KUALA LUMPUR: The Youth and Sports Ministry (KBS) is encouraging individuals with skills to interact with persons with disabilities (PwD) especially sign language to join Malaysia Vaccine Support Volunteers (MyVac).
Deputy Youth and Sports Minister Wan Ahmad Fayhsal Wan Ahmad Kamal(pix) said this is important to assist in the smooth interaction on vaccination with the group.
“With our close cooperation with OKU Sentral, I am confident KBS would be able to give space for us to provide allowance to MyVac volunteers who have the special responsibility to assist PwD,” he said.
He told Bernama after visiting the drive-through vaccination centre (PPV) operated by OKU Sentral in Ara Damansara yesterday. Also present were OKU Sentral president Datuk Ras Adiba Radzi and Bernama chief executive officer Datuk Mokhtar Hussain.
MyVac is the mobilisation of health and non-health volunteers to assist frontliners in managing the administering of vaccine to recipients as facilitators at PPV.
On June 19, Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Seri Reezal Merican Naina Merican said 80,000 individuals had registered to join MyVac throughout the country since registration was opened during the first phase of vaccination in March.
Meanwhile, Ras Adiba welcomed the call and said that PwD should be treated courteously in the proper way.
“When we do something for PwD, we have to know how to treat them and what we do for PwD, so if we are unable do things for PwD, having one or two disabled persons would help, otherwise you wouldn’t know, “ she said.
In another development, Ras Adiba said OKU Sentral would be holding discussion with KBS to set up another Drive-Through PPV for PwD in the effort to expedite the process of vaccination for the group considering the limited capacity at the existing PPV.
The OKU Sentral-operated Drive-Though PPV started its vaccination programme on June 18 with 80 recipients a day before increasing its capacity to dispense 160 to 200 shots of vaccine a day from yesterday onwards for the next five months.
The implementation of vaccination at the centre is currently based on the registration received by OKU Sentral, which saw a total of 13,500 PwD receiving their appointments through MySejahtera application. -Bernama
