Continued aid for these victims: Jainab
Published on: Friday, November 27, 2015
Kota Kinabalu: The government will continue to defend the dignity of disabled persons, the elderly, single mothers, orphans, chronic disease patients and victims of natural disaster in the State with RM60 million allocated to the Welfare Service Department and additional RM139 million fund injection from the Federal government.The fund is expected to benefit 21,000 recipients of the State Government Assistance Scheme, while the Federal fund will be used to implement various assistance schemes to help the elderly, children, unemployed disabled person, bedridden chronic disease patients and disabled workers allowances, benefiting 39,000 recipients.Community Development and Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk Jainab Ahmad (pic), in her winding-up speech at the State Legislative Assembly here, said under the Single Mother Development Programme, a total of 25 skill programmes and entrepreneurship seminars have been organised by JHEWA attracting 1,541 single mothers and women.
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A total of 6,634 women have benefited from 36 awareness programmes organised by MPWS, focusing on outreach programmes in rural areas on issues such as the rights of women and children, health education, social and economy and gender equality."Under the Women Leadership Programme, this year we have conducted four workshops and one conference in Sandakan. Through this programme, we have seen its impacts such as promotions at work for 47 out of 156 participants," she said.The ministry had also conducted awareness programmes on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) and incest in Kota Marudu, Keningau and Sandakan with the objective of increasing self-potential, integrity and love in a family."For next year, we will expand our Women Entrepreneurs Hub to four districts, namely Sandakan, Kudat, Tawau and Keningau, to target groups such as disabled women, neglected women, domestic violence victims, among others, to help improve their standard of living.
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"In order to increase women awareness on their rights in the eyes of the law, awareness programmes will be intensified so that women will understand their rights through courses such as handling domestic violence, law literacy seminars and awareness campaigns on the importance of having women representation in courts of law," she said.In the government's effort to tackle teenage pregnancy, various programmes have been conducted according to the national reproductive health and social policy (Pekerti) in all educational and training institutes Statewide.
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Through the programmes, 27,041 youths have been given the exposure and awareness on reproductive and social health.During this year, Jainab said Pemadam Sabah had collaborated with Sabah National Anti-Drug Agency (AADK), Narcotic Crime Investigation Department, Education Department and related agencies to implement various programmes in district, State and national level in which Pemadam had taken the prevention approach through sports, arts and school holiday camps to advance its causes.Replying to questions from Klias Assemblyman Datuk Lajim Ukin and Inanam Assemblyman Dr Roland Chia, Jainab said her ministry had conducted numerous monitoring and enforcement exercise Statewide to ensure traders do not exploit GST to gain unreasonable profits."In order to avoid that, my ministry had and is engaging and discussing with chambers of commerce, producers, suppliers, wholesalers, importers and service providers to get the commitment from the industry and traders to decrease the price of their products and service charges following the fall of petroleum price in the market and not to increase their nett profit margin," she said.She also advised consumers to become smart consumers by applying the 3M concept, namely Memilih (choose), Memboikot (boycott) and Melapor (report).At the national level, Sabah State Library is cooperating with National Library and SeMalaysia Public Library in strengthening their resource sharing and knowledge exchange programme to encourage lifetime learning and consolidating social network."To ensure the programme is a success, the State Library has specialised in the acquisition, collection and preparation of materials for subjects on bio-diversity, pearl, nature and seaweed. With this specialisation, the library is hoped to become the reference point to those who need information about these four subjects."In the meantime, the library will continue to enhance its collection to fulfil users' information need," she said.In terms of development programme, Jainab said the library's Kota Belud branch had moved to its own building in April this year, its Matunggong branch opened its door to the public on Oct 21, while its Tambunan branch is expected to move to its own building and open its door to the public in December this year.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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