Comments on: Internet Business for the Disabled and Less Fortunate

By: Alvin Cheong

Alvin Cheong — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 05:46:08 +0000

Penny,
Is there any way for me and a few other volunteers to visit St.Nicholas to understand better about them. I mean the way they earn their livings currently. Then from there we will be able to see which areas could be converted into internet marketing. Example, we can setup an online stores for them, then teach them how to drive traffic into that online stores to sell their products. I personally feels that they have the advantage because they could engage the press to promote for them since it is more towards community service for them too.

Also we are fortunate to have Sin Dee who is very familiar with this business model, and she can share this idea.

By: Penny

Penny — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 02:39:42 +0000

Thanks for the response to commit time for our social responsibilities.
I was 1 of the pioneer mums in eHomemaker which used to be known as mums4mum. It started out as a social group for mothers, single or otherwise to meet and exchange ideas, ask for advise regarding care for their newborns/children and move forward, perhaps earning pocket money, learning how to cook, etc. We realised that homemakers do need time out to socialise, albeit among ourselves. Once or twice, we managed to bring in speakers and such to motivate and encourage us to upgrade ourselves, chart the children’s future and look after the home. Tough job, really.
Sad to say, the Pg group fizzled out, because of various factors. Now, I fancy this PECC program is above the rest in that each individual can chart their own destiny.
Having worked with the disabled, it is as Alvin says. It’s painful to watch the total disregard of this bunch of intelligent and hardworking people scrape for decent work. There is hope now.

By: Michael Yong

Michael Yong — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 08:34:32 +0000

It is a good idea! But I don’t have any experience about this , I can try to help out too.

By: Raymond Ching

Raymond Ching — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 07:08:03 +0000

Came across this site : https://www.afb.org/message_board_replies.asp?TopicID=18&FolderID=7 may be this can give some idea on to help the blind on computer/internet.

By: Alvin Cheong

Alvin Cheong — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 04:01:20 +0000

Firstly, thanks to everyone who has come forward to volunteer your time to do this community service.

I will try to arrange a visit to St. Nicholas to understand them better. We will definitely need to repackage our training methods to suit them. I am currently toying with the idea of setting up an online store for them like what Sin Dee has mentioned. We will setup it up, then teach them how to utilize it to sell their products.

When it comes to training them, we’ll need to setup a buddy system where we will appoint a volunteer for each participant.

By: Janice Tung

Janice Tung — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 03:52:08 +0000

A very good idea and challenging one indeed. Have checked out with a friend whom attached to BOLD Association for Children with Special Needs, Penang. I was told when we conduct courses for them, first we have to understand/identify their special needs and speed of learning. We might need some volunteers to give personalise attention before we can actually put them into groups.
I can help out 1-2 hr per week.

By: Nitthya

Nitthya — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 02:29:28 +0000

This is a very noble idea indeed… it will work out well! I would want to help out in whatever I could as service to the community as well… Count me in…

By: Sin Dee

Sin Dee — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 00:01:16 +0000

shall we benchmark http://www.ehomemakers.net has been doing? They have been selling eco basket and now venturing into selling vege for homemakers.
I view ‘physical disabled’ people as ‘people with great insight’ coz they are able to take challenge that we are not facing.
Perhaps getting them to sell physical either through their personal website or a consolidated one(like the Ehomemaker) will be a start for them to venture out.
I am not familiar with visually impaired people, but i can share what i know in selling physically products. St Nicholas is nearly to me, and i can be there in say once a week, a 1-2 hour session.
Perhaps may need to setup the website for them, and let them maintain by uploading their goods.
Hope this will help.

By: Allan

Allan — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 22:47:13 +0000

From my reading of Peter Tan’s blog at http://www.petertan.com/blog, a strong advocate for people with disability in Malaysia and a webmaster.

Perhaps u might give him a buzz and see how things go from there (I’m just a reader of his blog).

Honour to be the 1st commenter in your blog ! Thanks for the helping the community.