Azlan Othman
Senior government officials who participated in the 29th Executive Development Programme for Senior Government Officers (EDPSGO) yesterday organised a ceremony to hand over contributions to people with different abilities (OKU) as well as certificates of appreciation to stakeholders, including government agencies and non-government organisations, as well as employers and sponsors for the community outreach project, Ikhlas, undertaken by the participants of this programme.
Present as the guest of honour at the ceremony held at The Core, Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD) was Deputy Permanent Secretary (Cultural) at the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports Dr Siti Norkhalbi binti Haji Wahsalfelah. The project is a community outreach programme organised by participants of the 29th EDPSGO with the aim of helping OKU find employment in restaurants in the Sultanate.
The project has engaged a number of government agencies, such as the Special Education Department, Ministry of Education (MoE) and Manpower Planning and Employment Council (MPEC), as well as the Council for the Welfare of Persons with Different Abilities (MKOKU) and Brunei Food and Beverage Association (BFBA) to pave the way for wider cooperation opportunities.
Four restaurants have joined in the programme – SCR Xpress, Sate House Restaurant, Ar Ruhma Restaurant & Catering and Zaitoon Biryani and Grills.
Since the start of the project early this month, 12 differently abled individuals and those who graduated from the pre-vocational programme under the Special Education Department, MoE have participated in this programme.
They are also registered with the MPEC and the MKOKU, but have yet to find employment.
Other objectives of the project are to prevent the differently abled community from being overlooked in terms of their well-being and to empower the group to attain independence even with limited capabilities, in the bid to raise public awareness and draw the attention of employers that the special group is capable of contributing to the society.
It is the hope of the 29th EDPSGO participants to help as many individuals as possible while providing a platform to explore employment opportunities for the differently abled in industries such as hospitals.
The 29th EDPSGO participants extended their gratitude to the sponsors for encouraging the candidates to work more diligently and enthusiastically. Contributions in the form of work tools were sponsored by Datastream Digital Sdn Bhd (DST), Progresif Sdn Bhd and Imagine Sdn Bhd.
The project also received sponsorship from Borneo United and UBD Corp. Meanwhile, also present at the event were MKOKU President Dato Paduka Haji Mohd Alimin bin Haji Abdul Wahab, Head of the Special Education Unit at the Special Education Department Eddy Fazlin bin Haji Amdan and senior officers from the MPEC and Universiti Teknologi Brunei.
