Bubbly Jing Yee, the storyteller

If you were to meet Jing Yee on the street, you may think she’s a typical teenager - cheerful, talkative and even boisterous at times. She was fully engrossed in her task of packing LDH socks when approached. When asked whether I could talk to her, she was quick with ‘Of course!’.

Jing Yee is the youngest in a family with three elder brothers. At home, she’s close to her grandma and would converse with her in mandarin, otherwise, she speaks English with other family members this is upon her mother’s instruction.

At 26 years old, she has worked at Lovely Disabled Home for over 5 years. She started in the LDH workshop in SS2 and is very much an extrovert. She narrated stories about her old friends and teachers at LDH, and then some more stories about her friends’ parents. Knowledge about everyone seemed to be at the top of her head.

She struck me as an enthusiastic learner who enjoys her work and daily activities at LDH. Above all, she has no qualms in teaching others, not only where work is concerned but even willingly acts as an ice breaker – after introducing another member across the room, she told the member “Say Hi to the teacher” – how’s that as a lesson on social etiquette?

Like many others in her age group, she enjoys listening to K-pop and watching movies in her spare time. During weekends, she looks forward to outings with her family where she gets to eat her favourite food, e.g. roast duck.

Despite the many sharing, she is not always coherent or focused and that belies her ADHD condition. ADHD or attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder is a neurodevelopmental disorder. ADHD teenagers are often fidgety, restless, easily distracted and have heightened emotions, Jing Yee is no exception. However, having a 9 to 5 work day at LDH the last few years under the watch and care of the teachers has brought her conditions under control and she finds love and joy among the community in LDH.

At LDH Ara Jaya, there are more than 20 members involved in the packaging of LDH socks, hospital wristband and fast-food cutlery sets. LDH socks packaging is the mainstay of work for the members while the other works fluctuate depending on the demands of sub-suppliers. If sales of in-house brand LDH socks can be increased, this will ensure work stability for the members.

We appeal to your kindness to help disseminate information about LDH activities to your friends and families. We hope with greater awareness and support of the work by LDH members, persons with disabilities (PWD) can gain greater inclusivity and acceptance in society.

To support sales of LDH socks, please visit
https://www.lovelydisabledhome.com/shop/index.php

   

 

 

Teresa Life-changing Experience

Against all odds

            A life-changing experience for Teresa after 10 years at LDH

 

 

How time flies so fast, in the blink of an eye, my daughter Teresa Chan has worked at Lovely Disabled Home (LDH) workshop for 10 years.

Teresa is 36 years old now. She is a cerebral palsy child with multiple disabilities. She needs a wheelchair, having learning disabilities, and even needs help to go to the toilet.

I remember before she was 25, she went to a special school to learn life skills. The teacher there told us that Teresa’s learning progress had reached the limit, due to her poor learning ability, and she no longer required to attend classes.

The message caught me in a bind as a parent as I don't know what to do with her future.

As parents, we can only accept her learning disability and continue to love and care for her at home.

But the turning point came in 2007, when we met with Mr. Lum Kok Kiang, LDH founder, as we were looking for a suitable wheelchair for Teresa.

"I think Teresa is capable of learning", Mr. Lum told us.

That encouragement inspired us to place her at LDH workshop.

At the workshop, Teresa found a new meaning in her life. It's incredible!

In the eyes of some people (including me), it is almost impossible for Teresa to carry out a simple work task. But she performed the impossible.

Teresa through dedicated training at the workshop was able to fold old newspapers. It was amazing to see her opening the old newspapers, one by one, and stack them in the wooden trays.

What surprised me most was her ability to crumple old newspapers into a ball.

I witnessed her new learning ability. In 2010, Teresa joined the LDH workshop and became one of the happy working members of the organization until today.

 

 

In the past 10 years, Teresa learns to accept the love and care of teachers and members of LDH.

Very often you could see her smiles, displaying her confidence.

Working at LDH has helped to calm her down, putting her temper and tantrums under control.

The confidence promotes her learning progress and skills, like packing the chili sauce in small packages, under the guidance of the LDH teachers.

Teresa is happy and ever ready to learn new tasks.

 

At LDH, the organization always welcome special children to work here, allowing them to seek happiness and more meaningful life.

For more information, please visit www.lovelydisabledhome.com contact Lovely Disabled Home at 03-7873 9622.

 

Because of love, they go through the challenge together

Kin Mun, 23 years old, joined Lovely Disabled Home (LDH) in 2020. He has been diagnosed with ADHD and needs to be reminded often to control himself and not let his body shake. Although his communication skills are limited, but he is very cheerful.

Before joined LDH, Kin Mun did not work and used to always stroll around the shopping mall. His parents were worried about his situation and they wanted to find a way to solve this situation, this is why Kin Mun join LDH.

Kin Mun was very happy when he first joined this workshop. He took the MRT from Cheras to Pasar Seni and then transfer to LRT to Ara Damansara, all alone by himself.

However, after a week, Kin Mun started to think many ways to skip work. He would go back home or hang out in shopping mall alone after his mother sent him to MRT station. He also complained that the workshop location is far away from home as a reason to refuse to work.

After one month, the situation did not improve at all, until his father decided to personally send Kin Mun to the workshop from Cheras to Ara Damansara every day. His parents also used Kin Mun’s hobby – shopping as a reward to encourage him to work. In order to send Kin Mun to work, his dad apply late to work with his boss because his working place is at Puchong.

At the beginning of this plan, Kin Mun still refusing to get up from bed every morning and run out of house because do not want to send by his dad. His parents feel helpless and angry because their sacrifices did not get the expected response. However, they did not give up on trying. His parents will ask Kin Mun to choose where he would like to have his breakfast before send him to work.

At workshop, teachers would let Kin Mun try different kind of tasks to arouse his interest, and involve members in activities. After Kim Mun successfully reached his promise to work for a week, teachers held a pizza party as reward to encourage him.

With the efforts of parents and workshop teacher, Kin Mun attendance rate has improved. Now, teacher can see him standing in front of the door of workshop to wait for work. Kin Mun becomes more cheerful and learns to communicate with teacher. Sometimes teacher did not understand what he tried to say, he would type on his mobile phone to communicate. Also, he learns to greet other parents, ask about absent friends, and excited for music class and activities class which hold on every Monday and Thursday.

Kin Mun’s mother shared their efforts along the way. They experienced traffic jam every morning, sacrificed sleep and rest time, transportation costs, work adjustments, worried that their child will skip work suddenly… Because of love, they choose to accompany their child to go through and face the challenge.

This story showed us the expectation of loving and caring of home. We encourage every parent to give their children opportunities to make a change and do it persistently. Last but not least, we wish Happy Parent’s Day to all mothers and fathers!

 

Cerebral palsy is no hindrance to Yan Shuen success

Yan Shuen is a 27-year-old member with cerebral palsy.

She joined Lovely Disabled Home (LDH) in 2010. She is an enthusiastic individual who started her working career through a learning-working programme hosted by this home.

Her first training programme was the task to fold the newspaper.

Using her skill to open the newspaper with her hands, placing it on a wooden tray and folding it neatly was not just a task but training for people like her. 

Next, in the second stage, she was taught how to clean the chilli sauce sachet.

It was a challenge for Yan Shuen because of her inflexible fingers.

To clean these sachets, she has to place them on a wet cloth and move her hands, up and down to create a swiping motion.

Under the watchful eyes of her teachers, who guided and encouraged her, she listened attentively to instructions to perform her task.

On June 2020, she moved to the third phase of the training, which is packing.

Her task was to place two chilli sauce sachets and a plastic spoon into a plastic bag containing tissue paper.

But she has difficulties putting these items inside the plastic bag without crumpling the tissue paper as she was unable to coordinate her inflexible fingers. At times, she left out one sachet.

That is not all. She also has problems placing the packed packages into a basket and stacked them neatly.

However, the teachers did not give up on Yan Shuen.  They found ways to overcome these problems.

During the lockdown, Yan Shuen was unable to come to the workshop to work but that did not stop her mother, who has been accompanying her to the workplace,  from carrying out the task at home.

In March 2021, Yan Shuen finally succeeded in packing these items all by herself.

LDH provides different learning and training stages for these special individuals.

Working with these special needs individuals also see different strategies and methods being used to tailor individual needs.

Teacher Vivian, one of the teachers at the LDH workshop said, Yan Shuen is a stubborn child and by using gentle and soft approaches, they were able to work with her during the training.

At LDH, we are not only teaching them to complete their task but also providing them with the learning space to interact and socialising among them.  The programme also teaches them proper sitting posture and guide them to overcome their temperaments.

Of course, the encouragement and cooperation among family members and teachers also play a big part in training these special individuals.

LDH also faces teaching and training challenges, especially in the teachers' perseverance and patience, deploying various strategies and methods, which led to its members' success.

 

LDH provides training and employment opportunities to special children and adults.

For more details, visit www.lovelydisabledhome.com or contact us at 03-7873 9622