KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri brought smiles to members of the National Athletes Welfare Foundation (Yakeb) when he announced today that the government was allocating RM3 million and a plot of land to the organisation in Kuala Lumpur.
With the plot of land, Yakeb, now based in Bukit Kiara, will have their own building and sports centre soon.
It is a move to enable Yakeb to be more proactive in assisting former national athletes in all aspects.
Ismail, who played an instrumental role in Yakeb's operations when he was Sports Minister in 2008-2009, has instructed current Sports Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Faizal Azumu to identify a suitable site to build Wisma Yakeb.
He said Wisma Yakeb will include a sports centre, a centre of excellence for former athletes and an income-generating initiative.
Ismail added that it will help Yakeb to be more proactive in taking care of former athletes.
"The RM3 million is for last year and this year. InsyaAllah, next year we might have more allocation.
"I hope Yakeb will be able to use the money to run their programmes," said Ismail after officiating Yakeb's seventh annual general meeting today.
"I hope Yakeb can be more proactive in identifying athletes who need assistance.
"I was told that there are many former national athletes who have yet to join Yakeb as members. I hope they will be members soon.
"Being a Yakeb member is good as the organisation will be able to assist them."
Yakeb chairman Datuk Noorul Ariffin Abdul Majeed said the funding and the plot of land will help the organisation to be self-sufficient.
He added that they only need two to three hectares to build their building to run programmes.
"We welcome the allocation from the government. The RM3 million is sufficient as the medical bills of former national athletes are covered by the Health Ministry.
"We only spend for medical in private hospitals if the treatments are not available in government hospitals.
"We need to generate our own income. With a new building, we can use it to conduct courses, either coaching or skill, for our members.
"We hope to have a five-storey building as we can use some of the floors as hotel rooms.
"The Sports Minister have informed us that the plot of land will be in the central region, which is ideal.
"We are very grateful for this support from the government. This help will ease the burden of former national athletes."