Some 1,600 students from 14 special education schools (SPED) enjoyed a day of fun and games at the Singtel Carnival held on Wednesday, October 9 in Singapore.
In addition to a variety of activities and performances, the students were thrilled to meet popular cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants and his starfish sidekick Patrick Star at the carnival.
Put together by Singtel staff volunteers, the safari-themed mega event at Expo is Singapore’s largest event dedicated to children with special needs. The students included those from the Singtel Touching Lives Fund’s (STLF) six beneficiary SPED schools.
The activities were helmed by over 2,000 staff volunteers from Singtel and Singapore Business Network on Disability (SBNoD) companies, a community of businesses in Singapore which share expertise to advance inclusion for the disabled.
This is the third year running that Singtel is joined by its fellow members in SBNoD in hosting and chaperoning the students.
“We’ve been organising the Singtel Carnival for seven years now and it’s always been a delight to see the children have a great time,” said Yuen Kuan Moon, Chairman of the STLF and CEO Consumer Singapore at Singtel.
“We’re also grateful for this opportunity to have our staff volunteers interact with the children, which helps nurture their understanding of the special needs community while cultivating empathy,” he added.
Sponsored and organised by Singtel since 2013, the Singtel Carnival is a flagship event of the STLF.
The STLF works with charities that offer critical and specialised education and supports programmes for children and youth with special needs. Its six beneficiaries include the APSN Chaoyang School, APSN Delta Senior School, APSN Tanglin School, Cerebral Palsy Alliance Singapore School, Eden School, and MINDS Lee Kong Chian Gardens School. To date, the STLF has raised more than SGD 42 million.
