Tag: Down Syndrome

The Batter Room: Membuat Kek Dan Membantu Golongan Kurang Bernasib Baik Dan Berkeperluan Khas

Ini bengkel membuat kek yang sangat lain daripada yang lain. Ia ‘istimewa’. Bukan saja anda belajar membuat kek, biskut atau pastri di sini. Malah anda mungkin didampingi, disertai atau dibantu oleh golongan berkeperluan khas.

Itulah kelainan penuh bermakna yang ditawarkan The Batter Room kendalian Cik Nurhuda Mohd Nor, 36 tahun.

The Batter Room, yang terletak di Blok 825 Tampines St 81, adalah hasil gabungan dua minat mendalam Cik Nurhuda – membuat kek dan membantu golongan kurang bernasib baik dan berkeperluan khas.

“Walaupun ia hanya tiga bulan saja sejak Batter Room ditubuhkan, mengadakan studio yang inklusif untuk membuat kek sudah menjadi impian saya sejak usia saya 17 tahun lagi,” cerita Cik Nurhuda kepada BERITAMediacorp.

Kini, The Batter Room sudah membimbing sekitar 30 anak remaja sekolah rendah dan menengah yang mengalami keadaan seperti autisme, sindrom Down dan ADHD.

BELUM INKLUSIF LAGIKAH MASYARAKAT KITA?

Cik Nurhuda mempunyai pengalaman 19 tahun dalam bidang bekerja dengan golongan sedemikian. Beliau memberitahu BERITAMediacorp bahawa golongan berkeperluan khas itu kurang diberi peluang untuk menjadi sebahagian daripada wadah konvensional.

Beliau yang juga pernah berkhidmat lebih 10 tahun sebagai seorang guru di Sekolah MINDS, memberitahu bahawa daripada pengalaman beliau, ramai bekas pelajarnya menghadapi kesusahan untuk mendapatkan pekerjaan.

“Ini membuat golongan berkeperluan khas terlepas banyak peluang. Hanya mereka yang dapat berdikari saja dapat diambil kerja. Saya tertanya, bagaimana dengan yang lain? Saya tidak mahu keadaan mereka semakin teruk,” luah beliau.

Ada yang menganggap golongan tersebut sebagai sukar untuk diambil kerja dan banyak syarikat tidak mahu meluangkan masa untuk menjalankan latihan.

BERITAMediacorp juga mendapati daripada laporan-laporan sebelum ini bahawa, dalam satu tinjauan dijalankan Yayasan Lien, hanya lima daripada 10 ibu bapa selesa anak mereka berinteraksi dengan golongan berkeperluan khas.

JADI APAKAH PERANAN THE BATTER ROOM?

“Saya tahu saya tidak dapat membantu semua orang tetapi sekurang-kurangnya dapatlah menghulurkan bantuan sedikit,” ujar Cik Nurhuda.

The Batter Room sudah menjalankan beberapa bengkel untuk mereka yang berkeperluan khas dan satu bengkel inklusif di mana ia dihadiri masyarakat umum dan mereka yang berkeperluan khas.

“Alhamdulillah semuanya berjalan dengan lancar. Mereka juga memberi respons yang memberansangkan,” kata beliau penuh semangat kepada BERITAMediacorp.

Cik Nurhuda menyifatkan The Batter Room sebagai tempat memberi peluang untuk semua orang. Beliau memberitahu BERITAMediacorp bahawa beliau percaya golongan kurang bernasib baik dan berkeperluan khas hanya mereka yang disalahfahami.

“Saya ingin Batter Room menjadi ruang di mana tiada masalah untuk anda meluahkan segalanya, tiada masalah untuk anda mengalami ‘breakdown/meltdown’, tiada masalah penerimaan tidak kira kaum, masalah, latar belakang ataupun gangguan yang anda mengalami,” ujar beliau.

“KITA HIDUP SEKALI”, JADI BANTULAH SESAMA INSAN

Apabila ditanyakan soalan mengapa Cik Nurhuda memulakan The Batter Room, beliau memberitahu ia bukan sekadar minat dan impian saja.

Beliau menjelaskan kepada BERITAMediacorp bahawa harapan para ibu bapa yang mempunyai anak berkeperluan khas yang beliau kenali, menjadi antara faktor itu.

Ini bertambah dengan sokongan padu yang diberi suami Cik Nurhuda. Suaminya bukan saja mendengar dan turut berbincang dengannya tetapi juga memberikan kata-kata semangat untuk beliau memulakan usaha murni ini, kata Cik Nurhuda.

“Beliau memberitahu saya supaya jangan tunggu lagi. Teruskan. Tiada apa yang menghalang. Kami juga tidak ingin keuntungan. Kita hidup sekali. Kami harap dalam hidup ini dapat kami menyumbang dan membantu sesama insan,”ujar beliau.

IMPIAN LEBIH BESAR – BANTU LEBIH RAMAI KUMPULAN ‘TERSEPIT’

Akur dengan kemungkinan perniagaannya tidak memulangkan hasil yang menguntungkan, Cik Nurhuda berkata antara cabaran lain dialami The Batter Room adalah meyakinkan, mengenalkan, dan diterima masyarakat akan misi dan visi The Batter Room.

Beliau juga menambah bahawa beliau berharap The Batter Room dapat diiktiraf sebagai perusahaan sosial bagi mendapat pendanaan dan sokongan.

Ini kerana beliau berharap The Batter Room pada masa akan datang dapat membuka pintu kepada pelbagai lapisan masyarakat seperti mereka yang mempunyai masalah kewangan, mental dan juga para bekas banduan.

Beliau juga berharap dapat menjadikan The Batter Room dilengkapi dengan kemudahan-kemudahan yang mesra kerusi roda.

(Gambar-gambar: Nurhuda Mohd Nur, Facebook/ The Batter Room)

“Saya sudah mengadakan perbincangan dengan MINDS untuk menawarkan Batter Room sebagai tempat latihan amali bagi para pelajarnya,” katanya.

WAJAH THE BATTER ROOM YANG DIINGINKAN

Sejujurnya, menurut Cik Nurhuda, pada jangka masa panjang beliau berharap The Batter Room dapat menggajikan golongan kurang bernasib baik dan berkeperluan khas dan menjadi pembantu semasa bengkel diadakan.

“Saya cuma harap orang ramai dapat menerima Batter Room. Lebih daripada itu, saya harap masyarakat dapat menerima satu sama lain tanpa memikirkan kekurangan seseorang,” luah beliau.

Semestinya, Cik Nurhuda boleh disifatkan sebagai antara usahawan yang berani. Berani untuk tidak meninggalkan di belakang, golongan ‘istimewa’ yang memerlukan sokongan masyarakat. Berani untuk tidak mengejar wang dan keuntungan semata-mata, kerana sifat kemanusiannya.

Source: BeritaMediacorp

February 21, 2017
SDP Wants Public To Accept Apology From CPF Protesters

Roy has asked to meet with the children and parents to apologise to them. This is the right thing to do.

I met Roy several weeks ago. He is a thoughtful individual and no one should believe that he intentionally targeted his or the group’s actions at the children who were performing that afternoon.

It is important, nevertheless, that both he and Hui Hui offer an apology to the children.

The danger is that those who are angered by the episode but who, otherwise, would support the Return Our CPF campaign, unwittingly reinforce a culture intolerant of mistakes.

Throwing labels like “immature”, “inexcusable”, “attention seekers” at the protesters is unhelpful. For even the most experienced activists spend a lifetime making errors and learning from them. Gandhi, himself not immune to mistakes, acknowledged: “Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.”

In this vein, let us re-affirm our faith in Roy and Hui Hui as well as in ourselves, who, with all our imperfections and weaknesses, continue to learn and grow in our journey to make our Republic a better place.

Authored by: Chee Soon Juan

October 2, 2014
Roy Ngerng and Han Hui Hui Are Anarchists, Visceral and Vicious Towards Special Needs Children

The actions of the ‘activists’ at Hong Lim Park on Saturday betray the anarchic nature of their cause and the demagogic character of the individual actors.

The anger with which Roy Ngerng and Han Hui Hui spoke was visceral and vicious. What cause have they to speak so incensed? What gross injury is being done to them? One can hold different views on important issues but there are mature and peaceful ways to communicate and debate them.

Instead these self-styled “champions of the people” choose confrontational methods which play on the emotions surrounding hot button issues. They blow things out of proportion and seek to provide legitimacy for themselves and their cause through “victim-seeking” tactics.

Their actions to disrupt the YMCA event speak to self-indulgence, social carelessness, immaturity and this is ironical, a disregard for the rights and concerns of other Singaporeans especially those in genuine need.

But that is not what is fundamentally egregious about these political provocateurs. This is that they are possessed of a mind-set framed by two self-reinforcing features.

First, the view that Singapore and specifically, its governance, is a grand conspiracy. Everything about the government and all events are construed as being part of a system of control. All and any action but anyone who differs from their extreme views is treated as a co-conspirator. It is this mind-set that explains how they could perceive an event to raise awareness and support for children with special needs as a power-play to stymie their protest.

Second, they seem to believe, and waive dubious charts and circular arguments to the effect, that they possess some special insight into the truth about public policies. The simplistic and even silly interpretations of complex policy issues makes the propositions of these provocateurs superficially attractive. Instead that they reveal is that the output of being uninformed and uneducated is the conviction that simple straw man arguments have credence because they are asymmetrical to matters which have innate complexity.

These two mental qualities play into each other into a simple set of motives. First that the government is out to cheat the people. Second, that foreigners are a source of evil. Third, that our social challenges are easy to solve. Fourth, confrontation is the best mode of advocacy.Tools

Each and everyone of these motives are a nonsense and the twinned frames which make up their mind-set are shoddy construct made up of intellectual drift-wood held together by the creeper vine of ignorance.

The failure of the official opposition to date to take a strong stand on the behaviour of these provocateurs is reprehensible. But this failure would be a shared one by all reasonable Singaporeans if we do not now take a stand to condemn these provocateurs, see them for what they are – anarchists, and insist on ejecting them from the space for legitimate debate on issues of national importance. This is their McCarthy – Murrow moment.

Let us stand up for Singapore by demonstrating to ourselves foremost but to all others too, both what we, as a people, are not – we are not stupid, we are not anarchic, we are not gullible, we are not xenophobic and we are not socially careless, and what we are – active, informed, mature, considerate, welcoming and respectful.

Authored by Devadas Krishnadas*

*Devadas Krishnadas is the chief executive of the Singapore-based Future-Moves Group, an international strategic consultancy and executive education provider. The views expressed in this Facebook post reproduced in Singapolitics, are his own.

September 29, 2014