hoped it would be really fun and inspiring. I expected the tour to be really real and it sure was! Also, I was wondering if the guide could lead such a big group of people in the dark but he really did a great job. I was amazed by it.

After the tour, I was really thankful that I’m healthily sighted. The starting of the tour made me really insecure and I started grabbing anything I could. But a good thing was that the walls were very useful for us to guide our way through. And not forgetting our very friendly blind guide- Jason. In the dark, we will not know that Jason is visually handicapped unless we were told, isn’t it? Most importantly, in the dark, we are the ones who need help from people like Jason. In the sighted world, some people tend to stereotype people who are visually handicapped. But have they ever imagine if one day, there is no light, how would life be? The visually handicapped people would definitely cope better than us. And by that time, we would all be equal.

This tour made me realize that being visually handicapped is not something to be ashamed of. In dialogue, blind guides like Jason were able to boost their confidence and self-esteem. That is a very good platform for them to express themselves. The experience also made me realize that I’ve been taking my sense of sight for granted. I would never imagine myself being blind and living in darkness helplessly. But this group of people, they have strong will of determination. They believe that they can live like any other normal people. I believe in them too. From now on, I would stop my friends if I ever hear them making fun of visually handicapped people, because they are normal beings too. Just that they lost their sight. In another way, the remaining four senses they have are more sensitive than us too.

Having DiD in Ngee Ann is really a great place for students in BZSE to explore more about social enterprise. It seems just like the right learning model for us. Through DiD, we are able to do our internship there, learning how to manage a social enterprise and give us more hands on experience rather than just theory explanations. In addition, we are able to be a volunteer there as well. However, I think that DiD is still not well-known in Singapore. Marketing plans should be implied in order for more people to support this cause. As BZSE students, I believe we should be spreading the cause and letting more people know about DiD. And the first step would be spreading among friends and families. The tour was a really inspiring one, and I believe everyone who has been there feels the same way too. Also, BZSE students can publicize DiD with marketing skills that we had learnt. We should all be ambassadors for DiD! ;D


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