World Cerebral Palsy Day is held on the 6th October, every year, to enhance awareness of the condition. This year, the Persatuan Cerebral Palsy Johor took part in the event and opened their doors to the public so they could learn more about living with cerebral palsy and introduce them to the kinds of training programs designed to improve coordination, balance, and manual dexterity amongst other things.
Mr. Thiyagarajah (Board Director, in red shirt above) showed me around the facilities and I observed the immence patience of the teachers as they encouraged the children with the tasks at hand. We visited the workroom where the older clients made handicrafts which are sold in a shop on the premises.
I watched a young girl practicing walking upright, something we ordinarily take for granted. Providing facilities like this, with trained instructors, is very expensive; each of these blue mats alone cost RM800 and I must say they were lovely to walk on being very tactile.
The physiotherapy room above was sponsored by Herseys, and the sensory room shown on the right was sponsored by Macdonalds. This room was designed as a calming space and this young boy was mesmerised by the bubbles and floating fish in the vertical tubes. If he clapped his hands, the lights changed colour.
The Persatuan Cerebral Palsy Johor is classified as a NGO but currently only receives 25% of its required budget from the government, the rest of the funds comes from donations. Currently the association is at risk of shutting down as financial reserves become depleted. So, if you think you can help in any way, please contact them through their Facebook page.
One of the themes of World Cerebral Palsy Day was "Lend A Hand Be A Friend” and buildings around the world would be lit in green for the day. For this year, the association encouraged everyone to wear green and the rooms were decorated with green balloons.
The association was very pleased that Y.A.M. Tunku Idris Iskandar Alhaj ibni Sultan Ibrahim, Tunku Temenggong Johor, came to see today’s activities (shown below with Sukhjit Kaur). Everyone wanted their photo taken with him, and the children got quite excited when he joined in their games.
The green hearts on the board were part of the Cerebral Palsy Friendship Wall where people could leave messages. This particularly appealed to the school children who had been brought here today by their teacher.
Other groups of youngsters present today were those training to be physiotherapists or occupational therapists.
Other special visitors were the wife of the Chief Minister of Johor and her entourage.
To help inform and educate the visitors, we had dentists and suppliers of rehabilitation equipment.
And, to remind everyone that this was a world event, these lovely young ladies wore their special World Cerebral Palsy Day teeshirts.
And more photos were taken….
Then at 1 pm local time, the whole world “Moved As One”. Here in Johor Bahru we watched a demonstration of the paralympic game Boccia. It is a bit like bowls where you aim your ball to get as close as possible to the target white ball.
Finally I got the chat with a couple of young people who had benefited so much themselves from the training available here. Ms. Elyn Lim and Mr. Al Asyraf are two inspiring independent young people and both said that their dream was for the community to give more support and encouragement to people like themselves.
So, don’t forget “Lend a Hand, Be a Friend”.
Click here to go to Persatuan Cerebral Palsy Johor Facebook page.
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