MOVE

About MOVE

2007-12-19T18:08:00.000-08:00

Malaysian Organization of Volunteer Exchange (MOVE) is formed by a group of Malaysian professionals from different background, who participated in voluntary works in Malaysia and abroad; who see some situations can be improved by voluntary works. We try to turn our thoughts and free time into some real actions, and of course learning and enjoying it in the same time.

Few of us met during the first ever international workcamp organized by Yayasan Salam-Malaysia in cooperation with NICE-Japan, back in September 2004. Things picked-up pretty fast and MOVE was conceptualized in late 2004. We started off with some simple weekend workcamps while planning for our next move. Come March 2005, MOVE organized the first international workcamp at Klang Special School, in cooperation with NICE.

By definition, workcamp is a form of voluntary service. In a workcamp, young people (usually 10-20 person) from different country, race, culture, social status, gender, belief etc. will spend 2 to 3 weeks living, eating, learning, working together to support social, cultural, ecological, etc. projects. Usually host will provide food and accommodation while volunteers offer their labor force, thoughts, ideas, etc. It's a mutual and alternative learning environment that will bring benefits to all parties, especially local community (host and volunteer).

Few of MOVE's main aims are:

1. To strengthen sense of unity, belonging and identity among young Malaysian
2. To organize voluntary service activity in-cooperation with various non-governmental organizations (NGOs), local communities and insolated minority groups.
3. To promote global understanding, friendship and solidarity through voluntary service.

As a voluntary movement we expect to work with people and NGOs of all kind, at different level. We see ourselves as a bridge among those who involved direcetly or indirectly in our project. This is important because at this moment, there are many existing NGOs and inviduals who are doing some great jobs - All we need is some communication, dialogue and hopefully we can gather our force and expertise to generate even bigger and more powerful movement. We also wish to be active in training, promoting and publishing our works and ideas.

The other idea is to make our group as efficient (even though small) as possible and as Malaysian as possible. Much of the current social issues evolved around the similar cause, like lack of understanding and acceptance. National Service is a good start, helping youth to mingle with each other, learn to care, understand and respect each other's culture and religion.

Certainly, MOVE need more supports in terms of volunteers and interested hosts. Our growth largely depends on idea and contribution from those who are willing to "be the change they want to see".

National pre-school plan

2006-11-22T22:25:00.000-08:00

National pre-school plan
Study on early childhood intervention centres to gauge effectiveness

MALACCA, 12 Feb 2008: The Government is considering a national plan to implement the early childhood intervention policy for pre-schooling children by the middle of this year.

Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said a study would be carried out on the current 15 early childhood intervention centres, or Permata, to gauge the effectiveness of the programme.

“An in-depth study will be carried out by Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris and its input will be used to formulate a national policy,” he told reporters after officiating the Bukit Peringgit Early Childhood Intervention Centre here yesterday.

Najib, who is the chairman of the Permata National Coordination Policy Council, said the decision would also be based on several other factors such as cost, manpower, parental involvement and curriculum.

“The best time for us to decide is when the Government carries out the mid-term review of the Ninth Malaysia Plan. Once the policy is formulated, we will then decide on a national rollout plan,” he said.

Since the pilot programme was launched last November, a total of 266 children below the age of five have enrolled in 15 Permata centres nationwide.

However, Najib said that parental involvement in a child’s early development was crucial to the success of such a programme.

Earlier, Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Ali Rustam, in his speech thanked Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor for advocating the setting up of such centres in the country.

He said the Federal Government had allocated RM120,000 while the state government had contributed RM133,000 for the renovations as well as the necessary infrastructure and teaching aid for the centre, which has 20 students.

Learning Disability

2006-11-22T01:08:00.000-08:00

What do you know about Learning Disability?

Who are they, what is the name?

If there is one group of people who has the greatest number of names, it is this group. Who am I referring to? Which group?

Mental Deficiency, Sub-normal, Mental Retardation, Mental Handicap, Learning Difficulties, Learning Disabilities, Developmental Disabilities, Developmentally Delayed, Intellectual Handicap, Intellectually Impaired, Slow Developer, Slow Learner, What Next?

One wonders why down through the ages right up to this modern day of enlightenment and advancement in technology that we should still have such a problem in giving a name! The many different names and constantly changing names - do they not reflect our inability to understand the disability and also how we perceive the people who have it?

One big hindrance to our understanding of people with disabilities is that we the so-called normal people have the tendency to put others who are not like us into categories for our own convenience. So and so has this characteristics which makes him as one belonging to this category. Obviously, a name has to be given and this is where the problem lies, in giving a name. How can we possibly give a single name to a group of individuals?

We must learn by now that we can't put people into boxes, not even this group of people!

As a teacher I believe a name is useful while the person is a student in a school or a trainee training for an occupation. There, the difficulties that the person faces must be clearly defined, by names if you like, only so that appropriate help could be given. Once that help is given to the extent that the person can overcome his difficulty, the name is no more significant or helpful for the person. As service providers, or as people who sincerely desire to improve the welfare of people with disabilities, I believe that our job is to understand the person with learning difficulties and find solutions to help him overcome those difficulties. The name is useful only when it throws light on the difficulties at hand so that they are arrested and the person is helped.

In Malaysia, "learning difficulties", "masalah pembelajaran" is the name given by the Special Education Unit of the Ministry of Education, for the people who were formely known as the "mentally handicapped", "terencat akal". This name was formally adopted after the Ministry recognizes that the "mentally handicapped" can be educated as well. It should be seen as a progress from the old terminology whose use of the word "mental" often gives the impression of the person as suffering from mental illness. The name, learning difficulties, rightly indicates that the person's difficulty is in learning and that he needs to be taught.

So here, in describing the difficulties of the people we have in mind, I shall refer to them as people with learning difficulties.

World Health Organisation (WHO) identifies people with learning difficulties in two aspects. From a teacher's point of view where appropriate help strategy is the top priority, I shall put simply those two aspects in the light of the actual difficulties faced by the person with learning difficulties.

1. Problem in learning skills

This means that the person with learning difficulties has difficulties learning one or more of the following areas of skills considered important for all people.

The skills of communication (speaking, following directions)
The skills of self-care (dressing, bathing)
The skills of decision-making (knows what to do and when)
The skills of academics (reading, writing, numbers)
The skills of work (disciplines of work)
The skills of personal safety (personal safety measures)

There are more skills that a person needs to know and the above are the essential ones that a person with learning difficulties has problems learning.

2. Problem in adapting behaviour (Social Problem)

This means that the person has difficulties adapting to the happenings in the environment which he encounters.

The skill of understanding the behaviours of others
The skill of determining own appropriate social responses
The skill of changing own behaviour to suit the changing environment

For the sake of service provision, WHO insists that the person must have problem in both these aspects before he can be called a person with learning difficulties. If he has problem in one aspect only he cannot be said to have learning difficulties. However, from experience, we find that having problem in one is likely to affect the other.

Perhaps to clarify the matter further as to who has learning difficulties and who has not we should refer to some common mix-up tendencies of people when identifying disabilities.

Mental Illness. This illness has often been attributed to people with learning difficulties as well. This may be because of the terminology we have used previously and also the fact that people are ignorant of the differences in the behaviours of the two problems.

Autism. There is always the tendency to regard people with autism as having learning difficulties and vice versa. This notion is because a number of people with learning difficulties have also autistic tendency. Although autistic people does not necessarily have learning difficulties, quite a number do have learning difficulties as well because the difficulties they face do not help in the learning of skills.

Cerebral Palsy. These people are quite often mistaken to be people with learning difficulties especially those who are severely physically handicapped. People with cerebral palsy often have difficulty in communicating which further confirms the presumption. Depending on the extent of the damage to the brain some people with cerebral palsy have also learning difficulties. With the right medication, the person can lead a normal life.

Epilepsy. People with this condition experience uncontrollable "electrical disturbance" in their brain cells. The fits or seizures that they have may cause the person to lose consciousness for a while. Severe and uncontrolled fits can result in the person having a brain damage and thus learning difficulties. With the right medication, the person can lead a normal life.

Physical Handicap. Those people who are severely physically disabled coupled with difficulties in speaking, such as those with advanced muscular dystrophy or people who had suffered from severe stroke, are often treated as though they have learning difficulties.

Sensory Handicap. People who are visually impaired or have hearing problem do not have learning difficulties. However, a small proportion of people with learning difficulties also are deaf and/or blind.

In summary, people with learning difficulties do need our understanding and help in making the appropriate provision for them. In doing this for them, their dignity and rights as persons must be preserved.

Source:
Lim Saw Giak
Former Director of SPD
Malaysian CARE

Contact

2006-03-10T22:00:00.000-08:00

Contact Person
Ms. Sivasangari Ramasamy (Siva), President

Address:
No.57, Jalan Nilam,
Kawasan 6, Klang
41100 Selangor
Malaysia

Email:
my_move05@yahoo.com

Tel:
+ 6 0163587165

Klang Special School

2005-12-01T05:52:00.004-08:00

Workcamp Date for 2010
MOVE/01 Klang 1 (Selangor) 01/08-14/08 KIDS, DISA 10 vols.
MOVE/02 Klang 2 (Selangor) 15/08-27/08 KIDS, DISA 10 vols.

For more information kindly contact: my_move05@yahoo.com (Ms. Sivasangari Ramasamy)

Project Background:
Klang Special School started with a class of 7 children and a teacher in 1967. It was in 1985 APEX Club of Klang came forward to undertake the contruction of a permanent school for the mentally handicapped children on a 3.2 acres site in Klang town, a kilometre away from the town center.

Over the years the school has grown steadily and currently there are 17 teachers who serves about 148 children in following programmes:

a.) Early Intervention Programme (E.I.P) - 0 to 5 years
b.) School Programme - 6 to 17 years
c.) Vacational Class - 18 years and above

Volunteer's task mainly evolved around helping teacher in the classroom, minor physical works like maintaining the garden, wall mural painting and interaction with parent and local people.

Aims:
a) Improve the situation of the school and children
b) Develop friendship, understanding and solidarity among participants and the local people
c) Promote social awareness on special children to the volunteer and public

Preparing gardening plot for the school children - notice Kyungsup's traditional Korean hat!

Experience and understand the 'snoozeland' room

Children enjoying their calligraphy session

Volunteers helping Slow Learner's garden project

Preparing dinner together

Cultural night - look at the variety of food

Playing marble game (guli-guli) with local kids

One of the many excursion trip organized by volunteers - canopy walk