JUAIRIAH Johari found her calling as a special education teacher in 1990 and to refine the skills she needed, she pursued her Master's in Special Education at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.
Years on, the 65-year-old is the founder of GOLD (Generating Opportunities for the Learning Disabled), a non-profit organisation that seeks to provide training and work skills for the learning disabled in their transition to becoming contributing members of society.
The Muar-born social entrepreneur started her career with the Education Ministry in 1980 as a mainstream teacher and spearheaded remedial education in a primary setting at the Bukit Bintang Girls School in Kuala Lumpur.
In 1988, she received accreditation as a Remedial Education specialist from Maktab Perguruan Ilmu Khas, Kuala Lumpur and later from SEAMEO-INNOTECH in the Philippines.
She retired as a senior assistant of special education classes for children with special needs in SMK Bandar Sunway but has continued to manage the Economic Empowerment Programme at Kompleks Majlis Perbandaran Subang Jaya 3C Bandar Sunway.
GOLD was registered in 2012 when a group of special needs teachers and parents realised that there was a gap between education and employment of this particular group of differently-abled individuals.
"The objective was to make the children grow up to become independent adults. We have put some of the students to work in commercial outlets but sometimes, the parents feel their child have been bullied or the environment is unsafe.
"I can understand where the parents are coming from. An autistic person, for example, may be well-built but his mind is very simple and straightforward, and so his colleagues can ask him to carry all the heavy stuff himself.
"Although these things do happen, parents should believe in the ability of their children. Some of the children have been with me for 36 years. I regard them as my own children, too. I would not want to see them getting bullied. At the same time, parents have to let their children become self-reliant as they (parents) will not be around forever," Juairiah added.
"Whenever we take the special needs children for outings, we would invite the parents to come along. Recently, we organised a hiking trip and all the participants had an enjoyable time as they forged a bond with one another.
"In my class I have children with all kinds of special needs. Those with Down Syndrome likes to hug people, while those with autism are intelligent but more withdrawn. But they were able to get along well with each other.
"As for the characteristics of a volunteer, I would say they need to have a heart of gold. Some volunteers only signed up to pass their time."
Juairiah said she was thankful to Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre (MaGIC) for providing the grants, training, mentorship and networking opportunities, and to Sunway Group for supporting its "The Kindness Cookie" project over the years.
The operational costs to run its vocational training centre at Bandar Sunway is RM20,000 per month but Juairiah said the sales of cookies was able to cover the expenditure.
"Through the support and kindness of others, and through the cookies produced by the special needs children, we have been able to channel our profits back to the beneficiaries in the form of allowances and related development programmes," she added.
The writer was a journalist with the New Straits Times before joining a Fortune Global 500 real estate company. This article is a collaboration between the New Straits Times and Tradeview, the author of 'Once Upon A Time In Bursa'.
