One Singaporean NGO which focuses on the needs of those with intellectual disabilities is the Movement for the Intellectually Disabled of Singapore (MINDS) (“Minds: Movement For The Intellectually Disabled Of Singapore”). They run schools for disabled children, help disabled people develop their skills to find employment and more (“Minds: Movement For The Intellectually Disabled Of Singapore”).

Here is a video showing the range of activities offered by MINDS. (Movement for the Intellectually Disabled of Singapore)

Serving People with Disabilities (SPD) is a group, whose mission statement is “SPD is committed to working in partnership with people with disabilities to develop their potential to the fullest so that they can be self-reliant and independent” (“Overview”). This illustrates their feelings towards the disabled of Singapore and this is put into action in several ways. For example, they integrate people into Singaporean society through sport, rehab, specialised technology and much more (“Overview”). They also host “disability awareness talks” and also use media, community outreach and public communication to raise awareness (“Advocacy”).

Attached here is an image showing the specialised technology for disabled people made available by SPD (“Specialised Assistive Technology Centre”).

A faith-based local perspective is the Christian Outreach to the Handicapped (COH). They wish to encourage acceptance of people with disabilities in Singapore “through God’s love” (“About”). The Bible tells Christians to “work and serve one and all in a spirit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23) and to “do what the Lord requires of us that is to act justly, to love mercy and walk humbly” (Micah 6:8). Both these Bible verses are two of COH’s core values. (“About”). Even though they are a Christian non-profit organisation (NPO), COH extends its services to people of all faiths, as long as they have some form of intellectual disability (“Services”).

Here is an image of some of COH’s beneficiaries doing art activities together, promoting a sense of community. (Christian Outreach to the Handicapped)

Also mentioned in the Amnesty blog post (by Janet Lourd) is the barriers faced by disabled activists preventing them from advocating to their fullest potential. In Singapore there are very limited avenues open to those who wish to advocate in a political sense, making this yet one more barrier which must be broken.

Here we can see several factors which contribute to this issue. As mentioned in my overview portfolio post, there are physical and mental barriers to the inclusion of people with disabilities into society. Additionally, we can now see that there are governmental barriers too; such as the control of press and advocacy as seen here and in my overview post. This shows how much Singapore must change before it can fully include its disabled population into society, as well as the range of factors contributing to this sustainability issue.