Society to hold open house, fair to raise funds
SIBU: Sarawak Society for the Blind Sibu branch will hold an open house cum food and fun fair at the Sibu Blind Centre in Bukit Lima here on Oct 20.
Branch chairman Clarence Ting said the event would commence at 8am, and he invited the public to come and support the event.
He pointed out that the financial constraint faced by the branch meant that it could not carry out as much as the society, which helps to care for the blind and visually impaired, had hoped for.
“That is why we need the support and contributions from the public to complement our efforts and they have been very supportive of our cause of the years,” he told a press conference on Monday.
On another matter, Ting said the number of blind residents at Sibu Blind Centre had decreased over the years as many of them had returned to their respective families.
“This is a good sign though as it shows that more blind people have learnt to become independent.
“After all, the centre is not an old folks home,” he added.
The centre here currently has nine residents, versus 30 residents back in the 1990s.
Ting said since its inception in 1964, the society had been receiving mostly Ibans at its centre.
“Their visual impairment was largely due to issues concerning clean water supply.
“We’re glad that this is something of the past, following the improvement of clean water supply to rural areas,” he remarked.
He also commented that the number of urbanites suffering from eye diseases appeared to be on the upward trend, and he deduced this to be caused by diabetes.
“During our recent eye screening project, we discovered that many of them had a blood sugar level above 6.5 per cent.
“(If this goes on), we expect more townsfolk to fill up the ‘vacancies’ at our blind centre in the near future,” he quipped, but also urging the public to cut down their sugar intake.