KUCHING: The Women, Childhood and Community Wellbeing Ministry has made it a priority to gather data of employment rates for persons with disabilities (OKUs) in the state in its effort to empower the disabled.
“In our efforts to empower the disabled group, we need to have this database to indicate in statistics how many are looking for employment, and how many of them have been hired by public and other sectors.
“We need to do this. We must know the status of all OKUs in Sarawak,” said minister Datuk Seri Fatimah Abdullah.
She said this when met by the press after attending the closing ceremony of an OKU empowerment workshop at Galeri Pustaka Negeri Sarawak here on Wednesday.
Fatimah said in recent times, there had been positive changes in the perception of the public, especially those involved in the recruitment of staff or employees, towards hiring OKUs as part of their workforce.
“I say this because there were times that my ministry was contacted by recruiters looking to hire OKUs.”
During the event, Fatimah was also handed a ‘resume book’ from the Sarawak Society for the Blind, Kuching Branch.
She said the book was a brilliant effort in aiding the process of job matching for OKUs in the state.
“Meaning we will look in terms of their profile, education, training (through the resume) and then we will submit to the relevant agencies. This way, we will have a pool of workers that they can consider.”
Fatimah said education for the disabled group in the state had also been sufficient in producing many qualified OKUs currently in the job market.
“Through education, many of our OKUs also have the necessary qualifications and the potential to be hired as employees.”
