Fatimah watches a homeless individual weave a basket at TTG Sibu.
BINTULU (Aug 5): Minister of Women, Childhood and Community Wellbeing Development Dato Sri Fatimah Abdullah is delighted with the positive transformation of two homeless individuals now staying at the temporary transit centre (TTG) in Sibu.
She said one of them was quite hostile in the beginning, refused to part with her belongings and refused to shower and clean herself, but now she is a different person.
“The other one told me she is happy staying at the centre. I told her she can become a teacher, teaching others to weave. I know she feels a sense of purpose and has self-worth. We at TTG want the homeless people to live a dignified existence,” said Fatimah.
She said they were provided with food, sleeping place, T-shirt, counselling and motivation, skills training like weaving and fertigation at the centre.
Seven individuals have even been successfully employed, she added.
TTG Sibu is operated by an anchor non-governmental organisation (NGO) with support from other NGOs in Sibu.
Fatimah said her ministry has 158 homeless people in their database.
She said Sarawak started an inter-agency committee to tackle the homeless issue in 2019 with TTG Sibu the first centre set up and was opened on Jan 28, 2022.
“Our challenge now is homeless individuals who have mental issues. Like in the recent integrated operation to rescue the homeless here on Aug 2, four out of10 homeless individuals have mental issues,” she said, adding there were no foreigners among the homeless except one in Lawas who lost his job.
Fatimah said the profiles of homeless people recorded over the years would come handy, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic, which enabled them to be vaccinated against Covid-19.
“Soon we will be able to set up three more TTGs; Miri TTG at the design stage, Bintulu TTG to be tendered out soon while Kuching TTG is working together with DBKU for renovation and costing,” she said.
On the issue of stateless children, Fatimah said in 2016 with the blessing of the Home Minister at that time, Sarawak had set up a special committee to help speed up their citizenship application so they could have access to education and health facilities.
“Our stateless children are either a product of improper marriage of a Malaysian father to a foreign mother or a product of improper adoption,” she said.
Fatimah said that in the early years of the formation of the special committee, they experienced some measures of success with time taken to know the outcome of citizenship application less than two years.
“Our stateless children are different from stateless children in the peninsular. Our stateless children (Malaysian father, foreign mother) live with their families in the community.
“It’s very disheartening for them and for us when they do not have access to education unless they have a student pass and a passport,” she said.
from Borneo Post Online https://bit.ly/3Jy6di1
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