Dear DASwk family and friends,
Happy New Year 2019! May you and your families be blessed with all that
are beautiful and good this year.
2018 has been one of our most memorable years! We were pleasantly
surprised to be selected as the Excellent NGO in Sarawak (NGO Cemerlang) in conjunction with the State-level Women’s Day
celebration in November. I must thank and record my heartfelt gratitude and
appreciation to:
·
* Our Honorable Advisor, YB Dato Seri Hajah
Fatimah Abdullah, Minister of Welfare, Community Wellbeing, Women, Family and
Childhood Development
·
* Our Patron, YBhg Datin Hajjah Azerina Mohd Arip
·
* All committee members, members, staff and parents
for your most kind support and continuing help to Dyslexia Sarawak (DASwk)
that enable us to be recognized for this award by the Chief Minister.
We thank Sarawak
Energy Bhd. for providing us an opportunity to work again with Penan children
of re-settled families in remote Sek Keb Metalun (6 hrs from Bintulu) in our Literacy for Social Inclusion program to
enhance the reading and writing skills of these children in BM and English. In
2016-2017, the US Embassy of Kuala Lumpur and our collaborators - Sarawak
Energy Bhd and State Education Department provided us the means to conduct both
BM and English literacy programs among Penan children of re-settled families in
Sek Keb Tegulang, also in Murum, Sarawak. In addition, DASwk with the US
Embassy of Kuala Lumpur, Institute of Ethnic Studies of Universiti Kebangsaan
Malaysia (UKM) and Department of Orang Asli Development of Hulu Langat,
Selangor conducted literacy camps for Temuan orang asli children of Kampung
Kachau Luar in Ulu Semenyih and Kpg Gabai, Dusun Tua of Selangor. Many of these
orang asli children had either dropped out early from school or had never been
in school.
Having a deep
concern for poor literacy among children and young adults of marginalized
communities and sensing their thirst for mastery of literacy to improve life’s
opportunities, I express our gratitude to The EDGE KL Rat Race 2017 for the
fund to advance the BM literacy skills of Penan children in Murum, Sarawak and
Temuan orang asli children & young adults in Ulu Semenyih in the program ‘Pemerkasaan Kanak-Kanak Remaja dan Orang Asli Temuan untuk
Keterangkuman dan Mobiliti Sosial’. At the end of the program
throughout 2018, many of the participants who were non-literate were able to
read and write short passages in BM. Much
thanks and appreciation to our collaborators – Sarawak Energy Bhd, Sarawak
State Education Department, Social Welfare Council of Sarawak, Institute of Ethnic
Studies of UKM and Department of Orang Asli Development of Hulu Langat,
Selangor.
Undoubtedly, 2018 has been a
remarkable year for us. Our mission to
advocate for children and young adults with dyslexia and other learning
disabilities has been gaining strong foothold among various government
agencies, educational institutions, non-governmental organisations, parents,
teachers and the general public. They have given us increasing support and
recognition in the following programmes:
· Our SMARTER*phonics
programme has been adopted by the state government and is currently being used
in all pre-schools of the State Education Department for the second year.
· Character Building Camp 2018 at Gunung Gading National Park, Lundu for
children with dyslexia and other learning disabilities in collaboration with
State Social Welfare and Forestry Departments.
· 7th Annual Rope Skipping Competition for individuals with
dyslexia and other learning disabilities in collaboration with the State Social
Welfare Department, State Education Department, Sarawak State Library and
UNIMAS Medical Society.
· Literacy Enhancement Project for Bahasa Melayu and
English among Inmates of Henry Gurney School, Puncak Borneo, Kuching in
collaboration with the Ministry of Welfare, Community Wellbeing, Women,
Family and Childhood Development, State Education Department and Prisons
Department.
· Purple Run in October 2018.
· Charity Food and Fun Fair in November 2018.
We thank our partners,
volunteers, collaborators, donors and sponsors for their support in the above
programmes.
We are most
pleased to be selected as Charity Partner for the year 2019 by the London Stock
Exchange Group (LSEG) and look forward to working together to improve our
services and conduct of our programmes and activities.
We remain
steadfast in the realisation of our vision of establishing the Dyslexia Learning
Institute on a piece of land granted by the state government. This institute
will offer more classrooms to the growing demand of many children with dyslexia
and other learning disabilities and hostel facilities to families from outside
Kuching. A big “Thank You” to all our donors and sponsors who have contributed generously
towards our DASwk building fund project. We are still a long way off from
achieving our target but we are committed and will continue vigorously to raise
the required funds to build our institute. Please continue to support and help
us realize this dream.
On a closing
note, let us remind ourselves that children with dyslexia are potentially
gifted. At DASwk, we strive to ensure that “Every child can read and write at their
age-appropriate and mental capacity level” and to give them the gift of
literacy so that they can express their other talents and strengths. We will
continue to strive to advance the call that all children with dyslexia have a
right to be placed in mainstream classrooms in an inclusive setting.
Best wishes
from the President, Executive Committee, members and staff of Dyslexia
Association of Sarawak, January 2019
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