Nala, far left, conducting a game for some of the people who came to the party at KLpac.

The MAB Blind harmonica group playing some music for the gathering

From right, Peter Tan, Christine Lee, Wuan & friend having lunch

This party, last Saturday, in conjunction with my photographic exhibition at the KLPac, was part of the celebration of understanding over ignorance of the others in our midst. We invited about 100 persons from a few different disabled groups, young and old, in the Kuala Lumpur area, to this social gathering. There was music, food, games, walks, a tour of the KLPac complex and lots of conversations and exchanges among the various groups.

Some of them are meeting new friends for the first time and many others are meeting for the second time since last year when I had an exhibition of my second collection and also had a party like this. In many way it was enlightening experience for everyone to meet so many different sorts and shapes of friends in one room.

And there were many friends who helped us make this gathering a success.

From left, Numpueng (my wife) and our dear friend May and her family who helped out with the food and drinks and all the other goodies, especially the delicious cup cakes, for that day.

From left, Numpueng, Jesmine, Victor, Azlan A Azlzee and his two children help out with the setting up and getting the party started.

In the Face of Disability on display at Sri KDU

The IB Business students and members of the Sri KDU Secondary School’s Reaching Out Club, together with their teacher and advisor, Muhammad Azhar, invited me to exhibit my photographs ‘In the Face of Disability’ and to give a talk at their school in Kota Damansara. The exhibition is from 28 July to 1 August at the school’s foyer. I gave a talk ‘ The Arts and social responsibility’ this morning, to the club members

This is the first time any school has requested to display the collection  to show to thier students, what one  small but often neglected group of our community, does for sports, in the Malaysian Paralympics. This set of pictures ‘bring’ these disabled athletes into the school and the students get to ‘meet’ them, and to know about them, perhaps not in person but in spirit.

One of the remarks I over heard as I was putting up the pictures with the help of some of the students, ‘Look over there did you see that person who can swim without his legs?’. Or ‘Do you see that they can lift weights?’ Hearing just one or two whispers among the young people make all the effort of documenting and touring these images of these athletes worthwhile.

Hopefully this exhibition and the talk will stimulate some of the students to think and look outside their classroom and their school gates.

Thanks to all of you from Sri KDU.