I have to admit it has been a tiring two weeks but it was well worth the sleep deprivation and the time spent at the training. There were so many concepts to pick up, so many new presentation and facilitation techinques to learn and so many friendships forged. The camaraderie among the facilitators and participants was great. This must be one of the best trainings that I have attended.

On Saturday, I will be facilitating a half-day DET session for members of POCAM (Persatuan Orang-Orang Cacat Anggota Malaysia) with fresh skills learnt from this training. It is my fervent hope that more people will become aware of disability issues and that society at large and disabled people work together to resolve the multitude of problems that are disabling certain segments of the population from full and equal participation in Malaysia.

Related posts:

1. Disability Equality Training In Malaysia 2010
2. Training of Trainers – Disability Equality Training 2007
3. The Path To Understanding Disability Issues
4. Disability Equality Training
5. Busy And Tired

Secondly, I am currently attending the 1st Regional Senior Disability Equality Training (DET) Trainers’ Training since Monday. There are four of us undergoing training as facilitators for DET TOT, namely Ms. Saowalak Thongkuay and Mr. Sawang Srisom from Thailand and Ms. Eunice Marie Gato-Factor from Philippines. This course is conducted by Dr. Kenji Kuno of the Japan International Cooperation Agency Malaysia (JICA).

Running concurrently with the course beginning today is the 2nd Regional Training of Trainers on Disability Equality Training (DET) where the four of us double up as co-facilitators with Dr. Kuno for sixteen participants from the Asia Pacific region. These two courses are as interesting as they are tiring as we have been attending full-day sessions that will continue until next Friday. Until then, updates will be irregular.

Related posts:

1. Almost Over
2. Disability Equality Training
3. Disability Equality Training For JOCV And Malaysian Counterparts
4. Sue Rickell – DET Trainer Extraordinaire
5. Busy As A Bee

I have seen how effective Dr. Kenji Kuno used the process of facilitated participatory learning to conduct DET at the Jabatan Kebajikan Masyarakat Malaysia (JKMM) two weeks back. I was invited to co-facilitate with him at the event called “Intellectual Discourse Mengenai Disability Equality Training dan Independent Living” for officers from the JKMM at Jalan Raja Laut.

The various training modules were all centred around the Social Model of Disability as opposed to the Medical Model of Disability. The medical model is determined to diagnose, treat, cure and rehabilitate people to become “normal” again. In the social model, disability is seen as a social construct. It is people that creates an environment that disables other people. The social model respects the diversity in humanity and promotes equality through inclusion.

While I am appling the methods used by Dr. Kuno, I still need to come out with the training materials to suit my style and pace of conducting the course. I usually prefer to customise the course to suit the participants who have different levels of understanding of disability and the expected outcome from it, whether they are disabled people, non-disabled people or officers from the private sectors or government departments.

As I see it, DET is the most effective tool for promoting the understanding of the causes of disability. DET facilitators guide participants through as series of exercises that show disability as a social issue rather than a personal one. At the end of the course, participants come up with an action plan to resolve these issues.

DET promotes proactive behaviour towards creating an environment of equality for all. I like how the process of learning DET is structured with an outcome expected at the end. This is the tool that disability rights advocates should use to educate society with. DET allows people to understand disability through the process of discovering it themselves. This is more effective than giving a 2-hour monologue on disability and boring participants into slumber halfway through.

Related posts:

1. Disability Equality Training For JOCV And Malaysian Counterparts
2. Disability Equality Training In Malaysia 2010
3. Training of Trainers – Disability Equality Training 2007
4. Almost Over
5. Disability Equality Training

First view of Kota Bahru – Sultan Ismail Petra Airport and aerobridge.

The Jabatan Kebajikan Masyarakat Negeri Kelantan (Kelantan State Department of Social Welfare) invited me to conduct Disability Equality Training (DET) to a group of about sixty participants from various districts in the state. They included a good mix of disabled people, community based rehabilitation (CBR) workers and social welfare officers. The one-day training was held at Hotel New Pacific in Kota Bahru last Saturday.

Entrance to the Hotel New Pacific.

Wuan and I landed at the Sultan Ismail Petra Airport in Kota Bahru at 3:10pm on Friday. Yoshie, who had been coordinating the training with me via emails and SMS for a couple of months, was there to pick us up with JKMN Kelantan staff Ismail. My first impressions of Kota Bahru were that it has very few tall buildings and the city is relatively clean. Most of the businesses were closed as Friday is a weekend holiday in Kelantan.

Ice breaker session the evening before DET.

The event started that evening with a briefing of the training by Tuan Wan Asrul followed by an ice breaking session for participants. Ice breakers are a good way to help the participants relax and get them to be acquainted with each other before the training begins. It was evident from their laughters and happy faces that they had fun at the session conducted by Yumiko, Michiko and Yoshie. The trio of pretty lasses are Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers (JOCV) staff currently working at JKMN Kelantan. As the evening’s event came to an end, I wondered how the training the next day would pan out.

Related posts:

1. Kelantan DET – Day 2: April 25, 2009
2. Almost Over
3. 2009 In Review
4. Training of Trainers – Disability Equality Training 2007
5. Disability Equality Training For JOCV And Malaysian Counterparts

There are also a couple of entries that I would like to post but have not found the time to write yet. Hopefully, I will be able to do that when I have finished preparing materials for the Disability Equality Training (DET) that I will be conducting in Kelantan next weekend. Right now, it is all a rush as I try to wrap up the preparations before Friday.

In the meantime, do check out the two blogs that I have been working on – Softly Whispering is a photoblog of the favourite images that I have taken while Delicious Food in Malaysia is a repository of food and ingredients that have shaped my appetite through the years. The links for both blogs are available on the right sidebar of the main page.

The other site that I have been busy with is the Asia Pacific Disability Equality Forum. This site is developed by Dr. Kenji Kuno of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). It is a treasure trove of resources on DET and provides a list of DET trainers from eleven countries in this region.

Related posts:

1. Mum’s Blood Transfusion
2. Traditions That Bind
3. Busy And Tired
4. Global Voices: Jeff Ooi and Mack Zulkifli Interview
5. Malaysians hounded by vicious blogging too