Casper’s social good journey is full of accidental discoveries that made him the teacher he is today. Through his active volunteering, he was able to find his calling and found passion and dedication towards teaching students with special needs. His dedication didn’t just stop at his day job. He continued his passion onto his side project to further improve the social good space with existing technologies. Read his story to be amazed by his dedication!
1. What’s your story?
After my A levels, I decided to freelance as a camp instructor to fill my time before I start my national service. I was running camps for mainstream schools and mainstream students. After 6 years I felt like there was a group of children I wasn’t reaching out to. I then decided to search for volunteering opportunities looking to work with children. I was searching online, and I came across Club Rainbow, an organization dedicated to helping children with chronic and life-threatening illnesses.
Club Rainbow organizes an annual camp for their beneficiaries, many who do not have an opportunity to experience a 3 days 2 nights camp at their school. During one of the years, I was paired with a beneficiary with Global Developmental Delay (GDD). My initial impression when I saw the child during the home visit was that the child required very high support and highly dependent on another adult to meet his daily needs. However, after spending more time with the child, I was impressed that he is able to do a lot of things. Seeing his independence makes me feel really rewarded. After several more years of volunteering, after University, I decided to be a teacher for students with special needs.
2. Was there any experience that impacted you?
Being a mentor to a child allows me to understand how the child does things from their perspective. At the same time, it allows me to understand myself better. Through my volunteering stint, I found my calling to teach students with special needs. The whole journey was purposeful and am grateful that I am able to find my purpose when I decided to volunteer at Club Rainbow.
3. We found something interesting about you. You established Secondmeal?
Yes, Secondmeal is actually a side project that I am currently doing. I find the idea of suspended meal an interesting concept. There is actually an active movement in Europe on suspended coffee where people can buy a coffee at a cafe and someone who is in need can claim the coffee. Hence, I thought of replicating the same concept back here in Singapore. However, I want the program to be targeted towards those who really need the meal rather than it being open to general public.
To make this happen, I decided to approach Happy People Helping People (HPHP) Community a ground-up initiative focused on helping the elderly. I felt that they will be a good fit to partner with and launch this initiative as they already have an existing beneficiary base.
The elderlies are now issued meal cards to scan for their meals at participating stalls. The system will automatically record and consolidate the number meals that were redeemed at each stall. This allows HPHP to reduce their admin workload and also allows for easy transaction between the beneficiaries and participating stalls.
4. When were you most satisfied or feel like you impacted something?
I would say I am most satisfied when I see the students or beneficiaries enjoy themselves and working towards an independent living.
5. Use a word/phrase to describe your social good journey?
My social good journey has been full of accidental discoveries. I didn’t really plan on becoming a teacher for students with special needs. Here I am loving the occupation that I am in today! I guess we can’t really know where our life journey will lead us to. The best we can do is to do our best at the current moment and see where life takes you.
6. What do you think is your superpower?
I think my superpower is my dedication. Once I am committed to doing something, I would follow through my decision without any regret.
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