Department to brief CM on utilisation of special fund for abused women
KUCHING: The Women and Family Department will be presenting the chief minister the outcome of a workshop on the use the special fund of RM2 million to help women in abusive relationships.
“We held a workshop to iron out how the money will be used, what the target group is, who will administer, and what the criteria are,” said Welfare, Women and Community Wellbeing Minister Datuk Fatimah Abdullah.
She was speaking to reporters yesterday after the monthly assembly for Welfare, Women and Community Wellbeing Ministry, together with state Welfare Department, and Women and Family Department.
The special fund was announced by late chief minister Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Adenan Satem during the state- level Women’s Day 2016 celebration last November in response to Fatimah’s speech about the plight of women who are divorced or in the midst of divorce proceedings.
“It can be quite costly, be it civil or Syariah, and it takes a long time. It’s very difficult for the women and children,” she said, pointing out that sometimes the man did not provide maintenance once he is living apart from the family.
“These are the sort of things that the workshop tried to address. We need to fine tune it and then pass it to our chief minister. We hope that the RM2 million will come forth.”
During the assembly, Fatimah also ran through the events organised by her ministry and two departments and their success.
These included 1AZAM success stories where a quarter of the poor and hardcore poor families given help have rose above the poverty line.
“Between 2011 and 2016, a total of 42,093 head of households in Sarawak were given help under the 1AZAM Programme. Out of this, 10,472 ( 25 per cent) are no longer in the poor or hardcore poor category,” said Fatimah.
Other success stories were the four- star grading of 29 out of the 49 Community- Based Rehabilitation ( CBR) centres in the state.
Fatimah also welcomed and introduced eight new staff members of the ministry, including the new permanent secretary Dr Saadiah Abdul Samat, a former director of Kuching City North Commission ( DBKU).