AS A child, I never appreciated Children's Day beyond the fact that it meant a day away from school, but an assignment to photograph disadvantaged children on Oct 1 has changed my opinion.
The Haven Children's Home, takes care of about 40 abused, abandoned or neglected children and teenagers.
The children were allowed to continue riding their bicycles at the Haven's compound after lunch. At three o'clock they will have to finish duties like cleaning their sleeping areas, then return to their books, to study for the coming exams. PHOTO: Samuel He
An average day at the centre, which is managed by the Salvation Army, will see the children returning home after school to have lunch and a short break.
At 3 o'clock, they do simple duties like cleaning up their living spaces and then their schedules rotate between play-time and study sessions until its time to go to bed.
But today was different.
A late wake-up call signalled the arrival of Children's Day.
A mini-bus then arrived at 9am and whisked 12 of the primary-school aged children to West Coast Park for a session of roller-blading and cycling.
Kids playing a game of scissors, paper, stone to decide who gets to go first on the bicycles. PHOTO: Samuel He
A boy builds sandcastles at a sand-pit. He stayed away from the rest of the children, who were cycling and roller-blading, during the whole outing at West Coast Park. PHOTO: Samuel He
To top it off, they were treated to a fast food meal.
A resident counts the number of packets of french fries at the Mcdonald's counter at West Coast Park. School Holidays like Children's Day are one of the rare days where the kids are treated to outings and a fast food meal. Most of these occasions are possible because of sponsors. The home superintendent's army buddy paid for this meal for the kids. PHOTO: Samuel He
I was given the opportunity to join them on their excursion, on the condition that my pictures did not show their faces.
Home superindendent Peter Khoo, 44, says that with the exam period nearing, he is supposed to be "drilling them for exams", but "we try to make Children's Day special for them".
During the three short hours I spent with these children, I hardly noticed the presence of pain under all that glee, induced by the tough workout in the park and cheeseburgers in their bellies.
But my conversations with Mr Khoo and some of the 'House Parents' (who fufill parental roles for the children in the Haven), revealed shocking stories about physical abuse and cases where social workers have to "remind parents that they have children here".
Seeing how this day offered these children a reprieve from their troubles made it a lot more meaningful to me.
I'll let the pictures tell the rest of the story.
A resident, with roller skates in hand, kicks a ball at West Coast Park. He lives in The Haven with two of his siblings because of the risk of abuse. PHOTO: Samuel He
Children returned to their residence at The Haven with Mcdonald's balloons in tow. PHOTO: Samuel He