Caroline Adriaanse (left) and Susan Walker.
KUCHING (Feb 7): Two long-term residents of Sarawak from United Kingdom (UK) and Netherlands are seeking sponsorship for mobility aids for disabled individuals of poor families under their ‘Meeting Needs Rehab Kuching’ charity project.
Susan Walker, who is from UK, co-founded the charity project together with her friend Caroline Adriaanse way back in 2006 to provide professional assessment of the mobility needs of disabled people in the state, particularly from rural areas, and offer assistance.
“We work quite closely with community-based rehabilitation centres (PDK) and the welfare department. Sometimes we get referral from the relevant government agencies and we also occasionally check with them on whether are there any disabled individuals who were in need of mobility assistance,” said Walker to The Borneo Post recently.
In some cases, she said their team would personally visit the families to better understand the environment of the disabled individuals and suggest the most practical mobility aids to them, such as a wheelchair, standing table, buggies, crutches, walking frames, splints, commodes and custom-made orthoepic shoes.
“We are just two individuals behind this charity project. We do not have great resources but we have useful contacts who can be engaged to help the poor families. We conduct a proper assessment of the disabled person’s conditions and spread awareness via our social media page to raise money for the assistance.”
Walker remarked their project focused mainly on addressing the mobility needs of disabled person from poor families and public requests for cash or housing assistance would be redirected to the other non-governmental organising (NGOs) or government agencies.
Since 2006, she said they had managed to visit over 600 homes and delivered mobility aids to around 360 disabled individuals, as well as arranging and sponsoring therapy, medical intervention and surgical procedures.
“In 2019, I presented a TedXTalk on the subject of ‘Meeting Needs Rehab’ and aimed at encouraging young people to voluntarily give their time and support to disabled individuals within their community, emphasising the joy and blessings we receive from doing whatever we can to help,” said Walker.
She pointed out they had even travelled to Baram in 2018 as part of their outreach projects, besides holding of a health screening in a Penan village and sourcing for sponsor for solar power to be installed at a primary school.
Moreover, in a statement, it was stated the charity project would prepare and distributed food parcels for the poorest families during major festive celebrations, including the upcoming Chinese New Year festival, as well as during the enforcement of Movement Control Order last year.
Walker is a speech and language therapist and education kinesiologist residing in Sarawak for over two decades, while Adriaanse is a physiology and occupational therapist living here for about 20 years.
Meeting Needs Rehab is a voluntary community project which focuses primarily on assessing the needs of physically and intellectually challenged individuals and on sourcing sponsorship to meet the needs they identify.
For more information, members of the public can check out the project on Facebook under the name ‘MeetingNeeds Rehab Kuching’ or contact Walker at 011-10664282 or Adriaanse (012-8887332).
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