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SPEECH YB DATO’ SRI ROHANI ABDUL KARIM

MINISTER OF WOMEN, FAMILY AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

HANDING OVER CEREMONY FOR DONATION: CONTRIBUTION

BY JAPANESE WOMEN ASSOCIATION TO CHARITABLE ORPHANS & AGED

JAPAN CLUB OF KUALA LUMPUR 24 JANUARY 2017 (TUESDAY)

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[SALUTATION] 1. Yang Berbahagia Dato’ Abdullah Mohd Yusof

Chairman of the Trustees of JCKL Charitable Foundation Registered

2. His Excellency Dr Makio Miyagawa, Ambassador of Japan to Malaysia

3. Mr. Kenji Ota,

President of Japan Club of Kuala Lumpur 4. Mr. Kan Komatsu

Chairman of Japan Charity Bazaar 2016 Operation Committee, 5. Ms. Yuko Miyagawa,

Honorary President of Katorea-Kai

6. Ms. Eriko Todokoro, President of Katorea-Kai, the Japanese Women’s Association,

7. Distinguished guests from charitable organisations, 8. Ladies and gentlemen.

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INTRODUCTION

1. Assalammualaikum W.B.T and a very good morning to all of you.

I am pleased to be here this morning to attend the Donation

Presentation Ceremony of the Japan Charity Bazaar 2016. Please

let me first extend my warmest appreciation to Japan Club of Kuala

Lumpur for reaching out to and helping our charitable

organizations.

2. I have been informed that the Japan Club of Kuala Lumpur and its

Japanese Women’s Association, Katorea Kai, have been holding

the Charity Bazaar every year without fail for the past 44 years. I

commend and applaud their dedication and commitment to the

less fortunate in our country.

3. Every year many products such as hand-made art and craft are

made and sold to the public through the Charity Bazaar by a large

number of volunteers, in particular, the Japanese ladies living in

Malaysia who are part of the Katorea kai.

4. Today, I am pleased to announce that the generous contributions

of all the participants and donors of the Bazaar are to be handed

over to 16 of our charitable organisations, including (a) job training

centres for persons with disabilities, (b) homes for children and the

elderly of low income families, and (c) care centres for orphans and

disabled children.

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Distinguished guests, Ladies and Gentleman,

FAMILY BASED CARE

5. For many, childhood memories are surely a cheerful and fun time.

All the memories and “scars” we have on our knees and hands that

are surely the memories we want to continue for the next

generation to enjoy - a beautiful and wonderful childhood. The only

possible way to enjoy all that is in a family.

6. For most of us, we are very fortunate to be enjoying a loving blood-

related family where the common entity consist of a father figure

that protects the pack, a mother so nurturing and the person most

children would run to when they want “shelter” in times they did

some wrong doings and the father is asking for an explanation.

Let’s not forget, the siblings, both we love and often times hate at

the same time. A picture perfect of a family.

7. However by saying that, it is NOT the only setting of a family that

creates a beautiful childhood. For some unfortunates, they enter

into this world with no father, no siblings, no identity of their past

but this does not mean they could not enjoy the setting of growing

up in a family. In times like today where some unfortunate babies

are being dumped and children being sent to institutions, it is sad

to indicate that having a great childhood can be considered a

privilege for them. Fortunately the solution is here. Adoption and

fostering as a social adjustment tool might offer better option for

them. Adoption and fostering is an opportunity that will allow all

children to grow up and enjoy childhood together. Malaysian

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culture sees extending family love to those needed comes rather

naturally.

8. The focus now is to adapt from the best practises around the world

towards a smooth and well planned family-based care system

which should encompass a full cycle of placing children into

families including the monitoring and evaluation process. Family

love and care should come naturally but our role today is to ensure

the ease and a systematic process exists. Training our protectors

as well as getting NGOs to participate in the move towards family-

based care is a step taken by the Ministry of Women, Family and

Community Development.

PRODUCTIVE WELFARE

9. The Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development

Malaysia is entrusted to provide social service and welfare benefits

to the marginalized and disadvantaged groups comprising the poor,

the senior citizens, persons with disabilities, children, single

mothers, women, and victims of natural and man-made disasters

such as flood, fire and landslide. But within this group, the children

and senior citizens may be dependent to the social service and

welfare benefits while the other target groups such as the poor,

single mothers and persons with disabilities are still productive

workforce that can participate in economic activities and

employment. Consequently, the Ministry is fully committed to

adopt and implement productive welfare as the means to break

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the vicious cycle of poverty and replacing it with a virtuous cycle of

wealth creation.

10. In planning the productive welfare programme, the aim is to ensure

that the welfare system will not be creating a culture of dependency

among the poor, and self-perpetuating group of poor who has lost

the spirit of self-reliance. The productive welfare programme

provides aid to the target group in the form of equipment, machinery

and seed money as well as training to start a business or economic

activity. The ultimate aim is to create self-reliant entrepreneurs that

will sustain their businesses, and it will be the vehicle that will take

them out of the vicious cycle of poverty.

11. The productive welfare programme is designed to weed the poor

of the dependency culture. The success of their venture will imbue

the spirit of self-reliance with the skills and basic capital to be

successful in their chosen venture. The ultimate aim is

transforming them into independent entrepreneurs with high self-

esteem and strong belief that they are capable of generating

income and wealth. Consequently, the vicious cycle of poverty will

be replaced by virtuous cycle of wealth creation, and the

programme is embedded with the twin goal of unleashing potential

and building self-esteem among the poor.

NEW DIRECTION

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12. In Malaysia, the has been entrusted to plan and execute welfare

aid and programmes and our delivery system provides them with

welfare service, financial aid, shelter institutions, health care and

education as well as rehabilitation programmes. The Ministry is

undertaking a review and evaluation of its current provision of

social welfare service in order to transform of the delivery system.

13. The need for a review and crafting a new strategy is timely taking

cognizance of the changes of demographic population and ageing

profile as well as the emergence of a plethora of new social

issues emanating from rising life expectancy, behavioural

problems of affluence and sedentary lifestyle, and greater

incidence of health problems such as depression, diabetes and

heart diseases. It requires new and innovative policy and solutions

for the different needs of our target groups.

14. The Government alone cannot handle these huge challenges, and

the delivery of social service and welfare benefits must be a shared

responsibility. To paraphrase David Packard, one of the founders

of Hewlett-Packard Company, ‘the betterment of society is not the job to be left to Government but a responsibility to be shared by all.’

COLLABORATION

15. The Ministry seeks the establishment of smart collaboration and

partnership with NGO, philanthropy foundation, social purpose

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organization and individuals to provide alternative solutions to the

welfare needs of our target group comprising the elderly, single

mothers, the poor and the vulnerable children group including

children with disabilities. This smart collaboration and partnership

will unleash the spirit of social entrepreneurship in using creativity

and innovation to seek solution to social issues and welfare needs

of target group. Social entrepreneurs are people with passion to

solve a social problem, have an idea for a solution and endowed

with strong resolute will as well as resourceful to act and make it

real and impactful.

16. I sincerely hope that the contributions will serve the needs of each

organisation and each person to enrich their lives. May our efforts

and collaboration also continue to enhance the long-lasting

friendship between Malaysia and Japan.

Thank you.