PETPOSITIVE NEWS:
DATELINE SELAYANG:
A group of disabled persons from the Klang Valley got together to push for a representation in a local council on the 17th of last month.
Members of the self-help organisation the Independent Living and Training Centre (ILTC) in Rawang, Selangor, and the Malaysian Animal-Assisted Therapy for the Disabled and Elderly Association or PETPOSITIVE in Kuala Lumpur made their way to the headquarters of the Majlis Perbandaran Selayang (MPS) to demand an equal right to being heard in the local government. They were met by several key officials from the planning, engineering and building departments.
The two sides had more than two hours of deliberation that ended up on a very positive note.
The MPS agreed to set up a technical council on disability within a month of that meeting.
Names of disabled people and their organisations will be identified within the next 30 days and invited to the first meeting.
This special occasion will be held sometime in March.
Before the historic gathering, MPS will conduct an access survey of their own headquarters to check how handicapped-friendly their building is to its visitors.
These will be evaluated by a team of disability experts from the new committee.
The exercise which is scheduled to take place this Wednesday will give everyone an idea of what kind of challenges that are before them, as well as to how to plan out their immediate goals.
The special committee is expected to sit at least once a month when it is established.
Persons with a variety of handicaps will also be invited to sit in the technical group.
Apart from the physically handicapped, they will also include the blind, Deaf and representatives of people with learning disabilities.
Commenting after the meeting Petpositive President Anthony SB Thanasayan said: "People with disabilities and the elderly within the municipality will be able to look forward to a brighter future from now on.
"They can rejoice in the fact that now - and only know - will their needs to be really looked into as the committee itself with NGOs in it will also serve as a monitoring group to check the progress of what's being done from time to time," he added.
A preliminary similar effort was initiated by the then disabled local councillor Gurdip Kaur also known as Rina.
The meeting was also attended by Thanasayan and MBPJ's Planning Department Head Puan Sharipah Marhaini.
However, there was no follow-up to that initiative until last month's meeting.
"We are extremely pleased by the positive response that we got from the MPS," said a beaming Francis Siva, President of the ILTC.
"We just can't wait to see things moving positively from here on," he concluded.
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