Disabled kids get documents
Published on: Friday, November 22, 2019
By: Lorena Binisol
KOTA KINABALU: Six special needs children at the PDK Centre in Tanjung Aru obtained their Mykad recently – thanks to the JPN (National Registration Department’s) outreach service.
Its mobile services officer Ibrahim Jaini said they have been discharging their duties throughout the state by extending the same to other categories such as senior citizens and people residing in rural places who had difficulty coming to town for such service.
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Datin Mary Yong, chairperson for the PDK centre, said the centre could only accommodate 41 children and four teaching staff as the space is not conducive for more.
“I thank JPN for organising the service. We want to make it easier for parents having special needs children to bring them for documentation at the centre instead of going to JPN.
“We understand the hassle parents face when dealing with physically challenging children,” she said.
Ibrahim said the mobile unit started operations in 2000 and had covered rural places as far as Paitan, Sebatik and islands around the mainland.
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He said the usual problems faced by the officers are connectivity and communication.
‘Some areas are so difficult to penetrate due to lack of proper infrastructure and communication service is hard to get.
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But we know there are villages there and we still need to extend our services to those places,” he said.
Valentina Sho, the supervisor of the centre, said the great challenge apart from the children being not in the normal state, is that the teaching staff have to be paid RM800 as allowance (not salary), while they are tasked to look after children with various disability.
“All our teaching staff are well-trained to ensure these children grow up as normal as possible.
“It is difficult to handle due to their physical state. However, with some love, care and effort we can calm them down and teach them to do simple tasks like holding spoons or plates and going to the toilet.
Some of them are hyperactive and need to be treated differently from other children while some are autistic.
“It takes patience and love to overcome this obstacle,” Valentina said.
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