KUCHING: Helping children with learning disabilities such as dyslexia
 to acquire reading and spelling skills will not only open doors for 
them to engage with the community but also participate fully in it.
Dyslexia
 Association of Sarawak (DAS) vice-president Richard Sia said this when 
speaking during the certificate presentation ceremony for participants 
of the Empower Programme organised by the US Department of State, which 
was held at the Sarawak State Library yesterday.
“With the ability
 to read and acquire information from resources out there, we hope that 
these children will gain access and be included in mainstream schools 
and communities, thus providing them with accessibility and 
inclusiveness through empowering them in reading.
“With this new 
knowledge and techniques, we hope to create and improve the support for 
dyslexic children and adults, and for the children with other learning 
disabilities to acquire learning skills in reading, spelling and 
learning English.”
Last month, DAS and SK Laksamana Kuching in 
collaboration with state Education Department and Yayasan Sarawak 
conducted a reading camp for Primary 3 students, where children were 
immersed in English teaching and language.
The camp was a pilot 
project to empower children with learning disabilities through an 
intensive reading programme over a seven-day period at Yayasan Sarawak 
in Kuching.
“All our children have shown a significant improvement
 in their pre-camp and post camp assessments for the English language,” 
shared Sia, adding that the children’s progress would continue to be 
monitored over the next six months.
He thanked guest-of-honour US 
Ambassador to Malaysia Joseph Y. Yun, the US Embassy in KL and all those
 responsible for funding and providing the association with valuable 
information and expertise to further improve its learning and assessment
 programmes.
During his speech, Yun praised the state library for 
its beauty and expressed the US Embassy’s willingness to continue to 
work together with the library to help it expand as well as provide 
other means of support such as exchanges and lectures.
Yun, who is
 Korean-American, noted the similarities between Malaysia and the USA in
 that both were multicultural nations with people from diverse 
backgrounds, religious beliefs and ethnicity all living together.
“To
 me, having this mix is very, very important and I do believe, such a 
mix is a very important ingredient in how a nation succeeds. Again, this
 is very much full of hope as I come and see what you have done in 
Sarawak,” he said.
During his speech, His Excellency said the 
Embassy was very happy to have played a small part in enabling the 
Empower Programme as well as the camp to take flight.
“We’re here 
to recognise what we one can do with a serious disability like dyslexia.
 Dyslexia is something that is not readily visible, not like many 
disabilities. When we recognise that, and when we have exchanges, 
mentors, tutors, who can really make sure that people with dyslexia can 
live full lives – more than that, lives with learning, I think that 
makes an enormous contribution. I am very happy to honour the Dyslexia 
association, what Richard Sia and his group have done. We are very happy
 to be a very small part of how we can highlight and assist in this 
effort.”
Yun later presented certificates to DAS treasurer and 
head of human resources Wallace Lee and SK Laksamana, Kuching special 
education teacher (dyslexia) Alban Lisen who took part in one of the US 
Department of State’s Empower programmes.
Earlier, the ambassador 
and his wife, Dr Melanie Billings were welcomed to the library by 
chairman of the board of directors of Pustaka Negeri Sarawak Tan Sri 
Hamid Bugo before they were taken on a short of the library and briefed 
by its acting chief executive officer Arpah Adenan on its functions and 
facilities, including of the Lincoln Corner.
According to an event
 information handout, the Empower Programme is a new series of two-way 
exchanges aimed at bolstering international disability rights by 
providing opportunities to disability advocates for professional 
development, internships, training, networking, and collaboration with 
their US peers.
The programme is run by the Professional Exchanges
 Division of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs in 
partnership with Mobility International USA (Miusa). The exchanges 
coincide with efforts to promote and ratify the Convention on the Rights
 of Persons with Disabilities by the administration.
Last year, 
the Dyslexia Association of Sarawak (DAS) and SK Laksamana, Kuching and 
the University of Michigan Centre for the Development of Language and 
Literacy (UMCDLL) were selected to participate in the programme.
In
 August last year, Dr Carol Persad from UMCDLL spent about a week in 
Kuching to conduct a series of workshops on teaching methodology for 
dyslexia and other learning disabilities for over 80 teachers, NGOs, and
 Kuching State Education officers who work with children with 
disabilities.
During the following Oct 13 until Nov 2, Lee and 
Alban were hosted by Miusa and the University of Michigan to collaborate
 and develop a project on the Miusa reading camp to promote the rights 
and inclusion of people with disabilities.
The partnership received a USD7,000 grant to implement the Miusa Reading Camp project.
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