KUCHING: The Sarawak government is urged to include more incentives and funding in the 2026 Budget to support children with cerebral palsy, improve accessibility for persons with disabilities and offer incentives for community welfare initiatives.
Founder and advisor of Wishesland Malaysia Chi Poh Yung called on the state government to give equal attention to intervention programmes for all children with disabilities, especially cerebral palsy babies and children.
“Cerebral palsy is a disorder of movements and postures due to damage or failure to develop normally in a small part of the brain controlling these activities.
“Cerebral Palsy takes many forms. Some are lightly affected by the fact that they have no obvious disability.
“Others may be clumsy in their gait, or they may have difficulty with their limbs or with muscles involved in speech. Some are even unable to stand, sit and thus can do little for themselves,” he told Sarawak Tribune when contacted.
He added that in Sarawak, around 80 to 100 cerebral palsy babies are born each year, with one in every 500 births affected, regardless of sex, race, maternal age or social background.
“It is important to understand that the birth of a cerebral palsy child is not the fault of their parents.
“The life span of cerebral palsy babies is around 12 years if no immediate intervention is taken to treat them.
“Hence, it is crucial for government to give NGOs providing treatment to cerebral palsy babies and children financial assistance so that these NGOs could recruit more physiotherapists to provide treatment to these children,” he added.
He stressed that NGOs need substantial funding from the government and members of the public, as the treatment method for cerebral palsy children requires one physiotherapist per child.
“Almost 90 per cent of cerebral palsy children are bedridden, unable to sit or stand independently, meaning each physiotherapist can only care for one child at a time,” he stressed.
Chi also hoped the government would allocate more funding to build accessible public facilities for persons with disabilities, noting that many areas in Sarawak lack wheelchair-friendly walkways, ramps and parking bays.
“Local governments are urged to strengthen enforcement to ensure all new and existing shop lots and shopping complexes are equipped with accessible facilities, allowing persons with disabilities to enjoy public spaces like everyone else.
“Besides, as we all know, due to the uncertainty of the economy worldwide, coupled with ever increasing cost of living, most families are facing problems in buying daily needs.
“Hence, I hope the government could consider providing incentives similar to the federal government’s RM100 aid, to all eligible Sarawak citizens to help ease the cost-of-living burden,” he said.
