In conjunction with Blindness Awareness Month, the student leaders of The Master’s Club (TMC) at NUS Business School and fellow MSc students took on the meaningful task of organising a three-day fundraiser for Guide Dogs Singapore (GDS). This is part of a longer line-up of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives the club has planned out for the year.
The Master’s Club Does its Part for Blindness Awareness Month
MSc Finance students Kilian Wignanek (left) and Tian Zuyu are part of the team behind the fundraiser for Guide Dogs Singapore.
As students, we rely heavily on the support of the local community (services and products), so we wanted to give something back and hold a CSR event.
Guide Dogs Singapore came up as a likely choice of social cause for its relevance to blindness awareness. The committee was also impressed and inspired by the work done by the organisation to help re-integrate visually impaired individuals into society. A temporary booth was set up at both the Mochtar Riady Building and the Hon Sui Sen Memorial Library Level 4 from 26 to 28 October 2022. The three-day event generated an encouraging sum of S$1,300 in proceeds – a commendable effort. Certain items like the beige Labrador Retriever plush key chain were even so well-received that they sold out quickly!
TMC members effusively peddling Guide Dogs Singapore’s wares.
(From left) Aleksandra Melnikova (MSc Finance), Kilian Wignanek (MSc Finance), Ding Meiwen (MSc Marketing Analytics & Insights) at the fundraising booth at Hon Sui Sen Memorial Library Level 4.
The fundraiser project also turned out to be a meaningful bonding experience for students from various MSc programmes at NUS Business School to meet and mingle.
Visiting the Guide Dogs Singapore office
On 15 November, the student organisers (Meiwen, Lex Liu and Kilian) as well as Joey Lim from the MSc Programmes Office visited the GDS office to interact with the team. They met Hong Seng, a client of GDS, with his guide dog Clare, who became the “office dog”. Hong Seng is one of about 50,000 blind or visually impaired people in Singapore. While he uses a smartphone to find his way or do his online shopping, Clare helps him along the way. Hong Seng shared that even though guide dogs should have access everywhere, he still encounters resistance from time to time when he wants to enter a building or public space.
Overall, however, the GDS team has seen an increased awareness in the community, and children in particular. This year, GDS has succeeded in bringing together three teams (guide dog and people). This is not easy for either side. While the person has to get used to the dog, the dog, at 1.5 years old, has to go through a six-month training. After that, guide dogs work for about seven to nine years until they are 11 years old and retire with their current handlers, their families or other families. Eve, a guide dog born in Japan, is the first guide dog that GDS has fully trained in Singapore.
Hong Seng (second from left) introducing his guide dog, Clare, to Kilian (extreme left), Lex (second from right), and Meiwen (extreme right).
The Master’s Club hopes that their fundraising efforts have created more awareness and acceptance of guide dogs among the public, forming a more inclusive society.