Arshad
My name is Muhammad Arshad Fawwaz and I am 25 years old.
I love singing and producing music, which led to my founding of an organization called Inclusivity 4 All in 2020. Through Inclusivity 4 All, I want to provide a platform for those with special needs to showcase their talents.
Aside from Inclusivity 4 All, I spend my time as an assistant trainer for enrichment programmes in schools, and occasionally dabble in other areas of performing, such as acting, I acted in a show on MeWatch, called Mani where my character “Faruk” has an intellectual disability.
In the rest of my free time, I engage in volunteering and community work, such as being a youth volunteer at the mosque and a grassroots member of my RC.
My schooling journey
From Primary 1 to 5, I was in North Spring Primary School which was a mainstream school. I recall that it was about 40 students to one teacher, so it was difficult for the teacher to attend to me. Most of the time, I found it difficult to focus on the lessons and follow along, so I would be running out of the class. During that time, I failed most of my subjects at school.
There was a critical incident that had happened back then. A schoolmate had ordered me to throw my friend’s bag from level 4 to level 1, but I threw his bag instead of my friend’s bag. This incident nearly got me expelled from the school, and not long after, I transferred to Pathlight School.
Shining at Pathlight
From Primary 5 onwards, I was in Pathlight School, which was a very different experience – it was 8 students to 2 teachers, and there were therapists for students as well, so it was much easier for me to focus. There was also a very clear and structured approach, so I did much better and passed all my subjects with flying colours.
In terms of my friends and social life, it was tough making friends in my mainstream school, but in Pathlight, I made a lot of friends with whom I am still in touch currently.
In retrospect, I think that perhaps neurotypical children in mainstream schools can be better educated to empathise with or understand children like me who are different.
It was tough fitting in with the crowd back then, but perhaps things would have been easier if my classmates were taught about what it is like to be neurodivergent and how they could better interact with us.
The most amazing part of my experience at Pathlight was getting to grow my talent in singing and music. Since young, I had loved singing and performing, and aspired to be a singer when I grow up. I also enjoyed performing and was a child model when I was young. I also participated in Kids Central’s One Minute of Fame competition with a group of friends in 2004 and took part in the auditions for the same competition by myself in 2006.
However, it was only in Pathlight that I really started getting an opportunity to shine. In Pathlight, we have a talent show called “Pathlight Idol”, in which I clinched fourth place. Since then, I was invited to perform for the Pathlight Musical and received proper training in singing techniques. I was given an opportunity by Pathlight to perform in the School of The Arts (SOTA) with Harvard University’s Din & Tonics. I still fondly remember the very first song that I performed which was “Don’t Stop Believing”.
Music & faith
Unfortunately, after graduating from Pathlight, I found it difficult to fit into the class at ITE College Central. One of my classmates disliked me and would often get my classmates to ignore me as well. I was mostly alone in a corner, sometimes with friends, but mostly without.
In the most challenging moments, I would turn to music as my outlet. I would listen to music to calm myself down. My faith has also helped me a lot – my prayers would help me to focus and stay in the moment.
Work experiences
I have also worked as a crew in some of the F&B outlets and have had mixed experiences. Sometimes it was good, sometimes it was bad, and most of the bad times were because of workplace politics, and as a result, I tend to find it hard to stay for long. Once, when I worked at Shaw Theatre, I told my manager that one of the staff had been bullying me, but to no avail.
I decided to call the police as I felt threatened by the staff and that ticked the manager off, leading to me being asked to stay at home for a few days, while the staff involved in bullying me received no punishment. I ended up escalating the matter to the CEO, who then spoke to me and asked me to stay, offering to transfer me to another outlet. I turned down the offer in the end because I thought that history might repeat itself again.
I surfaced an issue I observed to him nevertheless – that during work, most of the staff would be slacking at one corner while just a few staff are working away, the CEO then installed a CCTV camera upon this, which was comforting that he was receptive to feedback.
Other than these experiences, I also trained under SG Enable E2C and got a job at Energy Wave. However, I found out that for the same job, those with special needs tend to be paid less than their neurotypical counterparts, which I felt was quite unfair. I think it really shouldn’t be the case—we should be paid based on our skills and the job that we can do, instead of whether we are individuals with special needs or not.
Hopes and dreams
My main source of motivation in taking up different opportunities is self-growth – I want to gain as many skills as possible, explore different types of roles, and equip myself for the future. In the near future, I hope to take on religious study at Medina Al-Munawarah University, Saudi Arabia and continue to engage and advocate for the special needs community, including those from the religious groups, as I observe a gap in advocacy for them.
Inclusivity 4 All
It all started in 2020 when the pandemic first hit – I was stuck at home during Circuit Breaker and lacked ideas about what I wanted to do. Then my mom and I watched an online show by Global Citizen called "One World: Together At Home", a globally-broadcasted fundraising concert.
That was when an idea was born—I wanted to create a similar platform that allows people to showcase their talent, but I wanted to build it for people with special needs and neurotypical individuals to come together
Personally, I had gone for multiple auditions for different shows, but most of the time, I would get rejected. I have a suspicion that it could be because I wrote in the application form that I have autism and ADHD, and they did not want participants like me. These personal experiences of going through the challenges of being rejected inspired me to start a platform and to help other people like myself get access to a platform for talent showcases. Starting from the first show, performers had been enlisted via a network of parents who also had children with special needs, with my mother helping with outreach. From there, we would collate the videos from various interested individuals and edit them into a show. Besides editing, I also host the show and oversee its running of it to ensure that everything goes smoothly.
Currently, our performers come from a variety of backgrounds, including both neurotypical and neurodiverse individuals. Inclusivity 4 All is something I deeply treasure, which was also why I shared part of the cash prize I received from the Goh Chock Tong UBS Promise Award. Part of the cash prize was shared with the performers, while another part of the cash prize was used to upgrade the set-up for the shows, such as the recording equipment.
What neurodiversity means to me
I was diagnosed with ADHD in Primary One and autism in Primary Five. It was a little puzzling at the beginning when people started avoiding me. I did not understand immediately what it meant, but I had known all along that I was not like everyone else.
It was only when I went to Pathlight School that I started to realise what autism and ADHD meant. When I started to understand what autism and ADHD were, I was not anxious, but happy to be different. In fact, in Pathlight, when I was surrounded by peers whom I became great friends with, I thank this experience for helping me discover true friendships and people who would accept me for who I am.
So, to me, being neurodivergent was not crippling. I am still myself, and I am just unique and different in some ways.
Now, when I meet people and open up to tell them that I had autism and ADHD, they would usually seem quite surprised, and make remarks like “You don’t look like you have autism.” I would just laugh it off, but to me, it does seem to me like people expect individuals with autism or ADHD to behave a certain way.
The differential treatment is more obvious in the entertainment industry – you rarely see performers with special needs, most of which you would only see performing during shows like the President’s Star Charity. To date, I am most humbled to have been given this opportunity to create this platform (Inclusivity 4 All) for individuals with special needs to showcase their talents. It was also an honour to have been recognized for this with the President's Volunteerism & Philanthropy Awards (PVPA) in 2020 and the Goh Chok Tong Enable Awards (GCTEA) in 2021.
What I would tell my younger self
I would tell my younger self: “Don't just focus on music but focus on creating this platform first. This platform is more important, as it helps more lives than just your own life.”
Gratitude and appreciation
Of the many people I have crossed paths with, I am particularly thankful to some of my teachers.
Firstly, Miss Valerie Tan from North Spring Primary School was taking very good care of me – during recess time, she would check in on me and make sure that I am doing fine. I am also thankful to Ms Josephine Teo, who had recommended Pathlight School to my mum at that time. Ms Elaine Eng, who was my English teacher at Pathlight and also my counsellor at ITE College Central.
In ITE college central, I also owe much thanks to Mr David Liew, Mr Kenneth Ching, and Ms Sam, who were helping me to fit in with the class when I was struggling. During that period, I was also more focused on music and less attentive in classes, sometimes I would play truant and head to the Centre For The Music & The Arts (CEMTA) instead of staying in the class. Mr David Liew went out of his way to help me in my studies by giving me study advice and guiding me in setting my priorities.
There was also a friend of mine, Hariharan Elavarsu, who has helped me in certain situations.
Lastly, to my mother – whom I always look up to, and who has always been there to take care of me, and to push me to do better, thank you. In the most trying times, she gives me the strength to carry on and overcome all obstacles. If there is that one person by whom I am most inspired by, it would be my mother.
Advice for others in the special needs community
No matter how hard life can get, always know that you'll be able to brave through anything. As long as you have the passion for what you enjoy, with some guidance, perseverance, and dedication, you can do it.
Hopes for the future
I am looking forward to growing Inclusivity 4 All – potentially growing it into a bigger YouTube channel, so that I can also recruit people with special needs for roles like video-editing, singing, and videography or photography, and generate jobs for them.
I would love to also look into working with organisations for collaboration or sponsorship because all the shows we have done so far are pro-bono, and none of the performers is paid, despite all the time and effort. Currently, we do not have subtitles in the show, and it would be great if we could get some help with that.
Some words from Arshad’s Mother
Parenting is not an easy journey, even with neurotypical children, and what more with children with special needs and differences. As a single mum, I did go through quite a lot with Arshad. I had a divorce when Arshad was one and a half years old, and I was staying with my mum. After which, I had my own rental flat near Pathlight School, because my mum’s place was far away from Pathlight. It was a long journey, but if I'm going to give up, then nobody's going to help him. And I do have a very big responsibility God has given me, so I must make sure it is done well.
I am very proud of how far Arshad has come. Just last year, he was called by Bandwagon and performed for one of the shows in Tampines Hub, called Shaping Hearts. He sang five songs, shared his life story and pulled the performance off really well. Everyone, including the advisor from the committee, was quite impressed, and gave generous compliments for his moment of the show, telling us that they thoroughly enjoyed his show.
It has not been an easy journey for Arshad either, because sometimes performance videos would be coming late and coming in the middle of the night and he would be working late to edit the videos. Even though the show is hosted online, there is still a lot of effort behind the scenes. Of course, at the end of the day, we are willing to put in this hard work because we really hope to inspire other parents and families to showcase their children’s talents, regardless of their background and whether they have special needs or not. We really hope that within our capacity, we can help the other children to receive an opportunity to shine.
