Hsiung (standing fourth left) together with Hii (standing fifth left) and clients of the Sarawak Society for the Blind Kuching who are delighted over the donation of rattan at their centre yesterday.
KUCHING: The Sarawak Society for the Blind Kuching will be giving more emphasis to their rattan-weaving programme to generate more income.
The programme was given a boost from the state Forest Department which donated seven bundles of rattan worth RM3,000 to the society.
“We promise to make full use of this rattan to produce our iconic rattan baskets and provide more training in basket weaving,” said Sarawak Society for the Blind president Dato Dr Hsiung Kwo Yeun during a simple handing-over ceremony at its Kuching branch yesterday.
He also revealed that rattan being a raw material is very hard to come by throughout the whole state, with a market price of between RM18 to RM40 per kg.
Some of their members, he said, have also travelled to the Peninsular with a mission to buy and export the rattan back to the state which turned out fruitless.
“Besides Kuching, other branches in Sibu and Miri are also facing this shortage,” said Hsiung, adding that the society has at least 30 experienced rattan weavers under its care, who compete in a local rattan-weaving competition every two years.
Meanwhile, he also said that since 1963, the society has grown and expanded its role to the community by providing training and services.
Besides rattan weaving, its clients have also been trained to provide massage and build wood cages for chicks to be sold to chicken farms.
Since 2006, the society has also been providing a series of training in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) fields at all their branches.
“Now our clients are able to use computers and make friends across the globe, some of them more skilful in using the computer than I am,” he said in jest.
Other activities that the society is leading, he added, was awareness and prevention of blindness which besets the rural community which has little access to eye care.
He said the programme is also participated by specialist doctors who provide free eye-check as well as giving appointments and referrals to hospitals for serious cases.
“It is vital to detect eye problems especially in young children to prevent them from being partially or totally blind as they grow up,” he added.
During the handing-over ceremony, the rattan bundles were handed over to the society by the Sarawak Forestry Department assistant director Hii Tow Peck who was representing director Sapuan Ahmad.