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BACKGROUND AND HISTORY

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The Birth of a Vision In early 2017, four families of adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities in Kota Kinabalu Sabah, came together because of a mutual concern for the latter’s future living arrangement in the eventuality when they, the parents and care givers are no longer around to ensure their well-being. At the time of the group coming together, all four adults were trainees of a well-known day training centre whose training goals for them were towards adult living, social inclusion and employment. The then person-in-charge of the training programmes and services of that day training centre became their adviser and facilitator towards realizing the vision of setting up a permanent residence for these adults with special needs. The plan was to set up a group home for them, located within mainstream community life; a home which they can share together, a place to come back to, and a place to live out the rest of their lives meaningfully, productively, together...

COLOURS AND WHAT THEY MEAN TO US

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RUSTIC GREEN WITH WHITE FRAMES Those are the colors we had chosen for the house exterior as we seek to create a cozy, pleasant residential home and day training place for our adults with special needs. We envision a cottage-like ambiance of this place with a flourishing garden of flower shrubs, fruit vines, flowering tree, a mini vegetables and herbs plot, and outdoors tables and chairs. Why green? Look around us, everywhere we go, what do we see? Yes, the green of the leaves of the trees...the grass...variety of plants...green is everywhere!  Everywhere we go and everywhere we look! Green reminds us of life, living, growth ...just as plants thrive and grow in places where there are good nutrients in the soil, and sufficient moisture and sunshine, we want to see the special needs participants in our programs thrive and grow, and live with dignity and meaning 💗 Green is a picture of an  oasis, a place of rest and refreshing  for anyone who steps in here...for the particip...

THE HOUSE IS ALMOST COMPLETED (!) - PHASE 3

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we chose rustic green with white frames to convey a meaningful message (more about that in the next post 😃) Hello friends, as you can see, our house is almost completed! These pictures were taken on the 14th of April 2022.  Initially we had wanted to wait until we can show pictures of its full completion but have decided to go ahead with this latest post.  The reason is because we want to get down to grow the garden as soon as the workers finish the construction work, and clear up the compound. The garden is one of the firsts on our to-do list as plants take time to grow, and to flourish. A garden of flowering and edible plants will add to the homely atmosphere of this place, and also will be one of the economic activities for our residents and students. (Economic activities refer to work which generates income for them) A parent of a child with special needs has very kindly offered to work on designing a beautiful and at the same time, a practical garden for us. But we need ...

BUILDING PROGRESS IN PICTURES - PHASE 2

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JANUARY - MARCH 2022  We are thankful for the constant good weather which had helped the new building to go up quite quickly.  The first picture is of the house at around sixty percent completion.  Once completed, there will be four bedrooms, shower rooms cum toilets on the first floor for the Group Home residents and their supervisor.  The ground floor will consist of a kitchen, a dining room, a living room, shower rooms cum toilets, two training rooms and an office space.  We have taken into account safety measures by building a fire escape from the first floor which is safe and suitable for persons with disabilities. Additionally, the ground floor entrance and toilets are accessible to wheelchair users. To fulfill one of OBH's goals, the garden and an open workshop which will be built at the back of the garden will be used for the Group Home residents' and Day Training Program students' economic activities.  Below are the different stages of the house co...

BUILDING PROGRESS IN PICTURES - PHASE 1

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DECEMBER 2021   After the compound was cleared of the mini jungle and overgrowth, the house demolition began                                JANUARY 2022 The compound was totally cleared of all demolition debris, and then it was time to lay the foundation for the new house            "What is a Group Home?" "What are Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities?" "Where are we as a Community towards People with Disabilities?"