SABAK BERNAM, March 8 – Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said the collaboration between the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development and the Ministry of Health in implementing the 1Malaysia Family Care (1MFC) Programme facilitated the overall delivery of aid and services to the target groups.
The 1MFC programme launched by the Prime Minister today provided medical treatment and social services to senior citizens, single mothers and the handicapped group nationwide with the involvement of volunteers. Najib, who is also the Minister of Women, Family and Community Development, said integrated action by the two ministries under the National Blue Ocean Strategy could also deliver services with minimal expenses compared to separate implementation of the programme by the respective ministries.
“What we are providing to the rakyat through the 1MFC programme complements the efforts that we wish to implement so that the people in the country will be more prosperous,” he said when launching the programme, here.
He said the government had to adopt an overall approach instead of a single dimension regarding its policies because the people’s prosperity and the nation’s progress had numerous dimensions that needed much attention including the health aspect.
Najib said individuals also had to pay attention to their health because a healthy body was a great blessing. He said it would be meaningless if one had great wealth but a unhealthy body that prevented him or her from eating certain food.
“The health aspect does not only concern the wealthy group because the aged padi farmers who seldom go to the padi fields can also get diabetes if they still consume three bowls of rice although they no longer have to work hard in the padi field.
“If diabetes is not treated, one may have to amputate a leg, the body becomes weak, everything is weak,” he said. He said the people must give priority to health and for this reason, the government launched the 1MFC programme so that Malaysians would be more healthy.
Najib said that under the 1MFC programme, 205 institutions for senior citizens had been visited and 7,000 senior citizens had been examined, of whom 4,000 had been given treatment. He said that 3,000 senior citizens who were bed-ridden at home had benefited from the programme and the 3,000 minders of the senior citizens had received special training to look after the people under their care.
Through the 1MFC, more comprehensive health services were provided involving the level of health care, nutrition, dental treatment, immunisation, and rehabilitation treatment for the handicapped group, he said.
He said that under this programme, 12,000 handicapped people and 5,000 single mothers had undergone medical examination. Najib said that in an effort to assist the handicapped group, a pioneer child nursery (TASKA) project for this group would be implemented under the 2013 budget.
Meanwhile for the single mothers, the government had implemented the single mothers incubator programme to train them so that they could indulge in micro business and raise their income, he said. Najib said: “All these demonstrate the government’s aspiration so that we can ensure a more conducive environment for our children to grow up in the best
possible situation.”
The Prime Minister said the national wealth was not confined to the upper class only because Malaysia had a wider and stronger social net system compared to the United States two years ago where one per cent of its population owned 93
per cent of the national wealth.
According to a statement from the Health Ministry, the 1MFC pioneer project had been initiated in 50 districts and because of the positive response, it had been extended to all districts nationwide in early January.
BERNAMA
