KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 27 — See Choy Yuen is 19 and has no problem busting a move when the music comes on.
He does this without hesitation every time he goes to the Gem & Bread Special Needs Support Group in Damansara Utama.
See and other young people with special needs head to the centre from Tuesday to Friday, where he learns living skills, and where dance and drama therapy are emphasised.
He also makes and sells items where he gets some of the money made from the sale of the items.
“I really like dancing, the hip hop class and I love all my friends here,” said See, who has Down Syndrome and has been going to the centre since it started in 2014.
Gem & Bread has been striving to alter the perception of Malaysians and remove the stigma attached to special needs youths and their capabilities.
Gem & Bread provides a safe, caring and friendly environment for adolescents and youths with various learning and physical difficulties including autism, ADHD, ADD, Dyslexia, Down syndrome and cerebral palsy.
Located in SS21, Damansara Utama, the Gem & Bread centre aims to equip special needs youths with practical living and social skills like personal care, home management, health management, job training and artistic education.
This holistic approach, its founders hope will help young adults with special needs thrive better.
Their founders, Teresa Tan and Sharanya Radhakrishnan realised early on that there were many special needs young people, who struggled in the workforce due to a lack of awareness about their disabilities.
There is also a lack of institutions in Malaysia for them to further their studies.
This has resulted in a number of them accepting menial jobs, like becoming packers and shelf stackers or carrying out dull office work, which fails to stimulate them and forces them to work in isolation.
According to the Gem & Bread, this results in special needs youths to often feel socially withdrawn and lonely and can severely damage their confidence and social skills.
“There is absolutely no awareness in Malaysia. It has to improve, people with special needs children understand, but there has to be a greater awareness of having education post-school,” said Sharanya during an interview with Malay Mail.
“The right to education is a basic human right that special needs youths deserve. What’s the point of spending all that money to educate them at school, only for them to go into a job like packaging?”
She added that if given the opportunity, and proper guidance, they could learn new skills.
Sharanya, 29, shared that in the past, a few of their students who ventured into the workforce endured uncomfortable and tough situations, working at convenience stores and as packers for fast-food chains.
“We had a student with high-functioning autism who was working in a convenience store where they had a coach who would train them and guide them for a month,” said Sharanya.
“After the coach had left, he was on his own and became uncomfortable, so he freaked out and quit, now he justs sits at home.”
Sharanya also said that another one of their students, who grew into a “vibrant and socially amazing” young woman while at the centre, was traumatised when she was left on her own while working as a packer for a fast-food restaurant.
“It’s not our job to change the special needs youths, it’s our jobs to change the attitudes of others and how they perceive these youths, that has to change, but that is on such a huge scale,” said Sharanya.
“A lot of people ask us why ‘Gem & Bread’, they think we are a bakery or we sell bread, although we do bake, that’s not the case,” said Tan.
“‘Gem’ is about the children because they are our gems, and ‘Bread’ is because people commonly associate bread with sustainability and livelihood, so it’s about the life skills that we can provide to them.”
Tan, 60, who is the mother of a special needs child, added that with their arts-based curriculum, they are able to stimulate their students and cater to each individual’s needs through activities like dance therapy and drama therapy.
The youths also weave floor mats, bead jewellery and make quill art greeting cards which they sell to help run the centre and are rewarded with a cut from the profits.
Gem & Bread also turn its centre into a mock cafe every Thursday, where they are given a chance to gain work experience by serving customers, handling money and using a cash register, apart from helping to cook the meals.
Tan said a number of their students like See Choy Yuen and Raveena Sivakumar, have become bright young individuals, as they look forward to coming down to the centre every day because of the interesting new skills that they learn.
“Raveena has cerebral palsy, and when she first came here her fists were clenched and she couldn’t open them, and she struggled for a while,” said Tan.
“After a year and a half of doing activities like weaving and beading, which are intricate and fine motor skills, her fingers were strengthened and she can spread them out now.”
She added that 17-year-old Raveena now helps other students to weave mats, and can even bead bracelets and anklets faster than anyone at the centre.
However, being an NGO, funding is always a major issue, despite the encouraging progress of the youths.
In an attempt to raise funds and awareness about special needs youths and their capabilities, Gem & Bread is set to host a charity dinner and jazz night called Raise The Bar, on October 10 at Bobo Kuala Lumpur.
The fundraiser, which champions its cause called RAISE (Raise Awareness & Support Inclusion in Special Education), aims to spread as much awareness as they can so that Malaysians understand the different intellectual disabilities and behaviours of special needs youths.
If you’re interested to attend the charity dinner and jazz night you can e-mail [email protected] or contact Teresa at 017-356 5333 or Sharanya at 012-389 7160, for more information.
If you are keen on donating and offering financial assistance, donations should be made payable to: RHB bank account 2-12349-0005218-0 (Persatuan Kebajikan Permata Istimewa Gem & Bread).
