Desa Bina Diri Kuching residents first homeless group in Sarawak to be vaccinated
A total of 28 residents of Desa Bina Diri Kuching at Jalan Datuk Mohd Musa, Kota Samarahan became the first homeless group to receive their Covid-19 vaccination in Sarawak.
Welfare, Community Wellbeing, Women, Family and Childhood Development Minister Dato Sri Fatimah Abdullah said the 16 male and 12 female homeless residents comprised persons with disabilities (PwD) and those with mental health problems.
“The total population of Desa Bina Diri Kuching is 28 residents, where five of them had received the vaccine earlier. In today’s programme, the remaining 23 residents are being vaccinated, with eight staff from the Ministry of Health (MOH) present to carry out the vaccination duties,” she said in her address at the Desa Bina Diri Kuching Vaccination Programme yesterday.
Commenting on Desa Bina Diri Kuching, Fatimah said it is one of the institutions under the Welfare Department that allows the destitute to get care, protection and rehabilitation.
“Desa Bina Diri Kuching was gazetted as a protection institution under the Destitute Persons Act 1977 [Act 183] in November 2014.
“It is one of the five Desa Bina Diri institutions in Malaysia,” she explained.
Fatimah noted that it lives up to its name because of the objectives of the establishment of Desa Bina Diri is to provide protection, care and rehabilitation to the residents who are destitute.
In addition, she said, it trains residents to be able to adapt and be re-integrated into the society as well as equip them with basic learning and skills.
On the programme, she said it was an outreach programme aimed at getting more people vaccinated as well as reducing the number of those who may miss out due to living far away from vaccination centres.
“It is hoped that we will all succeed in achieving herd immunity in the near future and all groups will benefit from the vaccines given. We would like to thank the MOH personnel from the Samarahan Divisional Health Office who attended the vaccination programme today,” said Fatimah.