Heard of The Purple Parade?

The movement that supports the inclusion of people with special needs and celebrates their abilities, takes place today (Nov. 5) at Suntec City and is the biggest one yet -- an expected turnout of 10,000 are coming down to support it.

Courtesy of the parade, we present five special-needs artists who have had some pretty remarkable achievements with their craft:

1. Glenn Phua - a flair for architecture

Phua may have autism, but it is no obstacle in his talent in illustration.

His specialty lies in street scenes and architecture, all drawn directly without prior pencil sketching.

The 19-year-old's art has already gotten the attention of distinguished figures - his art of the Botanic gardens was presented to the Chinese president Xi Jinping and Chinese first lady Peng Liyuan last November:

PM Lee Hsien Loong took a photo of him - and shared it on Facebook :

2. Seetoh Sheng Jie - a boy who simply loves dinosaurs

If you haven’t heard about Seetoh, PM Lee's wife, Ho Ching, carried a dinosaur-patterned pouch designed by him to the White House state dinner in August.

Seetoh's autism has never gotten in the way of his love of dinosaurs.

He's memorised nearly all dinosaur species and can illustrate them without references.

Stocks are still flying off the shelves, by the way.

3. Fern Wong Li Ting - abstract, loving art

Wong was born with Down’s syndrome, but she is full of joy and happiness that one can see from her abstract, colourful art.

Her best known accolade? Walking away with a certificate of distinction at the UOB Painting of the Year Competition 2006 in the open category.

By open category, this means that she competed with more able-bodied artists.

4. Isabelle Lim - capturing the world around her

The pint-sized 22-year-old is not only deaf, but also has Nager’s Syndrome, which affects the development of the face, hands and arms.

Lim, however, has overcome all of that to pursue her dream to be a photographer.

She had a self-curated solo exhibition in LASALLE called “See What I See”, which presents her work taken from 2014 to 2016.

You can see some of her professionally-shot photos here :

[embed width="720" height="480"]https://enablingvillage.sg/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/isabelle-v1.mp4[/embed]

5. Tay Jun Yi - breathing life into his animal kingdom

A fellow ADP student with Seetoh and Phua, Tay loves drawing animals.

His illustrated animal kingdom is filled with expressive animals with lots of personality.

Tay is also the son of Roland Tay, who started the social enterprise Professor Brawn Cafe, based on a character Tay drew.

His art is now produced on merchandise by The Animal Project, and they look oh-so Instagrammable:

If you have some time today (Nov. 5) , you can drop by the Purple Parade at Suntec City, from 3pm - 7pm.

Visitors can support special needs artists and their peers by purchasing merchandise, and make a few new friends.

Oh, DPM Tharman Shanmugaratnam will be there, too.

Top photo from The Purple Parade Official Facebook page

Video of Isabelle Lim's work via

If you like what you read, follow us on Facebook and Twitter to get the latest updates.