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.

Monday, September 27, 2010

Early Intervention Help Restore Self Esteem

Below I've captured some encouraging advice for parents of children with learning disabilities. You can read the whole article HERE.

“Learning disability is confirmed if a child scores high on the IQ test but does badly in the achievement test,” says Dr Ting. It is well documented that some of the high-achieving personalities such as Albert Einstein and Sir Richard Branson have suffered from some form of learning disability such as dyslexia.

“Parents must understand that most children with learning disabilities have the cognitive ability to learn,” explains Dr Ting. Given the right remedial programme, she said children with learning disabilities stand the chance of being on-par with the rest of their classmates.

“As the reading skill is a pre-requisite for students to learn many subjects in school , it is imperative that an early intervention programme is administered on those who are found to have dyslexia,” she reiterates.

She also recommends that children with learning disability undergo psychotherapy as some of them may suffer from damaged self-esteem.

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Dedicated to Serve

Today is an auspicious day for us, a sort of double celebration. Today will be remembered as the day members of Wesley Methodist Church Seremban celebrates their church's 95th anniversary. And to many who are connected with our work, including her sponsors as well as the many who pray that our good work will continue to restore lives and help bring positives changes to those we care for, they together with us celebrate the dedication of the new building that has become our new training centre. As of September 21 when we moved the straw packing and card making works over we have been busy making it presentable for today's big moment.

To honour us with the prayer of dedicating the building to the work of providing job skills training to the learning disabled is the President of the Trinity Annual Conference, The Methodist Church in Malaysia, Rev. Dr. Ong Hwai Teik. Present to witness this historic event at 10.30am today were some 54 church members, staff, volunteers and well-wishers of PBSNS. The meeting room was used for the very first time and was 'warmed' by 42 guests. Another 12 had to sit outside to listen to the message by the President who at the end electronically unveiled the plaque which will be made later and installed prominently on one of the walls. A group photo was taken outside both buildings where we now operate to commemorate the occasion.

For those who miss it here are a collection of memorable pictures for you to see.

















Sunday, September 19, 2010

Fund Raising Dinner

A fund raising dinner has been planned on December 12, 2010 (Sunday) at the newly opened Silver Dragon Restaurant, in S2 City Centre, a stone throw away from the City Park. The objective of this fund raiser is to boost our Building Fund to help pay for the cost of building our new training centre. We haved booked its grand banquet hall that has a 75 tables seating capacity as well as a huge stage and professional sound and lighting system.

We are in the process of identifying and inviting a guest of honor as well as looking for a singer to entertain the guests throughout the dinner.

A souvenir magazine will be published to raise funds. We hope to receive warm support to help us raise no less than RM20,000 in this endeavor.

Ticket sales will start very soon and will be priced at RM60 or RM70 each (Update: this is subject to revision after the cost of food is finalised). For a 5 star restaurant (you have to see to believe what I write, but I was there last night for a dinner so this is a first hand account) this is certainly reasonable. If you are interested to get tickets or insert an advertisement please contact Betsi at 06-7632005 for details.

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Common Signs of Learning Disabilities

I wish draw your attention to THIS article that appeared in today's newsreel. I believe it is relevant and important to connect to this report to help us better understand what LD is and is not. LD has NOTHING to do with intelligence. To suggest that people with LD are 'stupid' is uncaring and even rude. Children with LD tend to have the following traits:

1. Slow to speak
2. Poor eye and hand coordination
3. Poor hearing and understanding skills
4. Slow to understand mathematical concepts
5. Slow readers
6. Tires easily
7. Difficulty in recognising space

Early intervention will help the child with LD overcome his difficulties earlier.

Friday, September 17, 2010

Building Project Update 7

We are all set to move over Monday. Today a cleaning contractor came with chemical floor cleaning solution to take away the dust and residual cement as well as clean the glass doors and partitions. On Monday the straw packing and card making equipment as well as various desks, chairs and cabinets will be moved over. The LCD projector will be installed and tested. Other furnitures will be moved in to prepare for the dedication service on September 26. For the first time ther trainees are allowed into the new centre and they were very excited with their new 'home'. Here are some pix. Look how spacious the ground floor is, soon it will be occupied and will not look the same.







Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Building Project Update 6

As of today the project is nearly completed with only the touch up works to be carried out. There was some delays due to the sourcing of the right homogeneous floor tiles. After the building is washed and cleaned we will progressively move the straw packing and card making equipment and furnitures over so that the existing centre can be partitioned to become a bakery cum cafeteria. The renovation work created some inconvenience to the centre as dust seeped across and we had to close our centre for a few days when things got quite bad. Thankfully the worst is over. The coming weeks will challenge us to arrange the furnitures and equipment for the most efficient operation.