KUALA LUMPUR: Places of worship can play a role as a support community centre to help those in need, said Women, Family and Community Development Deputy Minister Hannah Yeoh (pix).
She said they could do so by providing programmes that would meet the needs of the target groups such as senior citizens and single mothers.
“If there are many senior citizens or single mothers in the area, they can organise programmes that are suitable for the group,” she said at the 10th anniversary of the MaKasih project yesterday.
MaKasih which was launched in July 2009, is to help disabled children by providing facilities such as toys libraries, as well as drop-off service which allows parents to send their children to programmes like art and music classes.
Commenting on the project, Yeoh who was among the founder members of the MyKasih which was initiated when she was the Subang Jaya state assemblyman, said the programme should be expanded into rural areas.
Meanwhile, she said the ministry was currently in discussions with the Public Service Department towards providing jobs for the disabled.
“There are several types of jobs that we can allocate for the disabled,” she said.
In a separate development, Yeoh said the ministry was in the midst of fine-tuning a bill related to sexual harassment.
“Many people do not understand that in a sexual harassment case, it involves trauma whether the victim is male or female, that is why we are considering a new law that will fill the loopholes in the existing law,” she said.
Yeoh also stressed that enforcement officers should be given the training to ensure that they were more attentive when taking reports from sexual harassment victims. — Bernama
