IIUM Rector Launches ‘Support our Special Podcast’ in Special Eid Celebration

By, Aida Mokhtar

GOMBAK, 19 April 2025: Support our Special Podcast by Support Association for Parents of Special Needs Children (SUPPORT) was launched by the Honourable Rector of the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM), Prof. Emeritus Datuk Dr. Osman Bakar, during a special Eid celebration today, at IIUM Gombak. It witnessed the attendance of staff from the IIUM who have children with special needs, their families and special guests: the Rector’s wife and daughter, IIUM’s Disability Services Unit (DSU), Akademi Remaja Islam Autisma (Arisma), Hawary Sports Centre and Pusat Pemulihan Dalam Komuniti (PDK) Kamii from Gombak Setia.

The launch of the podcast signifies SUPPORT’s efforts in maintaining the conversations on disability inclusion and caregiver inclusion in the public domain. The association believes that these conversations need to be visible and what better way than to produce podcasts that include interviews with experts and parents broadcasted on SUPPORT’s official social media platforms.

“SUPPORT is the first association of its kind in a university,” said the IIUM Rector. Prof. Emeritus Datuk Dr. Osman also mentioned that he would like to pay attention to IIUM parents of special needs children better (also known as special parents) and encouraged the association to provide him with suggestions of how he could help. This depicts that IIUM, with empathy and compassion, has extended the narrative of inclusion to include caregiver inclusion alongside disability inclusion.

According to the Rector, IIUM has been very supportive of special parents and there have been several initiatives that include a policy allowing staff to take their special needs children to therapies during office hours at the discretion of the heads of department. IIUM has also encouraged special parents to register information of their special needs children on a system called Human Resource Information System (HURIS) so that the university’s Management Services Division (MSD) can provide further support to them. There have been swimming classes conducted by Hawary Sports Centre for the staff’s children with autism and down syndrome at the swimming pools managed by IIUM’s Sports Development Centre (SDC) for which the university has not charged special parents or the centre. For emotional support, IIUM’s Counselling and Career Services Centre (CCSC) has a dedicated counsellor for special parents.

The Advisor of SUPPORT, former Deputy Rector, Prof. Dr. Akmal Khuzairy Abdul Rahman, went down memory lane by recalling the history of SUPPORT since its informal inception in 2018 and formalisation as an association registered with Registrar of Societies Malaysia, in 2023. “We have had four to five Eid gatherings already,” he said underscoring the multiple times that the celebrations organised by SUPPORT had taken place for special parents.

A SUPPORT committee member and academic from IIUM’s Kulliyyah of Engineering (KOE), Dr. Hasmawati Antong and I will be hosting the podcasts for SUPPORT. The public will be able to watch our podcasts on our official Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok pages very soon.

Special thanks to the main committee of the Eid gathering, Prof. Dr. Yumi Zuhanis Has-Yun Hashim (INHART), Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nor Azizan Che Embi (KENMS), Dr. Suriani Sulaiman (KICT), Dr. Hasmawati Antong (KOE), Nurazlina Afandi (OSEM), Mohd. Rashdan Baba (IIUM’s M. Kamal Hassan Library) and other SUPPORT committee members who have helped in their own special ways, Prof. Dr. Maan Alkhatib (KOE), Dr. Tanja Jonid (AHAS KIRKHS), and Dr. Shuhaili Talib (KICT). Thank you as well to IIUM’s Office of Communication, Advocacy and Promotion (OCAP) for the photographs and my Integrated Marketing Communication students led by Mas Danialissa Mahadi for assisting the committee. May we all be blessed for our efforts. Amin.

SUPPORT can be reached through email: special.parents80@gmail.com and by contacting myself (013-2781887). SUPPORT’s official Facebook page has more information on the association, membership and its activities.***