By Diana Abd Wahab
PETALING JAYA, May 19 – Iltizam Penjagaan dan Pendidikan Kanak-Kanak Selangor (Impak Selangor) opened a booth to promote its initiative at the Jelajah Ehsan Rakyat affordable basic necessities sales programme, held at Dewan Seksyen 7 Kota Damansara yesterday.
Its secretariat Muhammad Safuan Alias said a pre-registration counter has also been set up to assist the sale’s visitors, who are caregivers, so they can join free childcare training courses.
“We took the opportunity to open the booth at the charity sale event because our target group is parents.
“We approach the visitors and inquire as to whether their children are sent to caregivers or are taken care of by themselves. This way, we can gather data.
“Grandmothers taking care of grandchildren are also considered caregivers because our main objective is for them to obtain certification after attending Impak Selangor’s training courses,” he said.
Within less than an hour of operation, Muhammad Safuan said they managed to obtain information from 25 visitors who are caregivers at home.
“The response has been very encouraging. Here, we gather the highest amount of data compared to other locations, where they collected data from a maximum of 13 caregivers with a minimum of three individuals.
“Our target is to involve between 50 to 70 caregivers from each state constituency, to participate in this free course with Impak Selangor,” he said.
During the tabling of the 2023 Selangor Budget on November 25 last year, Menteri Besar Dato’ Seri Amirudin Shari announced a RM4.6 million allocation for the implementation of Impak Selangor, which is expected to benefit up to 4,000 childcare centres and 40,000 families.
Impak Selangor is part of the state government’s support for career women who require assistance in childcare.
Through the programme, early childcare initiatives are further improved by registering unregistered caregivers, especially home-based caregivers, through a centralized caregiver data system.
Impak Selangor also provides free training programs to ensure more registered and trained childcare providers, thereby creating an ecosystem and direction for the childcare industry.
