Youth ‘travel buddies’ help students with intellectual disability learn how to use public transport

SINGAPORE - Youth volunteers are being paired up with students from social service agency Minds as travel buddies, in a new push to help those with intellectual disabilities travel independently on public transport.

The volunteers will accompany students on their commute from Minds’ Towner Gardens School in Kembangan, and Lee Kong Chian Gardens School in Queenstown, to their homes.

One of the students, 16-year-old Aliff Ibrahim, said that his father and teachers have taught him to travel safely and to look out for vehicles before crossing roads.

He said: “I feel proud to go home on my own. I am not scared at all.”

Aliff, who will graduate in 2025, hopes to travel independently so he can work at McDonald’s, saying he likes the ice-cream and french fries at the fast-food chain.

The Travel Makers Programme is a new initiative by the National Youth Council’s (NYC) Youth Corps Singapore, the Public Transport Council and Minds.

Twenty young people aged 19 to 25 have registered so far, since the call for volunteers at the start of Youth Corps’ Do Good Fest 2023 in May. The volunteers, who are recognised as Caring Commuter Champions, have been trained how to befriend those with intellectual disability and interact meaningfully with them.

The programme is part of NYC’s efforts to offer more opportunities for youth to engage in activities related to issues they care about during Youth Month.

A community fair will be held on Sunday at The Red Box in Somerset, to encourage more young people to volunteer for different communities and social causes.

First-year Ngee Ann Polytechnic student Phoebe Toh, 20, signed up to be a volunteer with the Travel Makers programme, as she has always been keen to help those with disabilities.

During her days as a student at the Institute of Technical Education, she was close friends with a classmate who was on the autism spectrum.

When taking the bus home with him, he would sometimes experience sensory overload due to the loud noises. He would then block his ears with his palms and repeat “I’m not feeling okay”, asking for people to be quiet.

Seeing some commuters react to her friend’s meltdown with aggression showed her that more needs to be done for people with disabilities. Ms Toh, who wants to be a social worker, said: “I want people to understand that they do need more time to figure their way around and communicate their needs.

“I feel that disabilities are often overlooked in society, so volunteering was a chance for me to not only help and befriend them, but also understand the perspective of how they handle daily tasks.”

Mr Jason Goh, 54, coaches students who are near graduation in hard and soft skills, like travelling independently, to gear them up for employment.

The students are taught basic road safety, like how to cross roads safely, through simulations in school. When they are ready, teachers and job coaches accompany the students on their route back home, and they eventually learn to travel independently.

He said: “It takes many hands to help our students become independent travellers, so we are happy to have these volunteers joining us.”