KENDARI CITY (April 2, 2024) - The Minister of Social Affairs handed over various kinds of assistance to 131 beneficiaries (PM) at Sentra Meohai Kendari on Tuesday (2/4). In addition to receiving assistance, the beneficiaries also attended various training classes to improve their skills.

“I want to help facilitate the lives of my friends for the future. We maximize our abilities. In fact, many children are successful,” said the Minister of Social Affairs encouraging the beneficiaries who were present at the Sentra Meohai Kendari Hall. 

From the 131 beneficiaries who participated in the training, 19 people were deaf and speech disabilities who were residents at the Sentra, 92 people with hearing and speech disabilities from the community, and 20 people with visual disabilities. They were divided into several cluster, such as food and beverage, handicraft, and creative production training classes or culinary, handicraft, and creative product training classes. The training took place from April 1 to 4, 2024.

In the food and beverage class, trainees are taught how to make drinks and food such as Korean bingsoo, milkshakes, snacks from cornflakes, Tokyo banana, frozen food, and so on. In the handicraft class, participants were taught how to sew pouches, bags, and other handicrafts. They were also taught how to take photos of products in the creative production class. 

A total of 55 beneficiaries received various tools. The assistive devices provided were 14 hearing aids (ABD), 20 adaptive canes, 11 disability mobile phones, 6 Gruwi (speech-impaired bracelets), and 4 Grita (mental disability bracelets). In addition, 131 nutritional assistance was also handed over to all beneficiaries who attended the training. The total amount of ATENSI assistance handed over was Rp166,066,000.

When symbolically handing over assistance to several beneficiaries, Social Affairs Minister Risma also took the time to explain the tools one by one. When handing over hearing aids, the Minister of Social Affairs also gave encouragement to people with hearing and speech disabilities to learn to speak. According to the Minister, many speech-impaired people can actually practice speaking with hearing aids. 

“After this, learn to talk. Actually, you are not mute. But because you can't hear, you can't talk. With this ABD, you have to learn to speak,” said the Minister of Social Affairs encouraging persons with disabilities who received ABDs.

The Minister of Social Affairs also asked the participants to try to say the word speech after being able to hear. And apparently, some people can indeed say the word. The determination and efforts of children with disabilities to learn to speak were greeted with smiles and laughter from the Minister who felt happy and proud of their success. 

The Minister himself deliberately held this training in the month of Ramadan with a specific purpose. The Minister hopes that in the remaining months of fasting, participants can sell the work they have learned in the training so that they can get profits. Therefore, the Minister also encouraged the participants to sell the food and drinks they had tried to make. 

“There is still the rest of the fasting month. Do you want to sell this?” asked Social Affairs Minister Risma to the training participants who were learning to make bingsoo (Korean mixed ice). 

The participants who were present also said yes and seemed enthusiastic about welcoming the Minister's invitation to entrepreneurship