Safari (second left) and Saeko (right) showing the MoU documents they signed yesterday, while Asnimar looks on.
KOTA KINABALU: After 13 years of using the Kololo training programme to teach autistic children, two educational centres sealed their partnership officially yesterday.
Seri Mengasih Centre (SMC) signed the memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Kololo Developmental Treatment Education Centre (KDTEC) of Tokyo, Japan, based on the strong trust and bond between the two organisations.
SMC was represented by its Board of Management chairman, Datuk Safari Manan while Sosei Institute supervising director Saeko Kubota represented KDTEC.
The Kololo method comprising the Dynamic Rhythm, Walking and Behaviour Training, Speech Programme, Language Concept Learning and Communication Skill Programme, Tolerance Training and Home Training Support Programme, was founded through the long-term practice by Hijiri Ishii about three decades ago.
It was developed for people with development disabilities, especially those with the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).
Trainers must acquire special skills in order to practise this method, which is why the Kololo organisation emphasises importance on skill acquisition not only for the individual trainer or teacher or staff, but also for the group of trainers working as a team.
Saeko, in her speech, said the relationship between the two centres began when the former SMC director, Cecelia Thane, introduced a parent, Dr Daniel Fong, to a Japanese teacher, Makoto Hashimoto, who was then a Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers (JOCV) volunteer there.
Both Thane and Fong believed that the method could help SMC’s autism students.
“So in January 2000, two families came to Kololo Tokyo for the treatment education, which also marked the beginning of practical communication between both centres. The rest, as some say, is history,” said Saeko.
A few moths later, she added that some Japanese trainees visited their counterpart here and took two autistic children, then aged six and seven, to climb Mount Kinabalu. They were, then, the youngest children on record to scale the mountain.
“The seed of both centres’ cooperation and efforts for the challenged students has been steadily rewarded, and today, some 54 SMC and 61 KDTEC students are benefiting from the programme.
“We want to remember that today’s (yesterday) MoU signing is a realisation of the hope and longing for us all. The situation of persons with autism is not so different anywhere in the world. These individuals are still in great difficulties and our mission is to help and support them to overcome their most difficult situation,” she said.
Optimistic Saeko said despite the many difficulties ahead, she believed that with the collaboration of both centres, they would be able to overcome the challenges and show the possibilities of ASD persons to the world and become a hope for individual persons with autism and their families.
The signing ceremony was witnessed by Community Development and Consumer Affairs Ministry permanent secretary Datuk Asnimar Sukardi who disclosed that since its inception here, some 100 students had been trained at SMC, of which 20 have been absorbed into mainstream schools.
“A person with autism faces significant social, communication and behavioural challenges which hamper inclusion into community life. It is now estimated by the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention that the prevalence of persons with autism is one in 88. This statistics is recognised by the United Nations.
“The number is increasing at an alarming rate within just a few years and this is not just happening in other countries, but within the door steps of our own city, state and country,” she said.
She commended SMC for fulfilling a role and responsibility to meet the pressing need to train this group of persons with these special challenges.