Fatimah going over the Strategic Plan 2018-2020 together with Harden (left), Rosey (second right) and Abang Shamsudin.
KUCHING: Improving their delivery of services in ‘difficult areas’ in times of disaster is among the objectives that the state Welfare Department (JKM) wants to achieve this year.
It is part of their 13 new signature programmes aimed at helping them reach their 10 Strategic Objectives 2018-2020, listed under the JKM Sarawak Strategic Plan 2018-2020.
Welfare, Community Wellbeing, Women, Family and Childhood Development Minister Dato Sri Fatimah Abdullah said that they had some difficulty getting disaster relief to some rural areas and planned on running simulations to see how to improve their disaster management skills.
“JKM Sarawak is aware that the socio-economic level of groups such as special needs individuals, the hardcore poor, children, young offenders, disaster victims is low and vulnerable. JKM Sarawak will strive to improve their social and economic wellbeing, and do community rehabilitation,” she told reporters after a meeting at the Welfare Department here yesterday.
The new signature programmes will be introduced and implemented this year. JKM Sarawak will roll them out according to their capacity or approved budget.
They include increasing the responsibility of the community towards welfare services, increasing the independent capability of clients who are still productive, training more welfare workers, and increasing the wellbeing of communities in need.
“The road map for JKM Sarawak is ‘Moving forward in 2018 and beyond with innovations, entrepreneurial spirit and strategic partnering in providing its services and in effecting its delivery system to ensure better outreach, and greater impact on socioeconomic wellbeing of the needy and the disadvantaged’,” she said earlier.
The department’s three focal strategies encompass Excellent Capacity Building, Increasing Impactful Projects, and Increasing Impactful Strategic Cooperation.
Also present were Community Wellbeing Assistant Minister Datuk Francis Harden; Women, Family and Childhood Development Assistant Minister Rosey Yunus and JKM Sarawak director Abang Shamsudin Abang Seruji.
Meanwhile, JKM Sarawak expects to dole out around RM226.8 million in assistance to 58,081 recipients under the Federal Assistance Scheme and State Government Assistance Scheme.
Fatimah said the budget would be channelled either through monthly allowances or grants.
She pointed out that under the Federal Assistance Scheme, RM93 million had been set aside for 22,356 elderly recipients under the ‘Bantuan Orang Tua’ programme and more than RM35 million would be distributed to 11,813 children under the ‘Bantuan Kanak-Kanak’ programme while over RM15 million would be given as allowance to 3,314 disabled workers.
Under the same scheme, RM19 million has been set aside as assistance to 6,487 special needs individuals (OKU) who are unemployed while around RM8 million has been allocated for 1,935 caregivers of OKU/chronic bedridden patients and RM48,000 has been set aside for 16 recipients under the ‘Bantuan Anak Pelihara’ programme, she added.
Under the State Government Assistance Scheme, she said a sum of over RM30 million has been allocated to 11,150 recipients under ‘Bantuan Am’ and RM36,000 has been set aside for 10 recipients under ‘Bantuan Belia Beliawanis’.
An additional RM11 million in federal funds has been set aside as assistance fund and over RM5 million in state funds has been set aside as disaster fund, and RM6.8 million allocated as economic development fund for 1,000 recipients.