Rizal Faisal
A group of six third-year medical students formed a public outreach project to create awareness and empower the cerebral palsy community. The students are Dayangku Siti Farah Imanina binti Pengiran Dr Haji Mohamad Khairol Asmiee, Kong Zhin May, Nur Fateenah Chin binti Mohamad Mu’inuddin Chin, Anabelle Lee Xing Yee, Joan Lim Zhee Ying and Nur Amal Aqilah binti Brahim from Pengiran Anak Puteri Rashidah Sa’adatul Bolkiah Institute of Health Sciences (PAPRSB IHS), Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD).
The project dubbed ‘Wonder Kids’ carried objectives that include evaluating knowledge and attitude of the public towards the local cerebral palsy community through a public online questionnaire that garnered almost 200 responses.
“The results showed that only 58.6 per cent of the local population is aware of cerebral palsy,” the team said, sharing their findings.
To achieve their objectives, the Wonder Kids team also hosted two workshops for individuals with cerebral palsy at the Child Development Centre (CDC), Kiarong and Pusat Ehsan Al-Ameerah Al-Hajjah Maryam on August 13 and 22.
During the workshops, university students volunteered to assist the cerebral palsy individuals with a variety of activities. The activities were based on physiotherapy and occupational therapy exercises tailored for cerebral palsy patients.
While the workshops were ongoing, talk sessions were also held for the parents and guardians of cerebral palsy children. The talks were delivered by experts in various medical fields, including physiotherapists, occupational therapists, paediatricians, psychiatrists
and psychologists.
The talks aimed to support the caregivers through covering topics such as carer burnout, mental health struggles of individuals with cerebral palsy, physiotherapy exercises that can be done at home to alleviate muscle stiffness and an introduction to equipment that can improve the quality of life of cerebral palsy individuals.
“With the help of Isma Faiq, the videographer behind Potraeq, the Wonder Kids team created a 12-minute cerebral palsy awareness video featuring footage from the Wonder Kids workshops, advice from representatives of Pusat Ehsan and the CDC, as well as an interview with Mas Nurhafizah, a mother of a child with cerebral palsy,” the team said.
In addition, the Wonder Kids team organised an online Zoom forum with 50 attendees, featuring speakers including founder of The Impian Project Lailatul Zubaidah binti Haji Mohd Hussain; consultant paediatric neurologist from Sri Lanka Dr Jithangi Wanigasinghe; and local entrepreneur with cerebral palsy Fuad Matgapor.
“The team also premiered the official Wonder Kids Cerebral Palsy awareness video during the forum, which touched the hearts of the audience and received a lot of emotional responses,” the team shared.
To close off the Wonder Kids community project, the team held a Cerebral Palsy Awareness Fun Day and Exhibition on September 4 at the CDC in Kiarong.
The Wonder Kids team aims to donate the funds raised through the event to local special needs non-governmental organisations (NGOs) – the CDC Kiarong as well as Pusat Ehsan.
