BE PROACTIVE: Shukeri (second left) presents certificates of participation to Gustisuandi Busuan, representing participants from Sarawak, witnessed by Dr Tiun (partly hidden), Jamil (second right) and others.
MIRI: Out of 28 million people in the country, it is estimated that five to ten per cent are disabled.
Assistant director of Ministry of Youth and Sports (KBS) Miri Division, Mohamad Shukeri Drahman disclosed that more than 300,000 disabled people have registered with the Welfare Department throughout the country.
However, Shukeri said there are still many more who have yet to register with the department due to the lack of regulation on compulsory registration.
“More than 2 million people in the country have been classified as disabled and the number is relatively big.
“Most of them do not have the opportunity like normal people to attend special courses related to the disabled. Thus, I strongly feet there is a need to educate the community by disseminating information on these group of people,” he said in his address at the closing of the People with Different Disabilities Handling Course, Miri Zone 2012 at Dynasty Hotel here on Sunday.
Touching on the role of KBS, he said the ministry has never neglected the needs of the disabled while carrying out sports and youth development in the country.
“Various programmes have been planned for the whole year and most of them have been successfully implemented including the mass sport development, community sports, minority sports and sports for the disabled and development of athletes,” he said.
In addition to that, KBS is also committed to providing technical training and sport management.
He said KBS, through agencies like Youth and Sports Department (JBS), National Sport Institute (ISN) and National Sport Council (MSN), had responded positively to the call made by the government under the 1Malaysia concept, which strongly emphasises on “People First, Performance Now”.
In view of that, KBS had taken various steps and strategies to improve and increase its productivity by implementing various programmes under the smart partnership concept.
Commenting on the course, he said some 60 participants attended the course at Labuan, Sabah and Sarawak.
They were youth and sport officers, officers from government agencies, coaches, technical officers, volunteers and non-governmental organisations (NGO).
It was organised by KBS in collaboration with Sarawak Youth and Sports Department, Sabah Youth and Sports Department, Labuan Territory Youth and Sports Department and Disabled Persons Sports and Recreational Association (Pesron) of Sarawak.
He hoped the participants emerging from the course would play their role proactively by helping the disabled community directly or through other channels.
Also present were Malaysia Sports Department and Disabled Persons and Recreational Association’s (Masron) chairman Prof Dr Tiun Ling Ta, who is also the chairman of Penang Pesron, and Sarawak Pesron chairman Jamil Adam.