New Entries (2nd Week)

1) A group of students from Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School and NUS Yong Loo Lin School of medicine organized camp Simba, a two day retreat for children of cancer patients to help children cope with a parent’s illness। The programmes in the two day retreat include beach games and picnics for these children.

Opinions:
I think that this two day retreat for these children of cancer patients will certainly help them to learn to cope with their parent’s illness। Young children may often have problems or difficulties dealing with the idea of death and could feel neglected. They could become attention-seeking or increasingly withdrawn, which could in turn lead to strained relationships and a loss of focus in school. They feel no one care for them when they receive teases from their friends. In fact, what these children need most is care and concern from others. Their teachers and friends can indeed play a part in helping these children to get back their confidence. They can do so by showing care and understanding for these children and accepting them as their friends instead of teasing them. In my point of view, these children should also not bottle up their feelings. Perhaps, they can share it with their teachers and even their true friends. They should know that true friends will definitely lend them their ears and help them to cope with their feelings. Beside this, their true friends can also help to curb any one from teasing them. If I were to encounter any of these children, I will befriend them, accepting him/her as my friend and even stop anybody from teasing them. I think that this will indeed help him/her since they will not feel neglected and be lost in his/her own world. Playing beach games and having picnics together with other children during the two day retreat would actually allow them to make more friends. These children should not feel awkward in making friends with the other children. They should know that the other children tend to understand them better since they are also in the same situation. With more of such activities, the relationships among the children will be strengthened and become good friends who will help each other in times of need. (375 words)

2) About 600 pupils from low income families will have an opportunity to discover their artistic potential through highly subsidized art and drama camps। The objective of the camp is to mainly give children access to high quality art courses, which are usually held privately at a high cost. One of the parents said that his son had never had a chance to participate in this activity since these activities are too expensive for them to afford and often too far away from their home.

Opinions:
I think that this indeed is a golden opportunity for these children of low income families to have a chance to discover their artistic potential through this highly subsidized art and drama camp. Due to low family income, many children who have the potential tend to lose the chance in developing it. In my own opinions, I think all children should be given a chance to have their talent discovered and developed. Only through this programme will these children have their talent de identified and further developed. Having their talents discovered at a tender age is the best time since the children would have enough time to develop their artistic talent. These children should indeed seize this golden opportunity to identify their talent in art. With the high subsidy on these courses, more parents would be able to afford to allow their children to attend such courses. (233 words)