BEAUFORT: A number of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and various government agencies collaborated in making the launching ceremony of the district level’s 1Malaysia Family Care Convoy (1MFC) a huge success.
The program, which was participated by about 80 people involving 36 vehicles, was launched by Deputy Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Azizah Mohd Dun.
According to Azizah, the 1MFC convoy which was launched on April 5 this year at Pagoh, Johor by Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, is a charity program involving the community of volunteers.
She said that the objective of the program was to attract more people from the community, especially the youths, to get involved in volunteer work in order to help those who are in need.
“The main concentration of KK1M Family Care is the service assistance program in old folks homes and those for disabled persons (OKU), which also involves Jejak Psikologi Rakyat 1Malaysia (PR1SMA).
“The involvement of youngsters in this convoy is a good initiative, especially from the aspect of mental health which is one of our efforts in fighting against social crime in this group,” she said when launching the 1MFC convoy at Sri Pertayu Hall, Kota Klias here, yesterday.
Azizah, who is also Beaufort member of parliament, added that up to April this year, the Welfare Services Department in Sabah had recorded 63,646 government aid recipients.
She said that out of the total, 29,894 were recipients of the senior citizen aid and 2,557 received the bedridden patients aid, who were seen to have potential to be clients of the in-house service assistance program.
“Therefore, I hope that the 1MFC which also involves volunteers from the Community Welfare Department, NGOs and 1M4U as well as other agencies could help those who are in need,” she said.
Azizah also pointed out that the government had prepared a number of assistance for those who are in need, including health service facilities for senior citizens and OKUs.
She then gave an example that the Sabah Welfare Department had distributed RM69.16 million to 63,646 recipients from January to April this year, and out of the amount, RM112,000 was given to 196 OKUs through the OKU Assistance Scheme.
As for care and rehabilitation, Azizah said that the government had built an OKU rehabilitation complex including an OKU service centre, four OKU children learning gardens and 28 community rehabilitation centres in the State.
The government has also built three senior citizen activity centres in Sabah which are used by 527 senior citizens.
“Three senior citizen institutions were also established by the state government which are Sri Pritchard Old Folks Home in Kinarut, Sri Harapan Old Folks Home in Sandakan and Air Panas Old Folks Home in Tawau,” she added.