Story by K.H. Ong
Pix by Darwina Mohd Daud
ST Nicholas Home (SNH) Penang, will hold its annual SNH Carnival on Sept 8 from 9am to 2pm at its premises along Jalan Bagan Jermal.
State Welfare, Caring Society and Environment Committee chairman Phee Boon Poh said SNH is one of the oldest institutions in the country, providing training to the partially blind and the blind.
“They’ve also moved up to some of the latest methodology of training, including computers,” Phee told a press conference in Komtar today.
Also present were SNH executive director Daniel Soon and some of his staff members.
“We’ve two main purposes in organising the carnival. One is to engage with the public because although everybody knows about St Nicholas Home, very few, however, understand what we do,” said Soon.
“The other reason is to raise funds. Although as an NGO with some financial support from the federal government and state government, we still need to do quite a bit of funding to cover our expenses.
“Our yearly expenses range from RM2.8mil to RM3.2mil. This year, our budget is RM3.2mil and that means we’ve to do a lot of fund-raising activities, one of which is the carnival.”
The carnival will offer a wide variety of food in Penang. So far, 25 stalls have confirmed participating. The organisers are hoping to attract 60 stalls.
Soon said half of the coupons worth RM60,000 are still available. For every RM20 donation, the donor will receive coupons for the food fair carnival. The public is also welcome to contribute RM800 by sponsoring a stall.
Phee said enquiries on the coupons and stalls can be made by calling 04-2290800 ext 134, Whatsapp at +6011-62290800 or via email to [email protected].
Some entertaining performances have also been lined up for the carnival. Massage services will also be offered by their own St Nicholas Home Wellness Centre.
On top of that, SNH will have visual impairment awareness stalls, where people can learn more about prevention of blindness, low vision and Braille from their visually impaired and blind staff.
Just this month, Soon said SNH started a server administrator training course which is suitable for their students as it is code-based.
“We’re moving up the value chain in IT training. This is a niche area and we think the course is eminently suitable for the blind,” Soon said.
“We hope the blind is not left behind in this area. As far as we know, we’re the only organisation in the world offering a programme like this. We hope we can show the way for others to emulate.”
SNH has been assisting the visually-impaired and blind persons regardless of race, religion, creed or age for close to 90 years.
Besides providing training in massage therapy, basket-weaving, pastry-making and IT, the home also provides counselling services for individuals suffering from imminent blindness.
“St Nicholas has been focusing on areas that the government is not able to handle, especially on early childhood education, rehabilitation, vocational training and also other forms of social services,” said Soon.