Protem Committee to shed light on Down Syndrome
By Lyna Mohamad

A meeting to set up the Protem Committee for Brunei Down Syndrome Association will be taking place tomorrow, July 3, 2004 and parents and families of Down Syndrome individuals are encouraged to come and join in the meeting held at the Civil Service Institute (Institut Perkhidmatan Awam) in Rimba at 2 pm.

The meeting, according to Hjh Siti Mariam, is meant to get families of Down Syndrome individuals to gather and to do elections for certain posts for the purpose of establishing a Protem Committee. The committee would serve to put forward applications for official registration under the Brunei Down Syndrome Association.

Actual plans of the association will be discussed and drafted by the elected Protem Committee. Among the activities planned are educational conferences, social events for Down Syndrome individuals and a family support group for Down Syndrome.

Members of the community as well as relevant professionals who wish to be volunteers for the association are also welcome to join in. Among others, its objectives are to provide help and support for the Down Syndrome individuals with the ultimate aim of making them self-reliant as well as to enable them to be integrated into the rest of the society.

The association also aims to educate family members on ways and means of how to better deal with and raise children with Down Syndrome whilst at the same time promoting awareness to the public and relevant authorities of the specific needs of this group of individuals.

The formal story of Down Syndrome began in 1866, when a physician named John Langdon Down, who was a superintendent of an asylum for children with mental retardation in Surrey, England, published an essay describing a set of children with common features who were distinct from other children with mental retardation.

He made the first distinction between children who were cretins (later to be found to have hypothyroidism) and what he referred to as "Mongoloids" which he based this unfortunate name on his notion that these children looked like a Mongolian, who were thought then to have an arrested development.

When this ethnic term came under fire in the early 1960's from Asian genetic researchers, the term was dropped from scientific use and the condition was renamed to "Down's Syndrome". Later in 1970's, an American revision of scientific terms changed it simply to "Down Syndrome".

In the UK and some places in Europe though, the condition is still referred to as "Down's Syndrome".

In Brunei, the Child Development Centre in Kiarong has recorded more than 100 children registered with "Down Syndrome".

According to the centre, more registrations are expected and there are also "Down Syndrome" individuals who do not register themselves, especially those under the "teenagers" and "adults" age groups.

Those who are not able to attend the meeting are still welcome for membership. Forms can be obtained at CDC Kiarong. Alternatively they may attend the next scheduled meeting. They may also contact Hjh Siti Mariam at 8721144 or her assistant at 8635343.

Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin