Survivor Support Resource Fair at Yale-NUS (Sem 2, AY22/23)
30 Apr 2023 | Outreach
On the rainy afternoon of Monday 6 March 2023, Yale-NUS organized their semesterly Survivor Support Resources Fair at the Café Agora.
The aim of the fair was to create awareness of support resources (both on and off campus) available to survivors of sexual misconduct. Invited to the fair were typically Yale-NUS and NUS units, student groups and non-governmental organizations dedicated to supporting these survivors.
This semester’s fair had six booths sharing information about the support resources available to survivors of sexual misconduct. Representatives from Yale-NUS included their Survivor Support Advisors and Kingfishers for Consent, a group of students serving as peer educators on sexual wellness.
Two groups represented NUS at the fair – Students for a Safer NUS (safeNUS) and the NUS Care Unit (NCU). While the fair was held in a cozy nook at Yale-NUS, the atmosphere was light and lively, with various games, activities, snacks and coffee for students and staff who passed through. Representatives from each booth were also visiting each other’s booths and exchanging information about what they do.
At the NCU booth was our veteran Programmes Manager, Haizer, who dreamt up mind-boggling yet informative crossword puzzles for our booth visitors. Anyone who completed a crossword puzzle successfully (with information found in our brochures, website and looping PowerPoint presentation) would earn a free cup of coffee from local social enterprise, Foreword Coffee, founded by one of NUS’ Outstanding Young Alumni 2021, Lim Weijie.
Of course, other members of the NCU team were on hand to help the harried students and staff, who just wanted to earn a quick caffeine boost before rushing off to their next class, by providing clues to the crossword puzzle answers. Interestingly, a number of students were drawn to our booth not by the coffee, but by the crossword puzzle. Students would come in pairs and trios and attempt to answer the questions in the crossword puzzles, and give us triumphant grins when they successfully complete the puzzles. When we offered them the coffee reward subsequently, some would politely decline.
On display at our booth were also collaterals from past Denim Day events that NCU organized. Some visitors were fascinated by our Denim Day badges, asking if they can take a few more to give to their friends; others were intrigued by the laptop camera covers, asking us how they work and if they really were effective. A few others chose to take the door hangers displaying information about sexual misconduct and how to contact us for support.
In the three hours that we were there, we did get the chance to interact meaningfully with each and every visitor to our booth. The interest in learning more about sexual misconduct and passion in supporting survivors of sexual misconduct (be it themselves, their friends, or others) was heartening. We look forward to engaging more of the Yale-NUS and NUS communities in subsequent events!
If you or someone you know is affected by sexual misconduct, please reach out to NCU for support by calling our helpline (+65 6601 4000) or emailing us at ncu_help@nus.edu.sg.