PRODUCTIVE WELFARE: Fatimah (centre) inspects vegetables at Madam Goh’s natural farm in Lundu. Assisted by non-governmental organisation (NGO) Breakthrough Centre, farms such as this aim to help low income families improve their standard of living. If land is not available give hydroponics a try.
LAST week, at Kampung Tabuan Hilir in Kuching, disabled residents of that village were selected to participate in what is basically an experiment aimed at encouraging recipients of welfare aid to help themselves and not to be sorely dependent on government assistance all the time.
The Minister of Women, Welfare and Family Development Datuk Fatimah Abdullah, who officiated at the function, had apparently conceived a new idea of helping the disabled members of the community.
“In the past, we used to give out money and hampers for Raya. But this year we are changing our approach and emphasising productive welfare to help the recipients break out of poverty,” she said.
A practicable innovation, I would add.
This would be an effective way for the disadvantaged members of our society to earn extra income for their daily needs while waiting for the effects of the national policy on poverty eradication to trickle down to their level. We all know about the constraints of the implementation of such a policy when the pulls and punches of other interests may have to be factored in. However, never stop dreaming of a complete eradication of poverty in our society.
New approach for all
The new approach is simple. To enable the handicapped villagers to make cakes for sale during Ramadan and for the celebration later, they were given yellow kits which contained baking ingredients; those having an interest in gardening and are mobile enough received green kits. The latter group were supplied with vegetable seeds, tools and instructions on how to plant them.
Good luck to the cake makers and green fingers of the village.
Good for all occasions
To me, this new concept looks good for all occasions – during Ramadan, after Ramadan and, if it works, ought to be adopted by other disabled in the state, irrespective of their religious beliefs. There are so many people out there who need help urgently and their number may well be more than the present statistics convey.
At the presentation of the Raya gifts, the minister kindly revealed to the press that for the first six months of this year alone, the sum of RM60.2 million had been released by the Welfare Department to 47,097 recipients drawn from all districts in Sarawak. Among them were 17,272 elderly folk (RM28.2 million); 12,500 children (RM15.4 million); 1,940 disabled workers (RM2.7 million); unemployed disabled folk (RM2.1 million) and the rest of the money (RM 6.7 million) was for general expenses connected with welfare services including looking after five foster children.
These are the people on the list of recipients registered with the Welfare Department. Are there any more people with disabilities who are not registered? How often is the survey made of people throughout Sarawak who need welfare aid? Let’s see the latest figure.
There will be another six months to go and the expenditure incurred in looking after our disabled people of various categories may be mounting as the population is not getting any younger but is living longer. In this connection there has been a suggestion for our statesmen to think in terms of working towards a welfare state like New Zealand.
For the moment, however, we will leave that discussion to another time. Such a proposal needs the thorough study of the present system of government involving a political ideology and shift of the mindset on the part of the leaders of the country. That’s the subject we are not touching on this time around.
Try hydroponics
Let the cake makers do the baking and selling them while we continue with the other part of the productive welfare scheme. As an extension of that scheme, the more able of the disabled should also be encouraged to plant fruit trees such as papaya and bananas for the market. In fact, several young OKU, except the blind, have been doing just that. For example, our old friend Frusis Lebi whose welfare allowance was withdrawn for a political reason.
The market for fresh vegetables is good. For these, the more able of the disabled require a small plot of land somewhere preferably near the house. To those living in the rural areas, this does not pose a real problem but for those living in flats or the housing estates or a village like Sungai Apong, planting vegetables by hydroponics (without the medium of soil) may be an alternative to using soil. Worth a try.
Sustained interest
For the productive welfare scheme to succeed, interest in each and every project, yellow or green, must be sustained. The participants must be constantly motivated and funds must be made available whenever needed.
Initially, someone has to provide supervision and management for the projects. In this respect, retired officers of the Department of Agriculture may be able to help with advice on good husbandry. I remember that in the early 1970s, the local branch of the Malaysian Leprosy Relief Association (Malra) was given a piece of land by the government for the planting of cocoa and vegetables by the cured inmates of the Rajah Charles Brooke Memorial Hospital in Kuching. For that project, a retiree of the department, Valentine Siricord, volunteered his service.
The cocoa project was successful until the price of the commodity went down; the vegetables had a marketing problem. The superstition and myth associated with leprosy discouraged consumers from buying vegetables planted by the former inmates though they had been fully cured and leading a normal life. But the stiff competition from the vegetable gardeners at Siburan at the time was the main reason for the poor demand of the vegetables. While the cocoa project lasted, it generated some extra income for the planters and the vegetable plots provided them with fresh vegetables every day. Money for veggies and fruits was safely saved for the rainy days.
This is a good example of how a small project can help people discover the importance of their self-respect and renewed confidence in life. There is every possibility that the productive welfare projects would be a success if the interest of the participants as well as that of the department itself can be sustained for a number of years. Like the vegetables, without fertiliser or tender care novel ideas, such as the productive welfare scheme, may die out before they take root for lack of public support.
No one expects the scheme to have an impact on the poverty eradication programme; if it has the effect of creating confidence on the part of the recipients of the welfare aid and of generating a bit of income out of those yellow and green kits, the exercise will have been a success. And if a fair number out of the over 40,000 souls in our midst can benefit from the scheme, the programme will catch on fast – a journey of a thousand miles beginning with the first step. The rest of the disabled will still need cash for food, medicine and general looking after – all requiring funds apart from love and moral support from the community as a whole.
Success stories
The Honourable Minister can rest assured that the press will report on any success story of the scheme that’s ready.