6th December 2020, in the first event of its kind in Brunei, ELFERA Health and Nursing Sdn Bhd and Progresif Sdn Bhd held the IMPIAN Special Needs Resource Fair and Forum at Indoor Stadium, Berakas, gathering healthcare professionals, experts and parents of children with special needs together for a forum on how to cope with the challenges related to caring for differently abled and medically complex children.
Held in conjunction with the International Day of Persons with Disabilities and supported by the Ministry of Culture Youth and Sports and Ministry of Health, ELFERA Health and Nursing and Progresif hosted the special needs resource fair and forum to create a platform to empower special needs families by inviting them to gather with professionals and thought leaders to chat and interact on a number of relevant issues.
IMPIAN, which stands for “Inclusivity Means Purposefully Including Another person with special Needs”, invited a decorated panel of speakers consisting of a Clinical Psychologist (Pg Hartini Pg Hj Tahir), a Paediatrician (Dr. Hjh Mawarni Hj Abd Hamid), a Speech, Language and Certified Autism Specialist (Puan Wati Hj Bujang), an Occupational Therapist (Venessa Liew), Physiotherapist (Cheryl Keasberry), and a Paediatric Opthalmologist (Dr. Helena Hurairah), who also moderated a discussion with three parents of children with Special Needs. Rounding out the participating parties at the forum, there were 23 booth exhibitors ranging from healthcare providers to special needs organisations, ministry representatives to healthcare providers.
In an address made at the event, Puan Lailatul Zubaidah binti Hj Mohd Hussain, founder of Elfera Health and Nursing Care Sdn Bhd and initiator of the IMPIAN reform reflected on the need for society to do more to empower the disabled, especially the importance of early intervention and self-education. “Highlighting the importance of Early Intervention and educating parents on who and what exactly is involved, at this year’s Forum, is one of the many ways we hope to offer that additional support. With parents being a child’s first teacher, early intervention services are not just about helping the child but also about empowering parents with the necessary tools to help their child through their developmental challenges”, Puan Zubaidah said in her welcoming remarks yesterday.
The founder also thanked Progresif for assisting with putting the Forum together. Known for their considerable Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) footprint as “a business that gives back”, Progresif’s Chief Executive Officer, Hajah Nurul Haniah binti Hj Jaafar said during her closing remarks at the end of the forum that new initiatives like these “are precisely the type of progress that Progresif has always driven towards as a socially conscious business because the more inclusive and socially aware our community becomes, the closer we get to our ultimate goal of everyone enjoying a connected, inspired and progressive life”.
In addition to their support as organizing hosts of the event, Progresif conducted a substantial build-up to the IMPIAN Forum by producing a series of webinars and podcasts which were made freely available to interested participants and attendees on the Progresif Media streaming app, launched earlier this year.
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