Updates

Although it has been generally quiet, things are happening in PBSNS that require me to write this update.

The committee met for the second time on 27th September since it was elected in June. We dealt with many issues, including the decision to invest in a building of our own so that we can have our very own administrative base. We thought that the present building we are renting will make a good base and we will approach the church to consider if they are willing to sell. This decision, if agreed, will mean a new round of fund raising exercises. The purchase if it materialise will only take place in 3-4 years time.

We were visited by a Social Welfare officer who served us a notice to register as a Care Centre under the Care Centres Act 1993. It is no coincident that the visit came several months after we were registered and had celebrated our anniversary (actually that of Pusat Berdikari Seremban, our predecessor). We believe God was working in our midst. The registration as a Care Centre should not give us any undue problems from the impression we received from the officer since we are well organized.

And we are going to replace all existing Pusat's signboards to that of Persatuan's to reflect our new status as a society. We have already produced new letterheads, invoices, receipt books, payment vouchers, etc under the society's name. And we have already activated our Persatuan's banking account over a month ago. We will soon be producing our new brochure hopefully before end of the year, in 3 languages. By end of the year the transition to Persatuan will be complete.

The trainees at Giant and Guardian are already into their 3rd month of employment. Most are adapting well to the 'harsh' and 'real' working environment that they were not exposed to at the centre for the years they were with us. Perhaps we had been a little overly protective. We learn from this experience and feedback. We will give existing trainees reality checks once in a while to ensure they are better prepared for the workplace should they get chosen one day to work outside. We also learn not to leave these working trainees unchecked or assume that they will be able to adjust on their own, which in reality they cannot since they had not been in this new environment before. We will be following up on them more frequently, interact with their parents and supervisors, and talking with these working trainees. Lastly we are thinking of reviving the Social Club to give these working trainees opportunities to re-establish their bonds with friends still at the centre.

The work at PBSNS requires much alertness on the part of management, staff and volunteers to keep our clients in safe hands. Because we believe that even as normal adults need to be checked in now and then to see how they are doing, learning disabled people should require even more attention.