Prior to
our trip to MAB, a few representatives from the Malaysian Association for the
Blind, visited us during our community arts session. During the visit, they
brought along a little 3 year old girl named Aisha who was also visually
impaired. The representatives gave us a talk explaining about how visually
impaired people go about their lives and how they were equipped with skills to
survive in the modern world. We were also given the opportunity to test out a
braille typewriter for the blind which we found very interesting as we could not stop
playing with it.
When they arrived, they seemed quite shy and uncomfortable since they were around strangers. However, it was not long before they warmed up to us, a little girl named Aisha had gotten so attached toMr. Ajesh that she refused to leave him, while another boy, after sometime began to have so much fun playing the keys of the piano and enjoying the melody, that he also refused to leave. Moving on, after a quick introduction, we showed them all our artworks we had specially prepared for them, and explained how we were going to proceed with the workshop. -Raina
We were all in groups of two, Fiona and I worked with a boy called Sen Hao, He had autism and it was a little difficult trying to get his attention. At first he was excited with the materials we were gonna use, for example, he loved playing with the beads and cotton balls. He even put them in his mouth. His mom explained that this was the way he felt things. This was one of the things we learned while working with them. Anyways, after a while, his attention waned and he started to get frustrated and bored. So yes, it was definitely hard working with him, but the same time, we had fun seeing him enjoy himself, even though it was only for a short time. This was definitely an eye opening experience for us as we got to see how strong the unconditional love of a parent is. These kids may be visually impaired
but they saw more hope in us than we expected. They will always remain
in our hearts no matter who comes and goes.
-Tiffany Music Group
On Wednesday the 24th October, the day had come to make our way to MAB. Fully equipped with our musical instruments such as keyboards and home-made shakers, we loaded onto the bus to MAB. However we arrived late and our session was cut short to just half an hour. We played ‘If you’re happy and you know it’ and ‘Textures’ on the piano, provided the shakers to the kids and had a jam session singing ‘What makes you beautiful’ to the kids which they truly enjoyed, as we could see from the smiles on their faces. Finally it was time to leave and we were sad to go.
I was given the opportunity to play with a 3 year-old visually impaired boy, Malik who immediately warmed up to me after sitting on my lap. During the snack break, I didn't wanna leave him and so instead, I ended up feeding him his milk from the bottle. It was an eye-opening experience and we admire the patience of the parents to these kids. -Katrina
