THE Penang government will consider a request from St Nicholas Home for a piece of land to build a training centre in Batu Kawan, Seberang Perai.
Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow said this when he made an official visit to the home at Jalan Bagan Jermal today.
The land issue was brought up by St Nicholas Home chairman of the board of directors, Rt. Rev Datuk Charles Samuel, who said the home had made an initial application in 2014 to the then chief minister Lim Guan Eng.
According to Rev Samuel, they were informed by Penang Development Corporation (PDC) on Dec 3 last year that their request for the allocation of land is still under consideration.
“There are blind and visually-impaired members (BVI) of the society in Seberang Perai. If we can have a training centre there, they don’t have to come over to the St Nicholas Home here (in Jalan Bagan Jermal) for training,” Rev Samuel said in his speech.
Chow said he was also interested in the Senior Citizen Home which St Nicholas Home would like to expand at its current premises. Other than that, he was also impressed with their Arts, Culture and Music Programme.
Out of the 80 residents and trainees at the home, eight are senior citizens. They are undergoing various skills training or are residents in the home. The others range from two-years-old to 18-years-old who are undergoing various training programmes.
“We are not talking about a home which simply equips visually-impaired people with the basic skills to survive on their own in a society and that’s it. But more importantly, efforts are made to enrich their lives in areas that suit their interests and finally, allowing them to live with dignity in their twilight years,” Chow said in his speech.
“All of these suggest that St Nicholas Home blends in well with what I have envisaged for the future of Penang. In the next 11 years, we aim to increase liveability by enhancing our welfare and care system.
“It goes without saying that St Nicholas Home and the current Penang government share the same wavelength and the only difference is the target audience. But what is certain is this: that nobody is left out in the objectives and goals of Penang2030, whether blind or otherwise.”
Chow said it was not an easy 93-year journey for St Nicholas Home since it was established in 1926 by adhering to its motto – ‘We walk by Faith and not by Sight.’
The home’s executive director Doris Teh said the home would like to build a multi-storey building at the current premises for visually-impaired senior citizens, known as Senior Citizen Home.
“It’s still in the preliminary stage. We hope to cater to the seniors who are visually impaired and have nowhere to go, and to help and train the younger ones with visual problems,” she said.
Also present were Chow’s wife Tan Lean Kee, Bukit Bendera MP Wong Hon Wai, Penang Island City Council councillor P.R. Kaliyappan and members of the home’s board of directors and trustees.
Rev Samuel said the home recently launched the Online Learning Programme so that BVI students would be able to access educational materials to help them cope with their studies.
He said another new initiative that the home was excited about was their Indoor Navigation App which was developed to help BVIs access large indoor public spaces such as public transport terminals, hospitals, colleges, universities, shopping malls, museums, libraries and so forth.
Accompanied by Rev Samuel, Chow, Tan and other invited guests were taken on a tour of the premises.
They visited the toy centre for students to improve their motor skills by playing with toys, the physiotherapy centre and the Taska St Nicholas for visually-impaired children from ages one to seven and is the only one of its kind in the country.
The visitors also saw firsthand how the students, under the vocational employment training programme, were trained in pastry, handicraft, information communication technology and massage.
At the ICT centre, it was revealed that students Hanifi Nordin scored 7As, Muhamad Sirjudin 5As and Muhammad Rafique Farahan Saiful Nizam 3As in their 2018 Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (Form Five examinations). The trio were congratulated by Chow for their academic achievements.
Story by K.H. Ong
Pix by Alvie Cheng
Video by Law Suun Ting