Awards

Two Tanjong Pagar – West Coast Town Residents’ Committees were commended for encouraging their residents to give recyclable waste to charity. About 1,250 households from the Spottiswoode Park RC precinct and Pasir Panjang Dover Crescent RC precinct were rewarded with with a limited edition Transitlink card and small tokens from kind sponsors. All these for giving recyclable waste to charity under the SPD Green Earth Programme.

A sum of $180,000 was given out to 216 students at the SPD-DBS-HOPE Education Programme Awards Presentation Ceremony organised by The Society for the Physically Disabled. The number of students benefiting from this programme and the quantum awarded has more than doubled since its inception in 1998.

Adrian Tan Zeng Yi’s mother had to give up her job so that she can take him to school everyday. Adrian, who suffers from Athetoid Cerebal Palsy, is jerky and erratic in his movements. He cannot feed himself without dirtying his clothes and has difficulty holding a pen to write or a book to read. In spite of this, the secondary two pupil loves to study and wants to be a computer engineer.

17-year-old Jovin Tan Wei Qiang loves to play computer games. He chats on the IRC, surfs the Internet, and spends time emailing to friends. Most of all, Jovin loves to sail.

Permanently disabled from neck down, Mr Yeong Sam Choi relies on his family members and maid in the simplest tasks. He is unable to eat or get dressed without their help. To decrease his dependence on them, he uses the Sicare Pilot, a voice-activated remote control system that allows him to control his TV, audio system and hospital bed on his own.

For 9-year-old Mohammad Rifa’i bin Abdul Aziz and his classmates, the school library is a place to go to for interesting books whenever they have some free time. However, for him to get there, Rifa’i has to first undergo an ‘obstacle course’ which includes his finding someone to carry him up to the second level where the library is situated.

72-year-old Mr Chin Wan Fatt had his right leg amputated below the knee in September last year due to diabetes. Moving around became difficult and he is now looking forward to having a prosthesis made. This normally takes up to a month and would require several trips to the hospital for fitting and measurements, but with the ‘Direct Pressure Cast Prosthetic Socket for Transtibial Amputees’, he may get his artificial limb sooner than he thinks.