Centre succeeds in training the blind to secure jobs

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SANDAKAN: Taman Cahaya at Pekan Muhibbah, Rancangan Sungai Manila, Mile 12, Sandakan has a very high success rate in training the blind to join the employment market.

Since the day of its inception, almost 100 per cent of the graduates are successful in getting a job after leaving the centre.

Taman Cahaya is the only training centre for the blind in Sabah to date. The centre is run by an NGO, namely the Sabah Society for the Blind.

The centre was established in 1970 to provide a school for blind people to learn basic and trade skills so that they could become independent and self-sustained.

Its current location was made available by the State Government.  About five years ago, Chief Minister Tan Sri Haji Musa bin Haji Aman, who is also the State Assemblyman of Sungai Sibuga, a constituency where the centre is located, assisted the centre to build a hall, training rooms and quarters, upgrade its facilities and training equipment and refurbish all the existing buildings.

As a result, Taman Cahaya now has  a very good, comfortable and conducive environment for learning and living.

Usually each resident will spend about a year in the centre to learn various skills such as reading the braille language, using the computer, doing handicraft and massage.

After graduating from the centre, the graduates will be capable of living a normal life as a normal person.

They can even go through courtship, get married, set up a family and have children. Despite that both parents may be blind, they are equipped with the necessary skills and capabilities to take care and raise their babies and children.

Even though Taman  Cahaya receive a grant from the government every year, it is still not enough to defrayits  costs and expenses.

Therefore, the centre always requires and welcomes contributions and assistance from the public to help it to continue its benevolent journey to reach out and to help more blind people to be independent and self-sustained.

The centre also always welcomes and encourages blind people to enrol into its training so that more blind people can live a normal life despite of their inadequacy.

It will continue to do its best to create awareness of its cause and hereby urges the public to spread the availability of the training provided by the centre to the general public and to encourage any blind people whom they know to enrol into it.

Meanwhile, Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) Central Youth Movement led by their Youth Chief, Tsang Hieng Yee hosted a luncheon for the residents of Taman Cahaya in conjunction with the recent Christmas and New Year celebrations.

Together with them were Karamunting assemblyman Datuk Charles O Pang, LDP Supreme Council members Datuk Edward Wong and Wong Chung On, Sungai Sibuga Division chairman Lam Jin Dak, all divisional youth chiefs, Women’s movement and party members.

During the visit, LDP Youth feted the residents with a buffet lunch and donated a blood pressure machine to the centre. The entourage was also entertained by the residents who performed and sang for them.

The entourage from LDP was received by the advisor of the centre, Haji Ibrahim Abd Hamid and the deputy president of the Sabah Society for the Blind, Sandakan Branch, Peter Chong.

Thereafter, the entourage was brought to a tour around the centre where they given explanation and introduced to the facilities available in the centre and the types of training that are provided to the residents there.