OKU Dobi

Business may not be brisk, however, OKU Dobi Sdn Bhd at Mid Valley City in Kuala Lumpur has a fair share of regular customers. As the name goes, the laundry service is managed by four disabled persons including three with learning problems.

The four are among those trained by qualified Job Coaches in the country as part of a programme introduced by the Social Welfare Department in 2012. The fourth staff of the laundry shop is the supervisor Muhammad Syazani Sazali, 30, who has cerebral palsy.

Since he is unable to drive, he relies on an app-based taxi service to reach his workplace and return home. As for his colleagues, they were trained by the Job Coach to take the public transport such as the train or bus to work.

He said business was slow at the laundry as the public may not be familiar communicating with persons with learning disability. He urged the public to give those with learning disability a chance to support themselves financially.

OKU Dobi would hand out a form to the customer to indicate what sort of service they required such as dry-cleaning or wash and iron. This simplified communication between the staff and the customers.

“We are fortunate to have customers who are patient with us. We have better business during school holidays with up to 21 customers per month. Guests who stay in nearby hotels would send their laundry to us. If not for that, the business is rather slow.

“A tourist from China who was satisfied with our service was kind enough to promote our laundry to his friends. All his friends who visited Kuala Lumpur have been sending their laundry to us,” added Muhammad Syazani.

However, it was not smooth sailing for them as there were some who took the opportunity to bully and cheat the workers; knowing they were slow-learners.

“We had one incident where a customer took advantage of the situation by ‘bullying’ a staff. My colleagues have been trained to reject clothes with stains that are impossible to remove.

“The customer walked in with a damaged jacket that had a tough stain. My colleague had refused to take the jacket, however, the customer insisted that he took the garment.

“After the dry-cleaning service, the customer demanded RM5,000 claiming the jacket was damaged. We got a tailor to stitch a new jacket and it costs RM2,000. The cost was borne by a generous donor but we learnt our lesson not to fall prey to those who come to our shop with bad intentions,” he said.

The OKU Dobi is located at The Gardens South Tower, Level P2, Mid Valley City. For details, call 017-2544 390 or 03-22820541.