Putrajaya, 2 March 2023 – Malaysia has some room for improvement in terms of supporting people with disabilities (“PWD”). To date, Malaysia does not require mandatory registration of PWD, and this has resulted in limited data on the prevalence of disabilities in Malaysia. According to the Department of Social Welfare, Malaysia which manages the Persons with Disabilities registry (updated as of 31 May 2021), there are a total of 579,150 persons with disabilities, which is about 1.8% of the Malaysian population.
The National Health and Morbidity Survey (NHMS) 2019 report provides a more accurate estimation of PWD in Malaysia; a total of 11.1% Malaysians above 18 years old have disabilities. In addition, as of 2018, workforce participation among PWD is still low in both the public and private sectors, with approximately 4,500 workers, which is barely 1% of the number of registered PWD.
In view of this, Heriot-Watt University Malaysia (“HWUM” or the “University”) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Diveheart Malaysia (“Diveheart”) at the University’s Putrajaya campus yesterday (1 March 2023).
The MoU formalises the parties’ collaboration in providing opportunities for young Malaysians to develop their leadership skills, entrepreneurial skills, soft skills, including critical and creative thinking, as well as their sense of social responsibility while inculcating the value of teamwork in supporting people with disabilities.Some of the joint activities that are planned include awareness
campaigns, workshops, and mentoring sessions.
Most importantly, the MoU signals their intention to work together to foster resilience among young people, by inculcating a sense of volunteerism through a crowdfunding campaign to cater to people with disabilities.
The crowdfunding campaign with HWUM, students aims to raise funds with the objective of upskilling people with disabilities through Diveheart’s diving training programme, which is estimated to cost RM5,000 per person.
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