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.