A morning with Y STARS

What does YSTARS stands for? its means Y Special Teens, Arts & Recreation Society". It's a small group of young people who are intellectually challenged.

The theme for this programme was "Xmas tree Decoration". Its my (and many other volunteers) 1st time getting so close with intellectually disabled youth. Honestly, I was alittle afraid.. Yes, the fear of not being able to handle them, the fear of not being able to talk to them. Luckily the staff and parents were helpful, they briefed us on the "dos and donts" and what to expect.

Suddenly, I heard a loud "pong, pong, pong!". Its a normal looking girl, aged 9. However, she was deprived of oxygen during birth thus her brain is damaged. She could not speak but I can see that she looked forward to this "gathering". Next came Ben. He was really funny. He introduced himself as Aaron Kwok and imitated his singing and dance steps. Next came (erm.. I forget his name), he introduce himself as JJ. Most of them (with an average IQ of 60 to 70) enjoy singing and dancing; and they do not seem to have stage fright (though there isnt a stage, virtually)!

On my table, there were 5 volunteers to 2 YStars. 1 is Ben and the other is Stephanie. Stephanie is much more quiet and very deep in thoughts. Not to intimate them, we kicked off with the easiest xmas decoration: the making of the ball. We get them to chose their colours and started painting. However after this, they were not interested in making the rest, they wanted to draw and write. We respected them. On the paper, they wrote about their hobbies and what they like. Though they got some spelling mistakes, we could understand what they were trying to say.












Its time to hang the ornaments (though most of them were made by the volunteers).

We moved on to xmas carols! the Ystars were clapping and "la-la-ing" while we, volunteers, sing. They were spontaneous.

Even its only a 2 hours session, I really enjoyed it. It made me realised that if there is hope, anything is possible. I will sure go for my 2nd round!