A trainer assists a hyperactive child to exercise.
MIRI: Despite the wide coverage by local mainstream media on community-based rehabilitation centres (PDKs), many people are not aware of their role in training physically and mentally challenged people (OKU).
Speaking to The Borneo Post recently, supervisor of PDK Piasau, Chiong Bee Lan, revealed that many a time members of the public treated the centre like a nursery.
“There are too many cases whereby one of the family members is OKU and they choose to keep him or her in the house. Until he or she has reached a certain age and is hard to control only then they consider taking the OKU to our centre,” Chiong said.
“The older generation has misconception on what PDK does and how we can help the OKU in the community. We are not merely taking care of them as it is the responsibility of their own families.
“However, we help nurture and train them in a way that they can at least take care of themselves, identify harm and danger as well as learn to protect themselves.”
Chiong said the centre has a variety of useful programmes that can help the OKU.
“The programmes very much depend on individual disabilities such as being mute or blind, speech impairment, low development, cerebral palsy, retardation and the worst case would be multiple conditions like Down’s syndrome with hyperactivity.
“All these years, Pibakis (Association of Parents with Special Children) adopts and carries out Early Intervention Programme (EIP) implemented by the government and assisted by Social Welfare Department to help stimulate all areas of the child’s development like gross motor, fine motor, language/communications, social functional skills and living self-help,” she said.
Adding on, she said the PDK also provides physiotherapy, occupational therapy and other beneficial care for the children.
Meanwhile, the Day Training Programme (DTP) teaches the trainees living skills such as personal care, domestic living, functional academics skills, vocational skills, art and craft as well as recreation and leisure.
“The best example is that these trainees are trained and make crafts like floor mat that they can sell for pocket money. It is a great lesson in life for them,” she said.
Besides, Chiong added, the trainees are taught additional skills like performing traditional dances, cycling, morning walk and physical exercise session that can help keep them healthy.
“Over the years, we have always been there to teach the trainers to pick up on their needs. It’s a real challenging task that requires a lot of patience for trainers who teach and guide the trainees. Of course, from time to time, we need to attend courses to improve ourselves so that we can be more creative when thinking of different ways to teach the trainees.”
Chiong who has been working with OKU for over 30 years also shared her experience and thoughts.
“I have always thought that it is not only us, the teachers teaching them something. In return, they also taught us something valuable in life.
“The community has wrongfully thought that they are dangerous and difficult to handle. But the truth is, if they are trained correctly since young, they too can live as ‘normal’ as the rest of us,” she said.
Parents, on the other hand, must not be ashamed of their children’s condition, Chiong added.
“To be honest, there are many parents comparing the OKU child to their siblings. But that never makes them less of a human or less as their child. Hence, I would always consult the parents to have the right mentality in handling such cases,” she said.
Currently, Piasau PDK has 364 special children/trainees registered with Pibakis, with 136 of them at the centre for daily programmes and activities. There are 22 staff members and volunteers to take care of them.
For the record, 24 trainees had attended school either in special education school, normal school and/or nursery with some of them taking up jobs in IT network, computer reading, IT class and as class assistant and gym assistant.