Following the public uproar and the action by relevant authorities, the Batu Gajah Welfare Home for Disabled Children, now keeps their charges in a hall, under constant supervision, The Malay Mail (MM) reported yesterday.
“It is a challenging task for the staff. They will have to keep a close eye on the residents,” the home’s chairman R Sivalingam told the daily, adding that the 10 cages have since been dismantled.
He also explained that there was a shortage of workers, which was why they had to resort to the cages, as it was meant to function as cubicles to keep the 10 residents with severe mental retardation from doing any harm to each other or the other residents.
“The workers are not willing to work at night. We can’t force them to work as well.
“There will only be a few staff and they have to take care of other residents as well,” Sivalingam was quoted as saying by MM.
The home currently has 47 residents, with the youngest being 13 and the oldest 60. There are 12 workers, which include five men.
“If I had the resources, first I would get more workers so that the inmates could be monitored closely, and I would also build more rooms for them.
“As it is, there’s not enough money to build rooms for all 47 of them,” Sivalingam told FMT last month.
On funding for the home, Sivalingam admitted that it was difficult to pay the bills every month, especially since the state government had reduced the aid it had provided all this time.
“The government allocation has been reduced from RM130,000 to RM65,000. This has made it difficult for us to improve the conditions.
“Furthermore, the workers are not well trained but we can’t send them for training as we don’t have the financial means,” Sivalingam said, according to MM.
He added that the current level of funding also does not allow for the home to get better medication and hire therapists to help the residents.
Sivalingam appealed for the corporate sector to help the home provide better care and facilities for the benefit of the residents.
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