This service has been an especially important activity for me to take part in as it has been a completely new experience for me. I have worked with multiple different types of services before, involving waste reduction,  children in poverty, and homeless animals, but working with the mentally disabled has been a first. I think it is so important to take part in multiple different types of services so that you are aware of the different issues in the world.

I was already aware that there were day to day issues that people with mental disabilities faced, but I was not aware of the extent to which their lives differ from ours, and the lack of support that some of them have. Many of them do not have access to suitable education, and several of them are not able to complete day to day tasks by themselves but do not have access to help. To add to that, people with disabilities have been excluded from the community, are given a blind eye from the public, and in general, are being denied opportunities from the first impressions they give.

These organizations like MINDS, give them the support that they can not get anywhere else as well as the sense of community that they lack. MINDS creates a safe space for them to learn and helps them live everyday life with ease. I am delighted to have been a part of that community for the last few months by helping to plan the purple parade and sending MINDS cards and gifts, even though we have not been able to do as much as we had hoped because of the pandemic. None the less, I have learnt a lot about a whole community that I knew nothing about before, and I will be able to take this new-found knowledge with me everywhere I go and be able to spread awareness about a group of people that may be forgotten in society.