YPAC prepares for the future with new focus

JAKARTA (JP): The Foundation for the Rehabilitation of Disabled Children (YPAC) announced a change in focus from a charitable body to a professional organization.

YPAC chairwoman Sorta Tobing said on Monday the change was needed to keep pace with current developments and the approaching new millennium.

"To change the philosophy, we will first reform the organization. Those who work with us will be more qualified than volunteers," she said after the opening of YPAC's eighth national conference in South Jakarta.

Sorta said the 46-year-old foundation would try to independently finance its projects, eliminating the need to rely on outside parties for funding.

The staff should also be paid like professional workers, she said.

"Therefore, in the long run, the foundation will establish a corporation to finance the foundation's activities... But the idea has not yet been refined," she said.

Currently, the majority of YPAC's board members and employees are housewives.

The conference, which will end on Wednesday, is being attended by some 150 YPAC board members from across the country.

The foundation was established on Feb. 5, 1953, in Surakarta, Central Java, to help victims of war. It now has 16 branches across the country with 4,000 disabled children under its care.

The chairwoman of YPAC's Jakarta branch, An Suyani, said the organization was currently working with at least 300 children in the capital.

The local chapter runs a special school for disabled children on Jl. Hang Lekiu III, Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta.

It previously focused its work on children with polio, but now concentrates on children with cerebral palsy, a disorder in which muscular control and coordination are impaired due to brain damage.

The goal of the 3,800 square-meter school, which has been called a paradise for children with cerebral palsy, is to help disabled children gain increased access to education and medication. (ind)