Open Employment

We successfully placed 2 trainees into open employment at a KFC outlet in Seremban in July 2015.

In August and September this year we placed 2 trainees into McDonald and one into Exis Tech.

Daily Routines

Here are some of the works the trainees produce in the course of their training in the Art & Craft section of the centre.

Making Magnetic Bookmarks

Making Roses from Egg Trays

Making Toy Cars from Toilet Rolls

On every Tuesdays some trainees will prepare Nasi Lemak for sale at the Chedang Cafe.

Trainees also learn to bake simple cakes and cookies under the watchful eyes of the trainer.

The core activity of the centre is straw packing.

Employment Carnival

Trainees participating at the Employment Carnival @Dewan TTJ, Seremban on 27th August 2016.

On 29th August some trainees attended a briefing at Careplus Group Berhad, Senawang. Careplus is one of our corporate sponsors.

PBSNS Sunday - 24th August 2014

PBSNS founding church, Wesley Methodist Church Seremban, designated 24^th August 2014 as PBSNS Sunday.                   

Rebecca Backus, PBSNS chairman updated the congregation on the work/activities of the centre.  She challenged the congregation saying PBSNS is not about us. It is about what we can do for them.  She announced that PBSNS is proud to have placed two more trainees in open employment. 

                  Sasthri Mogan is employed at Mawar Renal Medical Centre as a Concierge.

                                  Phoon Sheng Yu has started work at KFC, Rasah Jaya. 

Following the service, products made by PBSNS trainees were sold.  Our thanks to WMC Seremban congregation,  for the overwhelming support.

As we celebrate PBSNS  Sunday, Patricia Koh, Parent/Volunteer has this inspiring story by Jim Stovall to offer to the parents of special children as they struggle to help their children to reach their fullest potential. Her prayer is that it will help parents counter any negative thoughts and obstacles that come along their paths that may present them with little hope or encouragement.

There were two warring tribes in the Andes, one that lived in the lowlands and the other high in the mountains. The mountain people invaded the lowlanders one day, and as part of their plundering of the people, they kidnapped a baby of one of the lowlander families and took the infant with them back up into the mountains.

The lowlanders didn’t know how to climb the mountain. They didn’t know any of the trails that the mountain people used, and they didn’t know where to find the mountain people or how to track them in the steep terrain.

Even so, they sent out their best party of fighting men to climb the mountain and bring the baby home.

The men tried first one method of climbing and then another. They tried one trail and then another. After several days of effort, however, they had climbed only several hundred feet.

Feeling hopeless and helpless, the lowlander men decided that the cause was lost, and they prepared to return to their village below.

As they were packing their gear for the descent, they saw the baby’s mother walking towards them. They realized that she was coming DOWN the mountain that they hadn’t figured out how to climb.

And then they saw that she had the baby strapped to her back. HOW COULD THAT BE?

One man greeted her and said, “We couldn’t climb this mountain. How did you do this when we, the strongest and most able men in the village couldn’t do it?”

She shrugged her shoulders and said, “It wasn’t your baby.”

This story symbolizes so much that is important. Yes, there are dedicated people working with our children, providing marvelous support and help for them. But parents, we have to blaze the trail. The path we travel may be lonely and challenging and the journey long and tiring, but we are not alone. The awesome voice of God echoes from the mountain “….never will I leave you, never will I forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5) “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble” (Psalms 46:1)

Disabled Persons in the Real World Job Market

It is all honky dory to believe that the real world outside will accept disabled persons in their midst with more compassion and patience than their regular peers. After all, the very fact that they are less endowed than us should invoke a sense of sympathy or even pity, right? Wrong!

What I have learned is that disabled employees are sometimes expected to perform just as well as the abled ones. Perhaps at the onset when they were new their colleagues tend to be more understanding but over time their expectations increase. They begin to expect the disabled colleagues to be picking up new skills as fast as they can and when that is not forthcoming they become critical. The able employees may not know that the disabled colleagues of theirs spent many years just to learn some basic skills and are also not able to learn new ones as well or as fast. Such treatment tend to give rise to grievances.

In some societies, perception of the disabled community is more matured in a sense this special people are already accepted as different and therefore treated with better respect and preference without any qualm. In such environments the disabled are accorded respect and preferential treatment that do not give rise to complaints from the normal adults. Evolving societies are learning to change their mindset. This process may take many years.

Management may have decided to give special privileges to their disabled employees. However, the workers themselves may not be as enthusiastic or charitable in their hearts. Such conflicts take time to resolve. It is necessary for open dialogs between employers and employees to resolve any misunderstanding.

Disable employees and their families are naturally aggrieved by any mistreatment or prejudice at the workplaces. It require patience and public discourse to bring this matter to the forefront, debated and resolved.

GCH Retail Accepts PBS Trainees

All 6 trainees who underwent 7-10 days training at various outlets have passed the evaluation and will be employed full time by GCH Retail. Indeed, this is a proud moment for them, as well as for us and their parents. Whereas once we all thought there was little hope of any of our trainees becoming gainfully employed outside of our centre, today these 6 learning disabled people showed that, putting in sufficient effort and not giving up, any learning disabled person can become employed given the opportunity. These 6 dignified people now rank with their other colleagues in carrying out their work, earning the same salaries and enjoying the same terms and conditions of service.

Who says that self-reliance is a term that only belong to the abled and normal persons? Now that these 6 have shown that they can become BERDIKARI too. Thank you GCH Retail for making it possible.

PBS Trainees Doing Well in Giant

I did a spotcheck on Yoga, Shiraz, Poh Leong and Khairi at Terminal 1 Giant outlet this afternoon, and later on Mee Ling at Terminal 1 Guardian outlet. Contrary to any anxieties we may have, they are doing quite well and stand very good chance of being absorbed into full employment there. Tomorrow Ying Heng who passed his medical exam will join them.

This morning at PBS I feel the other trainees are spotting tiny wings. The example of the trainees who were selected are giving courage to the others to attempt to fly away and explore the world outside the safe walls of PBS.

The Day PBS Trainees Went to Work

Today is a watershed day for us in PBS. Perhaps I should say for those successful trainees who are accepted into the GCH Retail programme of recruiting disabled people to work in their outlets. I remember some time in May this year when Mr. Nesan of GCH Retail spoke to the trainees and said that he wanted to see how many would qualify to work for Giant supermarket and Guardian pharmacy, almost every hand went up. It showed how keen PBS trainees were to find jobs outside. It showed they were mentally prepared to leave. Unfortunately only those who can withstand the rigors of a 'normal' world and passed a health check would be recruited. The final hurdle will be they successfully passing the training given at their job locations.

We thank Simon Hay and Carol Lina for their efforts in taking these trainees under their supervision and we wish all the trainees selected will meet the training requirements and be able to adapt to their new work environment and not be discouraged and want to return to us. For that some of our staff and volunteers will visit them and help these trainees adapt. Except for Mee Ling who will be posted to the Seremban Parade Guardian outlet, the other male trainees will be at the Terminal 1 Giant outlet.

Impressions: Betsi our trainer who accompanied the trainees out gave a very positive assessment of how the trainees conducted themselves. Except for one who needed some adjustment the rest fitted in nicely and should be able to be gainfully employed.


A group picture of selected trainees with Giant and PBS staff

PBS trainees dressed ready for work with Simon and Carol of GCH Retail

Posing outside PBS where some have worked for many years

Getting into a car for deployment to their respective work outlets