Tag: Disability Equality Training

Kelantan DET – Day 1: April 24, 2009

Sultan Ismail Petra Airport
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.

DET banner outside Hotel New Pacific
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
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.

Busy As A Bee

One thing I like about being busy with work is that I have no time to brood which I am very apt to. An idle mind is a devil’s workshop, so they say. This and the previous month have been an especially busy period with several speaking engagements and working on a few new blogs that I am building.

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.

Back From Seremban

We got back from Negeri Sembilan at 7.50pm after losing our way in Seremban town trying to get to the expressway and ended up at Mantin and took the new Kajang-Seremban Highway (LEKAS). It rained cats and dogs somewhere in Kajang Perdana. It was a tiring trip not only because I did not sleep well but because I could not bathe as well. It is ironic that the Klana Resort has one accessible room but no plastic chair for me to sit on while bathing. Maybe the staff I approached for one was too lazy to look for a suitable chair for me.

Mocktail with Cheeky laptop wallpaper
Mocktail called “Once Upon A Time” (orange juice and ginger beer) and wallpaper of Cheeky on my laptop.

Basically, I spent my time there writing training materials for Disability Equality Training (DET) sipping on a mocktail at the Selera Coffee House while Wuan was busy with her company’s teambuilding activities. I also read up more about DET and the various topics recommended for the training from the manual titled Training Them and Us: A Guide to Social Equality for Society which is jointly produces by Liz Carr, Paul Drake and Kenji Kuno. In between that, I missed Cheeky terribly and put up a photo of him as the laptop’s wallpaper to alleviate those pangs.

Kee Mei Seremban siew pow
Kee Mei Seremban siew pow courtesy of Sue Ann and her family.

The highlight of the trip was meeting Sue Ann and her family. Sue Ann and I have been chatting on and off since 2005. And look what they brought for me – Seremban siew pow! There were also two kai tan kou but I ate one driving back to Kuala Lumpur. I have eaten Seremban siew pau sold in Penang and Kuala Lumpur. Some were delicious while others were just too unpalatable to warrant a second bite. I have yet to sink my teeth into this authentic Seremban siew pow. I am already salivating at the thought. Excuse me while I go salivate over it some more.