Groundwork by Yufei
Storyblog by Allison and Yufei
Since it was the last session of batch project with SUN-DAC, I came into it feeling more motivated to make the session fun and memorable for the clients.
This was the last session of the SUN-DAC journey and it was held at the FairPrice Extra of Ang Mo Kio Hub. The clients were given $5 to spend in the supermarket on themselves, and the purpose of the event was to give them a chance to buy the things they like as well as to foster interactions with the community that they live in. Tiffany and I were assigned to Wendy (not her real name), who seemed really familiar with the supermarket and she was leading us throughout the whole activity haha. It was fun seeing her pick out the different items that she liked, and from there, gain a better understanding of her likes and dislikes as an individual. She was also very friendly and what struck me was how confident she was in approaching any stranger. There were some issues with budgeting as she mostly picked out items she liked without really considering the $5 budget and we had to constantly remind her of the tight budget D: However, the thing about her is that she is also very easy-going and is usually ready to give up the more expensive items without too much of a fight. I really enjoyed the shopping session with her and she really looked satisfied with her final purchase of her hair tie !
From the session itself, I myself identified many skills from Wendy that I really admired, one being how independent and confident she was in talking to strangers if she ever needs something. She was comfortable in the supermarket environment despite not frequenting the area and it made me realise that sometimes we may worry too much about how their actions will be perceived in public, when they are fully capable of coming into their own in new situations like this.
A note for future runs of batch project: Perhaps we might have been too absorbed in the activity itself and thus forgot the larger goal of batch project which was to promote community inclusion. While we saw that Wendy really enjoyed the session, her conversations with members of the public were more transactional rather than personal.Hence, maybe we could have been more intentional in being a bridge between the public and the clients by striking up small talk or even just saying hello to passers-by. Perhaps we could have also facilitated small conversations between the various booth promoters or cashiers and Wendy.
In a nutshell, I felt the whole session was very meaningful and heartwarming. I learnt more about the clients of SUN-DAC and all their quirks through the limited time we have in interacting with them. They share many similar interests and it is very interesting to hear about their different stories and experiences.
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