Highlights

We are continuing to appeal to our readers and visitors to donate to our work of running two centres. The annual budget is RM120,000 (USD38,000) for 2014 and 2015 and will grow higher as we recruit more staff and take in additional trainees.

Please make payment to 'Persatuan Berdikari Seremban Negeri Sembilan' with your name and address on a cover slip so we can mail you our official receipt. All donations from April 1 2011 will be exempted from taxation by the Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia. Please send the payment to:

The Treasurer, Persatuan Berdikari Seremban Negeri Sembilan, 381, Jalan Kenanga 1, Taman Bukit Chedang, 70300 Seremban, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia.

Thank you for your support.

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Building Project Update 5

This update shows the plaster ceilings are up (notice that we have installed an LCD projector ceiling bracket to help facilitate presentations), a light well is constructed to illuminate the rest area to save on electricity and air-conditioning water condensates are ducted out via concealed PVC piping appropriately sloped. The completion is on time and we expect to receive the 'key' from the contractor by mid September. The next job will be laying of floor tiles, wall painting and installation of air conditioners, ceiling fans, ceiling down lights/fluorescent lights and doors/windows.

On plan is the dedication of the new centre on September 26 by the president of TRAC, Rev. Dr Ong Hwai Teik who is the guest preacher at Wesley Seremban's 95th anniversary service. We welcome you to come and witness this happy and historic occasion.





Friday, August 20, 2010

Building Project Update 4

We are pleased to update you on the progress of the renovation of our new centre with some pictures below. Like a foetus taking shape and appearance it is undergoing a transformation that by the next update you will see something akin to a pupa coming out of its cocoon. We hope we are not over-boasting but we are quite excited and pleased with the quality of work carried out. According to the building contractor he should be able to complete the work in 2 weeks. Upon handing over our next step will be to move the office, straw packing and card making projects over, then carry out some modification to the existing centre to prepare it to become a bakery cum cafeteria.



Picture before Renovation



Picture on August 20, 2010





Malaysians are Charitable

According to THIS report Malaysian women are more likely to donate to charities than men in the coming 6 months but more than half of the respondents said they would make a donation. It said that this trend is evident in Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa. This is certainly good news to bodies such as ours that depend on public donations to sustain our work.

This morning the bakery taskforce had a meeting to discuss how the new centre will be set up. Although we will be into challenging times we believe that we will be getting both financial and supervisory supports when the time comes. We are placing our faith on the generous Malaysian people and its business communities.

Monday, August 16, 2010

PBSNS Sunday 2010

Yesterday, August 15, was designated OUR day by the church that founded us, Wesley Methodist Church Seremban. This is the 2nd time we have it since we became 'independent' and the church have most graciously allow us space and time to update the congregation of what took place in the past year. Well, all the major events we blogged here we presented in a short powerpoint to the congregation. The icing of the day was the general offerings were channelled to us for our development work, i.e. the building fund. Our thanks to pastor and the church leadership for their generosity. Much appreciated.

We did say that we hope to set up a small cafetaria in our bakery project. It will be for training our trainees to have a hands-on experience on how to serve and how to handle cash. Eventually we hope to build this into a small business that some of the trainees can be proud co-owners. It's a little early in the day but just talking about it is making many of our staff and volunteers excited.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

An 'Accidental' Visit to Daybreak Centre

On a private visit home last weekend to celebrate my mother's 85th birthday I stopped by Ipoh to overnight and was invited by my sister-in-law who works as a volunteer at the New Horizon Society branch based at the Persatuan Daybreak in Pengkalan, Ipoh. NHS is an early intervention centre to help infants and children with delayed mental development and learning difficulties. It was started in 1994 by Malaysian CARE with support of the Ipoh Pastor's Fellowship and churches in Ipoh.

As I was in Daybreak I took the opportunity to look around and was privileged to have Ruth Yates, manager of the vocational training department to explain the work and show me around.

Trainees were doing various kinds of work to learn skills as well as earn an allowance. For example, I saw them inverting gloves, packing party sets, forming socks, knitting embroidery and picking up computing skills. Some trainees were pruning the overhanging creepers on the building. 2 trainees were being evaluated by a fulltime occupational therapist.

Here are some picture I took of their activities.



With Ruth Yates and Cikgu Ab Shukur bin Ab Manan from SMK Seri Ampang, Ipoh, who oversee special students in learning computing skills.











Friday, August 6, 2010

Building Project Update 3

Today we made the first progress payment to the contractor. We were happy with the progress and when we asked him when will the entire work be done he smilingly said in a month's time. I told him to finish it between the two national days: Aug 31 and Sep 16. Judging from the progress he made, finishing half the work in 3 weeks, I am confident he can deliver on his promise. Next week his workers will start plastering all the walls and floors and then move on to painting and laying the tiles. Today the last wall (I called it the 'berlin' wall) that has to be knocked down is finally opened. It is the common wall between the 2 centres to facilitate traffic movement. Below are some pictures.



The office has to be temporarily moved to the training room to allow the common wall to be opened.



A worker setting up a wooden partition to minimise concrete debris when the wall is drilled open.



Brick wall for the frontage of the building constructed. There will be 2 windows and an air-conditioner between them and at the back of the enlarged meeting room which can seat 30 participants.



The party wall with the church office closed. It was previously a metal grille with rusty zinc sheets. See previous update pix.