UPDATES
2020/2021 UPDATES
MAY 2021
Yayasan Hasanah Project 2020: It is All about the Children
With support from Yayasan Hasanah in 2020, BOLD carried out the Focus on Literacy Outreach Project to help Children with Reading Difficulties, aged 6-8 years old, attain functional literacy. When the project ended in March 2021, all the children have undergone remarkable changes in learning attitudes and behavior. Their self-confidence, interest in books and reading, and communication skills have improved. Their parents as well as their schools would like BOLD to continue the FOL program. Find out more about the project and read the stories of Adil and Juju.
The Story of Adil
Adil is one of the most interesting "special" students Tan Siew Bee has taught in her many years as a team member with BOLD's FOL Program ... read more.
APRIL 2021
A big Thank You to everyone - funders, donors, supporters, volunteers, staff and members - who helped BOLD help Children with Special Needs in 2020. It was an eventful year, filled with concerns about Covid-19, uncertainties and disruptions to plans, but we learned to adapt and were able to meet all the challenges that came our way. Read more about it in our 2020 Annual Report.
With the opening of preschools in Penang in July, our Hasanah Project teams at Tadika Permai and Tadika Islam USM are invited back to conduct Focus on Literacy Outreach sessions. From the third week of July, our team is also back at Butterworth Buddhist Preschool. However, teaching sessions continue to be online for children in Than Hsiang Kindergarten and other schools as well as for children who normally come to our centres. Face-to-face sessions will start after all children have returned to school.
May 2020
We held our first online staff meeting on 1 April to discuss how to meet the challenges of the MCO. Our partner, ACS, has already taken the lead in conducting online sessions for First Step intervention program. In mid-April, BOLD joined the NECIC’s Teletherapy stimulus program which provided training with some financial support from UNICEF. By the third week of April, staff and team members conducted online Storytelling and Focus on Literacy with the children.
Online staff meeting
Children responding to Poh Hong’s Storytelling online
The Seberang Jaya team Online with their students
Online staff meeting
July 2020
Almost all our teams are conducting online sessions as contacts are established with more families. To help team members improve their skills and teaching strategies online, training sessions were conducted by BOLD Committee member Ms. Chia Kien Eng and BOLD Consultants Mr. Tan Kien Hooi & Dr. Lee Soo Hoon.
The Seberang Jaya team conducting a group session online.
Brain Gym session online
Seela conducting a one-on-one reading session online
The Seberang Jaya team conducting a group session online.
April 2020
In the first two weeks of March, all Hasanah Project team members visited their assigned schools to conduct pre-intervention assessments of the children they will be teaching. But with the lockdown on 18 March, our centres were closed and all programs came to an immediate stop. A new committee was elected at BOLD’s AGM on 16 March, just two days before the MCO lockdown begun.
March 2020
Feb 2020
The Hasanah Project started with capacity building workshops to train potential team members. Thirty-four recruits attended an Introductory workshop on how to conduct Focus on Literacy for children with reading difficulties at our Minden Centre. This was followed by three separate training programs for teams that will go out to teach in different languages.
Activities in February
Activities in February
Activities in March
Activities in March
July Activities
July Activities
October 2020
A very happy new year from all of us at BOLD and ACS! We are looking forward to working harder and supporting more children in 2021 !
Happy New Year
Happy New Year
March 2021
We just held our 14th AGM on 27 March 2021. With Zoom we had one member joining us all the way from Australia and a couple of others from outside Penang! It was so nice to see all our faithful members and old friends, even if it was just on the screen. The Annual Report with accompanying photos will be posted up soon on this website.
Annual General Meeting 2021
Annual General Meeting 2021
The Story of Juju
Juju is a shy and quiet 9-year-old Sabahan boy who has been labelled as naughty by his teachers because he finds it hard to concentrate, walks around and fidgets in his seat, says Felicia Lee, his FOL teacher ... read more.
Kind Hearts, Kind Thoughts, Kind Words, Kind Deeds
Kind hearts are the gardens; Kind thoughts are the roots;
Kind words are the flowers; Kind deeds are the fruits
(Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)
Madam Liang Mei Lan enjoys making paper flowers and has been making them as gifts for family and friends. To celebrate her 99th birthday this year, she decided to use her skills to raise RM99,000 for charity. BOLD is honored to be chosen by Madam Liang for her donation drive. Her story, which was reported in several local newspapers, touched many hearts. As a result, the total collected by her birthday on 26 April, amounted to RM160,000! This contribution to BOLD is especially welcome in the pandemic situation when most organizations, including BOLD, will face financial difficulties. Madam Liang has shown us that we can continue to contribute to society regardless of our age.
As a token of our appreciation, BOLD presented Madam Liang with a Chinese calligraphy scroll, written by Ms Yeap Mei Kuan.
“From the gracious lady’s heart of gold and skillful hands,
A hundred flowers blooming bear fruit in four corners of the world.”
News articles:
Madam Liang Mei Lan
Madam Liang Mei Lan
JUNE 2021
JULY 2021
Online Training Workshop: Communication Cookbook
Ms. Chia Kien Eng, a Speech and Language Therapist as well as a BOLD Committee member, conducted an online training workshop on 27 June 2021 for BOLD and ACS teachers on how to stimulate language development and communication skills to lay the foundation for early literacy.
The 35 participants who attended the 2-hour workshop picked up many useful tips and were reminded that when teaching children to read and write, the communication has to be functional; purposeful; meaningful; real and natural; sensible; relevant; interesting and fun.
Online Training Workshop
Online Training Workshop
Pusat BOLD at Minden Heights has moved
As the Covid-19 Pandemic continues, and different kinds of “MCO”s remain in place, the likelihood of life returning to “normal” is still distant. BOLD, like many organizations, has had to review our strategies in response to this crisis.
Our teams have been adaptable and resilient. Focus on Literacy and First Step Early Intervention Programs have gone Online from April 2020. But other programs that require face-to-face interactions have essentially stopped since March 2020. This meant that our centers have been under-utilized for the past year.
Looking forward, there is an obvious need to re-strategize and revamp our programs. BOLD’s strategy is to move to more online and outreach work. Hence the decision to close down the Minden Heights Center and share the premises of ACS First Step Early Intervention Centre at 227 Jalan Pemancar will save expenditure on rentals and consolidate our partnership with ACS. We are also looking into moving our shared center in Seberang Jaya to a less expensive location. As we continue to revamp and work together, BOLD and ACS hope to serve our target groups more effectively.
BOLD's new opening hours will be announced after the MCO has been lifted.
For further information, please contact 011-20684776 or email boldspecial@gmail.com.
Jan 2020
Work begins as soon as we receive news that Yayasan Hasanah is nominating BOLD as one of its Community Partners for 2020. The project is to take Focus on Literacy Outreach to 6 preschools or primary schools teaching in 3 different medium of instruction to help children with reading difficulties achieve functional literacy.
Looking for team members
Looking for team members
