Donate old Computer and TV for tax deductible receipt

Do you know how much money you actually donated to charity when you give away your recyclable items? Now, you can receive a tax deductible receipt when you donate your old computer, TV and electrical items to Beautiful Gate Foundation PJ Centre. Contact us at info@beautifulgate.org.my, or beautifulgate1993@gmail.com.

甲洞无障碍设施缺轮椅斜道 残疾者冒险闯虎口

甲洞无障碍设施缺轮椅斜道 残疾者冒险闯虎口

2010/07/16 6:17:42 PM

●南洋商报

（吉隆坡16日讯）甲洞区无障碍设施中看不中用，残疾人士被逼使用马路，冒险与汽车“赛跑”，才能抵达目的地，旁人看得心惊胆战！

甲洞与增江一带是残疾人士聚集地，单是甲洞卫星市就有130名靠轮椅代步的残疾人，他们经常使用分别衔接卫星市与孟加拉拉镇及美娜园的两座“友谊桥”，到工作、上课或聚会地点。

即使有关两座友谊桥及路旁都设有残疾设施，但中看不中用，镶嵌地砖与导盲砖的人行道，却独缺轮椅斜道，轮椅使用者被逼使用马路，与汽车“争”车道，甚至“驶”上高架天桥，旁人不禁为他们的安危忧心。

缺德车主霸位停车

更甚的是，虽然甲洞区部分无障碍设施符合标准，既设有导盲砖，也有轮椅斜道，但是，很多缺德的车主却在人行道上违例停车，轮椅使用者同样被逼使用马路。

Japan Embassy provides recycling jobs for the disabled

Japan Embassy provides recycling jobs for the disabled

Hafizah Hoze Rizal

 

Wednesday, July 14th, 2010 10:56:00

ALL-ROUND GOOD: Wheelchair-bound Matthew Seow, 33, and Katrina Low, 25, discarding waste into the recycle bin at the Pandamaran Chinese Methodist Church in Port Klang yesterday. — Pic: SALHANI IBRAHIM

PORT KLANG: More recycling bins will be installed in Klang town as the Embassy of Japan has donated 50 recycle bins to the Beautiful Gate Foundation For The Disabled (Beautiful Gate) yesterday.
The handing-over ceremony, held at the Pandamaran Chinese Methodist Church, was officiated by Japan's Ambassador to Malaysia, Masahiko Horie and witnessed by Selangor State executive councillor Ronnie Liu and Beautiful Gate chairman Boh Che Suan.
Horie said the recycle bins came under the Embassy of Japan's Grant Assistance for Grassroots Human Security Projects Scheme.
"We find this meaningful as it offers job opportunities to the disabled. Not only that, through this, we are indirectly encouraging the public to recycle more often," he said.
"We want the public to develop the value of the 3Rs, which is reduce, reuse and recycle. It is crucial to practice the 3Rs as our natural resources are disappearing fast."
Beautiful Gate has been actively involved in recycling activities since 2007. Last year, they submitted a proposal to the Japanese embassy in order to expand the recycling activities and were granted RM155,000 on March 11 this year.
Beautiful Gate executive director Sia Siew Chin said: "Most of the disabled are jobless, so we started the recycling activities in 2007. Through such activities, the disabled are able to gain job experience. At first, it was pretty hard to encourage people to recycle. But now, many understand the importance of recycling."
A resident at Beautiful Gate, 32-year-old Lau Meng Hung, expressed his gratitude over the recycling activities.
"I have tried finding jobs but many rejected me as I am disabled. But through these recycling activities, I have gained a lot of experience such as knowing how to sort the materials accordingly," said Lau, a Sarawakian who has been living at the foundation's home for three years.
Another resident, 27-year-old Lim Chow Tee was ecstatic when asked how she felt.
"I am very happy. The foundation has helped me a lot," said Lim, who is disabled due to an accident.
"We feel appreciated when we are involved in such activities. We may not be educated, but we can learn to expand our working skills."
Beautiful Gate was founded in 2003 and established its first home in Petaling Jaya. Subsequently, more homes were set up in Kuala Lumpur, Perak, Negri Sembilan and Malacca.

Disabled fight adversity for education

By LEE YUK PENG

PETALING JAYA: For the sake of a proper education, they have to go through terrible hardship — like attending school in diapers or urinating in bottles.

Gan Mun Wai, 13, from Ipoh and Kenny Lee Man Jun, 13, from Klang are students with special needs studying at SMK Sri Permata near here. Until recently, the school had no toilet facilities for such students.

“We want to achieve our dreams,” said Mun Wai.

Mun Wai, who has suffered from spina bifida (split spine) since birth, was forced to wear pampers to school while Man Jun, who has muscular dystrophy had to urinate into a bottle before pouring it into the toilet.

Special kids: Gan Mun Wai (behind in green tie), Ooi Wai Chong (with a red school bag), Kam Yu Choi, Leong Yao Wen and Kenny Lee Man Jun, getting ready for school.

However, 10 months after both Gan and Lee started starting going to the school, it managed to secure additional allocation to modify a store room into a disabled-friendly toilet.

School principal Ong Hock Thye said the Petaling Utama district education office approved the RM15,000 allocation after several follow-ups.

Next year, another student with special needs, Song Pei Xuan, will be joining the boys in the school.

Pei Xuan has also faced great difficulty in completing her primary school education in SS2 near here.

She had to wear diapers to school and a maid would have to change her diapers during recess everyday as the school also did not have a disabled-friendly toilet.

All three are currently staying at Beautiful Gate Foundation for the Disabled in SS2 and they are sent to school everyday by a disabled-friendly van.

They are among six students — three in primary schools — who are staying at the foundation.

Three other boys, Kam Yu Choi, Leong Yao Wen and Ooi Wai Chang, are currently attending other schools which do not have toilet facilities for students with special needs.

Source: The Star

EASY TARGETS: Disabled must be protected

DR A. SOORIAN, Seremban

IT was shocking to read reports that criminals have no qualms about targeting the disabled and the elderly. We are told that even charity-based centres are not spared.

Also, the blind are not let alone. They are molested, whether on the streets or in the passageways of their abode. When they lodge police reports, they are not taken seriously. Braille is not available to them when it comes to filling forms.

The deaf are also disadvantaged as police officers are not trained in sign language.

Incidents of the disabled being targeted by criminals never emerged on our mainstream radar before but now seem to be commonplace. The saddest part of it all is that these handicapped victims are overly vulnerable to attack and abuse by criminals at large. And they suffer in silence.

Generally, our country is prosperous and its people compassionate. It is high time a national long-term care scheme (including insurance) for the seriously disabled was launched.

We sometimes groan and moan over minor inconveniences we face, but surely these pale into insignificance when compared with the life sentence of agony and victimisation of these disabled and elderly folk.

Most handicapped victims of crime suffer in silence as they often fail to be taken seriously by the police. KUALA LUMPUR. 08.03.08. General Election 2008 SPR helper guide blind voters Lim Chee Wah 48yrs and Oui Kee Heyoh 52yrs to the polling centre at SK methodist Brickfields P-120 Bukit Bintang . pic by S.Sugumaran Sources: NST Online

Move to employ more disabled people in Johor

JOHOR BARU: The state government, with the help of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has set-up a People with Disabilities Employment Unit to encourage more employers to hire people with disabilities.

Menteri Besar Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman said the unit would provide employers with a data bank of people with disabilities whom they could hire.

It will also act as a support system where those selected will be given training that is suitable for the job.

"The setting up of this unit is one of Johor's efforts to increase the number of people with disabilities in the workforce," he said after opening a national conference on employment and disability here yesterday.

Also present were Social Welfare Department director-general Datuk Meme Zainal Rashid and UNDP assistant resident representative James George Chacko.

Ghani said the setting up of the unit was due to the success of an employment model jointly developed by UNDP and the State Economic Planning Unit. He said the state's immediate target was to fulfil the one per cent quota of employment for people with disabilities in government agencies.

"From there, we hope to expand it to the private sector," he added.

Ghani said for too long, people with disabilities had been discouraged by discriminatory barriers and mistaken assumptions about their capacity to work, causing most of them to withdraw from an active search for jobs and rely on either disability benefits or eke out a livelihood in low value-added work in the informal economy with support from their family.

"With the setting up of this unit, support will be made available to job-seekers with disabilities," he added.

The special unit can be reached at 07-2266618.

Meme said the move by Johor in setting up the unit was a major first step since Malaysia become a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in April last year.

"People with disabilities in this country should no longer be treated as passive recipients of assistance or as a burden to society, but rather as active contributors to society to achieve the goals of development for all," she said.

Meme hoped other states would also follow suit and set up similar units to assist people with disabilities.

Sources: NST Online

Municipal council to provide facilities for disabled in SS15

I AM disabled and have just moved to Subang Jaya from Klang. I am living in SS15. I enjoy living in this area as it has facilities that I need such as banks and restaurants.

Most of the time, I venture out on my own using my wheelchair.

Sometimes, I face difficulties going to certain parts of SS15 because of the curbs, uneven roads and other obstructions.

Is the council planning to make SS15 disabled-friendly to cater to people like me?

Senior citizens will also benefit from the disabled-friendly facilities.

Lim Khiew Wheng


DATUK ADNAN: The commercial area of SS15 was the first phase of development in Subang Jaya that was carried out by Sime UEP at the end of the 1970s.

It is undeniable that in the development plans put forward before 2000, there was no emphasis on the needs and facilities for the disabled.

However, after 2000, the Selangor Town and Country Planning Department, through the Local Agenda 21 programme, stated that the needs and facilities of the disabled must be taken into consideration.

This is stipulated in the development guidelines prepared by the Peninsular Malaysia Town and Country Planning Department.

In the guidelines, the facilities that have to be provided for the disabled include car parks, ramps for wheelchairs in commercial buildings, recreational parks, offices and high-rise residential buildings, as well as disabled-friendly toilets and lifts.

These facilities are stated in the development consent which developers have to adhere to.

In the case of older developed areas such as SS15, the council has identified disabled-friendly facilities that can be provided or upgraded.

These include disabled-friendly facilities at bus stops, pedestrian crossings and walkways from carparks to business premises.

At the moment, we are working with public transport concessionaires, such as Rapid KL and Metro, to build disabled-friendly facilities at existing bus stops to make it easier for the disabled to board buses.

The council is deeply concerned with facilities for the disabled. In 2007, we won the Building and Facilities For The Disabled Award in the government buildings category.

Source: Street, NST Online