GEORGE TOWN, Jan 1 — The Malaysian Federation of the Deaf (MFD) has proposed that local councils in Penang set aside special annual allocations to help the disabled in the state.
Its president, Mohd Sazali Shaari, pointed out that Kuala Lumpur City Hall has an annual RM2 million allocation to help the disabled either through projects or activities.
“We feel that it would be a lot of help to the disabled if the local government in Penang also does the same by having such an allocation as it would do a lot to relieve the funding issues most disabled non-governmental organisations face,” he told the Malay Mail Online in a recent interview.
He noted that developed countries such as Sweden, Finland and Denmark have a special budget under their local councils to hire interpreters for the deaf.
“So, in Penang, if they can create such a budget, then we can train more interpreters to assist the deaf,” he said.
There are about 4,000 hearing impaired individuals in Penang and 30,000 in the country.
Mohd Sazali said the deaf are often forgotten when it comes to public donations because their disability is not as apparent as those in wheelchairs or the visually impaired.
“People can’t see our disability, they can only see that we can walk fine and we can work so they often don’t understand the challenges we have to face,” he said.
The deaf do not need any special infrastructure such as accessible pathways like for the blind and the wheelchair-bound but they do need interpreters to communicate with people, he said.
In Penang, there are currently only two interpreters to help the 4,000 deaf in the state for various situations such as in hospitals, in court, in schools and at the workplace, which Mohd Sazali said is not enough.
“We have to pay our interpreters salaries each month and rental for our centres so we do need funds to cover these costs as allocations from the government is not enough,” he said.
The association usually sells sign language books, calendars and organise activities such as jumble sales and fun runs to raise funds but these were not enough.
“We also organise awareness programmes so that the people know and understand what it’s like to be deaf and the difficulties we faced in communicating and this way, hopefully, we will get more donors,” he said.
The Penang Deaf Association is currently in the midst of hosting a special seminar for the management and education of the deaf blind co-organised by the MFD and the National Council for the Blind Malaysia.
“We need about RM30,000 for the seminar as we are inviting specialists from Japan who are well-versed in programmes for the deaf blind including two speakers who are deaf blind,” he said.
He said they are aware of about 50 deaf blind people in the country and hoped the seminar could assist families and caregivers of deaf blind children and adults.
The seminar and a workshop for caregivers of the deaf blind is scheduled to be held between January 28 and 31. Find out more by sending an email to [email protected] or visiting www.pda.org.my and www.mfd.org.my.
