ISKANDAR PUTERI, Dec 11 — A total of 177 Persons with Disabilities (PwDs) registered with Yayasan Pembangunan Keluarga Darul Ta’zim (YPKDT) through the Development Unit for Persons with Disabilities (UPOKU) are employed in the public and private sectors in Johor, the Johor State Assembly was told today.
State Women, Family and Community Development Committee chairman Khairin-Nisa Ismail @ Md On said the number was based on the registration recorded by YPKDT from 2011 until October this year.
“A total of 997 PwDs have been registered with YPKDT, of that number, a total of 177 have been placed to work in the public and private sectors.
“With the rapid growth of the economy and the high cost of living, in order to ensure that PwDs who have been registered but cannot find jobs to have a source of income, the YPKDT has also introduced an initiative for PwDs to generate their own income,” she said when replying to a question from Amira Aisya Abd Aziz (PH-Puteri Wangsa) at the Johor State Assembly sitting at Bangunan Sultan Ismail, Kota Iskandar here.
Amira Aisya wanted to know the state’s plan to empower PwDs to do business from home due to limited mobility.
Khairin-Nisa (BN-Serom) said that starting in 2017-2018, the Zero to Hero ‘Sustaining the Socio-Economic Development of the Disabled’ initiative had been held and a total of 136 PwDs from various categories participated in the programme.
For the period from 2019 to 2021, YPKDT had introduced a Training and Promotion Programme (PLP) to train 144 PwDs to be skilled in various aspects including technical and economic to improve the competitiveness of the local workforce.
When the country was faced with the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, PLP was still conducted with the implementation of the Basic Skills Course online involving 49 participants.
Khairin-Nisa added that throughout this year, the Bangkit OKU Programme has been introduced with a total of 85 individuals having attended the course.
She said the initiative was implemented in empowering the PwD community for the purpose of job placement and generating income.
“From 2017-2020, a total of 45 PwDs received help with business equipment and they managed to generate their own income and double their sales.
“Indeed, the state government through the Social Welfare Department (JKM) and YPKDT is always concerned with empowering PwDs in Johor so that they are able to face the challenges from an economic point of view for the present and the future,” she said.
