The People Making Things possible – Carol
To celebrate Student Volunteering Week, Carol – who started volunteering with REMAP as an engineer during her final year of study – discusses her role and how she balanced it with student life.
My role at REMAP is Engineer/Marker. I take up cases to custom-make equipment for disabled clients.
I have been volunteering with REMAP for ten months now. I initially saw my previous course-mate volunteering with REMAP on LinkedIn and I thought to myself, ‘Oh! It is making a real impact!’ I then searched about REMAP online and saw their mission and naturally just joined!
I have been practising my engineering skills on real-world examples through this role with REMAP. This has given me so many opportunities to practise my problem-solving skills through design and hands-on skill sets.
I feel particularly proud of my first case with REMAP, where I was making a stair-barrier for a client with dementia and a visual impairment. There was a risk for him to fall through the staircase if he had to go to the bathroom during the night because there is a step right beside his door, followed by the staircase. Not only did our device prevent him from falling, but also acting as a handrail, our device gained him confidence and independence to walk by himself without relying on his family. We received positive feedback from his carer that he has regained confidence with our device, and the family is so satisfied. From that, I felt like I am making a real impact.
When we were installing our equipment onto the wall, we found some dimensional misalignment between our device and the installation environment. I had to drill additional holes onsite, which was a new and fun experience for me – to make design adjustments on site.
It was indeed a bit challenging to balance my final year study and volunteering, especially with the final stage of the final year project ongoing. But it was solved by working both our schedules with my REMAP partner and helping each other out in terms of the workload. It also helped by allocating specific time for each side and not overworking for any side. In the end it is certainly worth it. I would definitely recommend others volunteering with REMAP. Every little effort from any perspective would make a huge impact on the lives of the clients and their loved ones. As a student, it would also help bringing your knowledge into practice and help you build your own skill sets.
If you’re interested in making a difference, like Carol, find out how you can get involved.
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