KUCHING: The Ministry of Women, Early Childhood and Community Wellbeing Development will provide a letter of support to people with disabilities (PWDs) who are interested in working for the state.
In stating this, its minister Datuk Seri Fatimah Abdullah, said this is one of the efforts made by the state government to encourage PWDs who have the needed skills and education to apply for jobs here.
“In terms of employment, our state government is very concerned about the employment rate among the PWDs.
“This is why they are now requesting from our ministry that we encourage any PWD individuals who have skills and education to apply for jobs in the state.
“For that, we take the initiative to help those PWDs who are eligible by giving their letter of support to the responsible department for recruitment purposes
“It means there is a special lane for the PWDs,” she said.
She said this during the “Understanding Deaf Culture” book launching ceremony at the Sarawak Society for the Deaf (SSD) here today (Jan 7).
Adding on, while pointing out that the community needs to be aware of these groups of individuals who need to be included in society, she said that it is important to learn how to communicate with them.
“Under our ministry, we have taken steps on the matter where we started to include sign language as a subject in our SeDidik’s nurseries and kindergartens.
“We teach them sign language so that they know from a young age that there are people in the society who are different from them and need to be included in the society and respected,” she said.
Following this, Fatimah disclosed that, last year, her ministry had engaged with members of the SSD to teach the teachers and the students about sign language.
“InsyaAllah, this year, we will be able to cover all of SeDidik’s nurseries and kindergartens statewide to learn sign language.
“This is an effort that needs to start at a young age. We need to start somewhere to educate our people about sign language as well as about the deaf community.
“Therefore, I hope that more people will be aware of the deaf community and learn sign language so that we are able to communicate with one another.
“We must work together as one team so that the deaf community can be part of our inclusive society,” she said.
