Nancy: Community leaders, district offices urged to work with ministries, depts in OKU registration

KUCHING (Dec 3):  Community leaders and district offices across Sarawak are advised to work with the ministries and their departments concerned to ensure that persons with disabilities (OKU) are registered with them.

In giving this advice, federal Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri said this is to help increase awareness of OKU registration, which remains low at present.

“I suggest that the community leaders and the various district offices get to know better the situation in their respective villages and areas.

“They can have joint activities with the Ministry of Health (MoH) and the state Welfare Department (JKM) to verify whether an individual or a child qualifies as OKU or not,” she said when met by reporters after launching the National OKU Day of 2023 Fun Walk at Padang Merdeka here.

According to Nancy, OKU verification must be done by a relevant specialist or doctor and such official confirmation is not easy particularly for those residing far from the urban.

She opined that it posed some challenges for those from rural areas to seek confirmation on OKU status from the appropriate doctor.

“Because of this, many of those outside the city are either not registered or lack awareness of the programme organised by the government.

“It is thus the responsibility of our ministry to ensure that our community is aware of what we are doing, including programmes like today, which offers OKU the opportunity to be registered and get help,” she said.

Nancy, who is also Santubong MP, said her ministry is presently also working on providing rehabilitation facilities for the OKU community in the state.

She said this is a necessary move given the challenge for the state ministry to send OKU to Peninsular Malaysia to undergo rehabilitation.

“So we suggest to turn those unused houses or institutions in Kuching into rehabilitation centres for OKU. It is a good sign that those houses or institutions are not being used, and they can be used as a shelter for rehabilitation for OKU,” she said.

On the National OKU Day 2023, she said it is celebrated on Dec 3 every year, and that the last celebration took place in Kuala Lumpur last year.

This year, Kuching was selected as the host, she said, adding: “I think it is appropriate for us to bring the celebration to Kuching because it has never been held in Sarawak.”

At present, Nancy said Sarawak had 22 Community Rehabilitation Centres and more than 200 OKU individuals joined the programme today.