Argh! I thought I had this settled already, but apparently of the 4 sets of application forms required for me to submit, they only needed ONE copy, and returned the rest to me. That ONE copy is to be sent to the Kuala Lumpur office for them to process the OKU Kad. I have to send the rest of the forms myself to the rest of the places like the Welfare Department (yes, the Welfare Department where I applied for Kad OKU is *different* from the other Welfare Department of… sheesh, whatever) and the Education Department.

So here’s my understanding on how the application procedure works here:

1. I fill in the form in 4 copies (with the doctor’s report written in), and include relevant supporting documents such as his birth certificate and parents MyKad copies.
2. I send the whole 4 copies to the *Federal* Welfare Department, 1st Floor, Block B, Wisma MUIS, Kota Kinabalu for their verification.
3. They take one copy of the form for processing to obtain Edry’s Kad OKU, and return the rest of the copies back to me.
4. I go over to the *State* Welfare Department, Jalan Kebajikan (the map can be found in my Down Syndrome in Sabah page), and give them one copy of the form for their record.
5. I go over to the Education Department, Wisma Bandaraya, and give them the other copy of the form for their record. The department uses it for placement later in the special eds school/kindergarten.
6. The last copy is mine to keep.

I keep forgetting to do steps 4 and 5 even though I already have the copies of the form more than a week now. I’ve been too busy, busy, busy. And frustrated. The instructions for the application only stated that copies are for those departments, but they didn’t actually TELL you that you NEED TO GO to those places YOURSELF! And, heck, state AND federal departments? Aren’t these government procedures suppose to be integrated?

It’s just ridiculous. Goes to show that the Sabah government is still very much backwards in terms of adopting new technologies to make their jobs more efficient. Instead of helping, this just adds more stress to us families who’s already struggling to get assistance.

Let’s look at the positive side. I’ve applied for the OKU Kad for Edry. At least that’s one step closer to getting the whole deal done. I only need to find what little time I have in this hectic life to do the rest of them.