KUALA LUMPUR: RAIN did not deter some 200 people from taking part in the White Cane Day Walk recently.
It was organised by SBM Offshore Malaysia and Malaysian Association for the Blind (MAB) to promote awareness of the plight of the visually-impaired.
Participants walked for about an hour from the MAB building in Jalan Tebing to Jalan Sultan Abdul Samad, Jalan Tun Sambanthan and Jalan Tun Sambanthan 4, before heading back to MAB building.
The walk, which started at 8.30am, was led by a group of kompang drummers, which contributed to a celebratory mood.
This is the first time SBM Offshore Malaysia is working with the MAB in its corporate social responsibility programmes, said its projects director (Operations) John Leemeijer.
He flagged off the walk with MAB chief executive officer Datuk Ganesan Supayah.
Leemeijer said the company would help MAB improve its training facilities.
Ganesan said they needed to upgrade their computers.
He said many visually-impaired individuals were sitting for the Diploma in Computer Studies administered by the Education Ministry.
The association also wants to develop its call centre to train the visually-impaired do telemarketing.
It also needs funds to raise its agro centre in Taman Harapan, Temerloh, which provides training in fish, chicken and vegetable farming, up to international standards.
Ganesan said about 40,000 visually-impaired people were registered with the association.
He said between RM3 million and RM5 million was needed to run the association but was only getting about RM500,000 from the government and RM1.5 million from the private sector and the public.
Ganesan is hoping that more companies will help the association to provide better training for the visually- impaired.