The shop building at 381, Jalan Kenanga 1 in Taman Bukit Chedang, Seremban is legally ours. We have made full payment and a few days ago received the title and key from our lawyer. We are in the process of cleaning up the building, accessing the damages and repairs required. In the recent management committee meeting a taskforce was formed to looked into setting up the new centre. A fund raising taskforce was also formed to organise events to raise funds for this new project. On her initiative a volunteer plans to start a golf tournament to help raise funds for us. I am truly grateful to people like her who cares for the work of helping the learning disabled under training with us. Thank you.
You can help in your own way by donating to our cause. Details are given above.
Monday, January 25, 2010
Friday, January 1, 2010
New Year Greetings
As we celebrate the New Year of 2010 and welcome new opportunities to share and give from our abundance to the needy, we wish you a very Happy New Year. May you be blessed with more wisdom, much happiness and good health.
New Year means newness and to us it means revising our website to update the information therein. We invite you to check out our new 2010 Website.
God bless all your endeavours.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Year End Christmas Party
As has been the practice for the past 10 years, trainees celebrated the completion of one year with a Christmas Party at the centre involving singing, games, food and receiving of gifts. There were broad smiles on their faces as well as on the faces of the parents who came. On hand to help were 4 students from the D'nous Academy, a gathering of young Christians, who led in singing and games. Here are some pictures of the fun event. The centre will close for the coming weeks and reopen on January 4, 2010.
Friday, December 4, 2009
Anxieties of Pending Disabilities
I happened to read this post and would like to share it with you. I believe this is a concern some middle age parents understand and with more people choosing to delay marriage and setting up their families the risk of conceiving a child with disabilities grow. Some would want to get rid of the 'inconvenience' or 'burden' but this particular writer has come to term with the reality. Let me quote from his blog:
And we thought about the possibility of how a disabled sibling burdening the three children now. We reasoned that disabled or not, each sibling should be treated equally and that in itself is the meaning of life.
We could no longer think about the risks. It now became clear of what to do next: forget about amniocentesis. We would keep the pregnancy, whatever it comes to us. There is no longer the need to evaluate the risks. It feels so liberating to us suddenly.
Those of us who do not have any disabled family members may not fully understand the turmoil and anxieties associated with having disabled family members. At best we empathise, at worse we think they can use money to overcome whatever inconvenience they suffer.
In PBSNS we stand in the gap. We see how different families of our trainees deal with them and we see how different trainees respond to the work they are given to do. At the one extreme, we can see how some families love their disabled children; at the other, they silently hope that they will cease to trouble them. It is really sad that some disabled people are written off so easily. They did not ask to be disabled nor did they cause disabilities to be upon them.
Acceptance. This is the key word that families with disabled children ought to consider if they have not. Not to view disability as a curse, a bad omen, troublesome or time consuming, but to see the life within that disabled person and how to involve him or her within the family circle as a living person. Like the example set by the newly installed Yang DiPertuan of Negeri Sembilan (or Yamtuan), Tuanku Muhriz Tuanku Munawir whose youngest son Tunku Alif Hussein Saifuddin is a special child. You can read about the royal family HERE.
Many of us spend our lives being anxious of many issues. Like the blogger above, stopping to think about the risks give him and his wife the opportunity to be free to live a fuller life.
Remember to watch the 2 videoclips. They are powerful and an encouragement to everyone.
And we thought about the possibility of how a disabled sibling burdening the three children now. We reasoned that disabled or not, each sibling should be treated equally and that in itself is the meaning of life.
We could no longer think about the risks. It now became clear of what to do next: forget about amniocentesis. We would keep the pregnancy, whatever it comes to us. There is no longer the need to evaluate the risks. It feels so liberating to us suddenly.
Those of us who do not have any disabled family members may not fully understand the turmoil and anxieties associated with having disabled family members. At best we empathise, at worse we think they can use money to overcome whatever inconvenience they suffer.
In PBSNS we stand in the gap. We see how different families of our trainees deal with them and we see how different trainees respond to the work they are given to do. At the one extreme, we can see how some families love their disabled children; at the other, they silently hope that they will cease to trouble them. It is really sad that some disabled people are written off so easily. They did not ask to be disabled nor did they cause disabilities to be upon them.
Acceptance. This is the key word that families with disabled children ought to consider if they have not. Not to view disability as a curse, a bad omen, troublesome or time consuming, but to see the life within that disabled person and how to involve him or her within the family circle as a living person. Like the example set by the newly installed Yang DiPertuan of Negeri Sembilan (or Yamtuan), Tuanku Muhriz Tuanku Munawir whose youngest son Tunku Alif Hussein Saifuddin is a special child. You can read about the royal family HERE.
Many of us spend our lives being anxious of many issues. Like the blogger above, stopping to think about the risks give him and his wife the opportunity to be free to live a fuller life.
Remember to watch the 2 videoclips. They are powerful and an encouragement to everyone.
Friday, November 27, 2009
Promotion at 34th Session TRAC
Last Sunday, November 22, I was at the 34th session of the Trinity Annual Conference or TRAC at Everly Resort Hotel in Melaka to promote the work of the association to the churches represented. I distributed 200 sets of flyers and notes to the delegates and observers while David and Dorothy set up stall outside the conference hall to sell handmade cards and bookmarks.
The promotion is timely as we are preparing to launch a bigger fund raising to finance our building purchase as well as a larger operating budget. We are planning to organize a fund raising dinner next year. Assistance in all forms will be appreciated.
Monday, November 23, 2009
A Learning Disabled Susan Boyle Shows the World
How many of us do not know Susan Boyle? The 47 year old unemployed single lady with a learning disability who sang her way into 2nd place at the Britain's Got Talent 2009 Season 3 shows how we tend to write off people with LD as incapable or untalented. You can read more of Susan HERE and HERE. In her own words, Susan said,
"I had a slight disability, but rather than let that rule my life I had to find my abilities and make the most of them instead," she said. "This feels like a good way of making up for that – a very, very enjoyable way of making up for it as well."
Susan also said she was tormented by classmates and beaten by teachers because of her learning disabilities. "I'm just a wee bit slower at picking things up than other people," she said. "So you get left behind in a system that just wants to rush on, you know? That was what I felt was happening to me."
"There was discipline for the sake of discipline back then," Boyle continued. "But it's all very different now. I think teachers are taught to understand children with learning disabilities a lot better."
I just hope that Malaysians will stand up for people in our midst like Susan and help find the hidden talents in them. If you like to listen to the extraordinary rendition of 'I Dreamed a Dream' by Susan please click the link below.
"I had a slight disability, but rather than let that rule my life I had to find my abilities and make the most of them instead," she said. "This feels like a good way of making up for that – a very, very enjoyable way of making up for it as well."
Susan also said she was tormented by classmates and beaten by teachers because of her learning disabilities. "I'm just a wee bit slower at picking things up than other people," she said. "So you get left behind in a system that just wants to rush on, you know? That was what I felt was happening to me."
"There was discipline for the sake of discipline back then," Boyle continued. "But it's all very different now. I think teachers are taught to understand children with learning disabilities a lot better."
I just hope that Malaysians will stand up for people in our midst like Susan and help find the hidden talents in them. If you like to listen to the extraordinary rendition of 'I Dreamed a Dream' by Susan please click the link below.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Visit by Asia Community Service
A team of 22 staff and members (trainees) from the Stepping Stone Support Centre for Community Living of ACS in Penang visited us yesterday. In the morning they were taken to the ostrich farm in Seremban where they enjoyed riding the birds. Trainees from our centre went along too. We hosted lunch for everybody at the centre after the farm visit followed by a batik art teaching session by Jeffrey Suah of Noble Creations in Seremban for all the trainees while the staff were given a presentation of our work.
ACS also trains learning disabled people like we do but on a different model. Presently they produce art design, batik work and other products for sale and their members are paid salaries. Some of their works are exported. To learn more of their work you can surf to their website.
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