This time of the year again has brought us to make a recce visit to a beneficiary NGO. The location of this NGO was fairly difficult to find as it is located in the older part of Taman Cuepacs Cheras. The 'A Piece Of Hope' (APOH) committee members comprising of Jimmy, Engu, Foo Weng, Tat Boon and myself (Ted), all arrived at the center between 3 to 3.30pm with some directional help of Ms. Shirley Tan (PKKI's president).
The center was setup by Mrs. Aimee Chan in 1995 with a pioneering group of parents and their children who suffers multiple disabilities. They were compelled to start their own training center due to the government schools and institutions not allowing admission to their children because of the severity of their conditions. Presently, the center help children with a wide range of physical and mental disabilities including cerebral palsy, hyperactivity, autism, blindness, down syndrome, global developmental delay, etc. The center now operates from 3 terrace houses and one of which is a corner house where main activities are conducted.
Ms. Shirley mentioned that they help children from all walks of life. The children now numbers around 90 pax and there is a growing need to expand the center's premises. She showed us that they have bought a piece of land for future development of the center. At the moment, they do not have the finances to build a building on the land. Fund raising efforts are in placed to do just that.
As a mother to a child who suffers a physical disability since birth (but since passed away in 2010), Ms. Shirley could understand and feel the needs of parents to train and equip their children to be independent. She mentioned that without this center, many parents are so helpless in bringing up their disabled child. Some of these parents who come to the center could not even afford the minimal fee. Thus, her fervent and undying passion to spearhead the center to the next level needs assistance from outsiders in terms of finances.
The visit to PKKI was a successful recce that concluded in an agreement to help them raise funds. APOH has set a monumental figure of RM200,000 as the target for this year's Mt. Kinabalu trek happening from 9 to 13 July 2011.
