Wednesday

It has been another busy 2 days.
On Wednesday we spent the morning visiting a Special Education Centre for high school aged children.
This was a very big centre with many programs in place for the students.(above photos include their tomato green house and dragon fruit) The staff there have recently visited Melbourne to view 2 schools and their Educational programs, and an industrial workplace( corporation) which employs young adults with special needs. The woman who co-ordinates the programs at this centre is amazing ! She is battling 'the system' to create a better life for Malaysian children and their families. These children must sit the same exams as everyone else and complete the same curriculum. I was as impressed by her programs as I am by those of my friend's at Prairiewwod High and those at Mater Dei. My comment to her was, the only thing she lacked was our facilities and equipment.She didn't need our advice! She would like us to arrange visits for her!
Life is hard here for these children. Her school is difficult to get into, there is a waiting list and if placed she requires all parents to be involved.They have raised 200,000 Ringgits in the last year( about $80,000) but crime and theft is high. A few days before we visited, all their hospitality equipment was stolen. Everything and anything movable that could be taken was taken! It is so bad that when we window shopped at one of their biggest centres last night there was security guards with shotguns slung across their chests.
They are also about to attend a conference with 600 representatives from the education and welfare fields to try and persuade the government to allow assistive communication (boardmaker style communication pictures etc) in Malaysia as currently educators are not allowed to introduce them into the school environment. We are about to introduce them into the home which does not have to follow these rules. If The Home's children arrive with them then it is allowed.

The afternoon was spent back at The Home and by 5pm we were exhausted. We spent our time with the children in different ways - reading stories, counting and naming numbers etc, showing them how to play elastics, throw,catch and roll a ball in a variety of ways. This involved showing them how to take turns, line-up, and make a circle. There was lots of excitement for the children who had not done this before, probably too much!!