Rotary Club of Sibu Loh Wei Boon (second left) hands over the 20 lens to a representative from Sarikei Hospital, witnessed by Dr Annuar (third left) standing in for the chief minister.
SIBU: The annual massage course content for the blind and visually impaired will be revamped to streamline the syllabus across the country towards licensing the masseurs in their practice.
National Council for the Blind technical head Dato Dr Hsiung Kwo Yuen said the move falls under the Traditional and Complementary Medicine Law, whereby the Ministry of Health and Skills Development Department are looking at licensing of all blind and visually impaired masseurs.
“They have given us time and I am heading the committee to revamp the course content for for the blind and visually impaired masseurs in Malaysia, to which we are working very closely with these two authorities so that our standard is upheld.
“We are going to put up a course which is common to all masseurs, where we emphasise on therapeutic massage for healing of joint pains and body aches.
“I hope the new course content could be ready in one to two years’ time,” he told reporters after the launching of the state-level World Sight Day 2015 celebration held at the lobby of Wisma Sanyan here yesterday.
Nangka assemblyman Dr Annuar Rapaee represented Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Adenan Satem to officiate at the event.
Dr Hsiung, who is also president of Sarawak Society for the Blind, hoped that through the organised approach, all masseurs would eventually get a licence to practise in time to come.
He added this would also hone the masseurs’ skills.
As for the older masseurs, he said they were still working out an arrangement with the authorities, and are hoping for a favourable reply.
He also disclosed the only massage training centre for the blind and visually impaired in East Malaysia is based in Kuching, set up some eight years ago through the launching grant of RM150,000 from the Japanese government.
He pointed out the centre had trained about 200 people who are now practising masseurs.
“We want our blind and visually-impaired masseurs to specialise in the therapeutics massage so that in future, they can progress to treating injury sustained by sportsmen such as knee or hamstring.
“Golfers also suffer from shoulder and elbow injury. So, these are the areas we are going to indulge in so as to bring about better income to the graduands of our courses,” he said.
Towards this end, he said they were in the process of continuous upgrading of the centre so that the skills of graduands would be maintained and improved.
He said their current course runs for about a year, mostly on practical besides theory. In addition to that, there is also a refresher course for those already in practice to upgrade their skills.
Dr Hsiung said they have two instructors and occasionally, outsource for instructors from China, Penang, so that the skills of the trainees will be maintained at the highest level. Without proper training, I don’t see as bright a future for our blind masseurs.”
On another matter, he disclosed that the society’s expenditure runs into RM600,000 to RM700,000 annually.
He said the state government through Welfare Department provided it with a grant of about RM50,000 a year.
In his speech earlier, he said the society was established in 1963 and was revamped to get into some core business activities.
Among them included the use of ICT to help the blind and visually impaired through special software in their learning.
He said they had a full-pledge ICT lab manned by technicians, hoping that the blind and visually impaired could generate income from web technology.
National Council for the Blind Malaysia Jasmine Khoo also spoke, saying that blindness could be overcome as shown by the success stories of many blind and visually impaired.
Jasmine pointed to herself as a case-in-point, revealing that she was rejected by some companies as she has low vision and physical disabled.
She, however, managed to get into one company and worked her way up to do accounting and finance. She has served in the Society for the Blind for a long time.
“We at the council would like to appeal to MoH to privatise eyecare services for all and we have seen some improvement but much more can be done,” Khoo added.
At the same function, Rotary Club of Sibu presented a donation of 20 lens to Sarikei Hospital.
Dr Tay from Sarikei Hospital had approached satellite club of Sibu Sarikei to help more than 100 needy cataracts patients who have waited for more than two years for public help.
Rotary Club of District 3310, Rotary Club of Singapore, Rotary Club of Singapore West, Rotary Club of Bandar Sri Begawan and Rotary Club of Sibu and Bintulu Centre came up with 100 lens for the needy in Sarikei Hospital.