The talk to foreign workers

My effort to come up with a very simple website (using blogspot) here for my NGO is already showing results. You see, despite getting a hotline number for ourselves (usually we use our center phone number on our brochures and letterheads but most of the time there is no one at the center), the number is only displayed on our brochures, given only to a small group of people. What about those who want to know more about HIV/AIDS or those who are looking for HIV related organisations in or around Ipoh but have never heard of the Buddies of Ipoh? How do they search for us?

Nowadays, people always use the internet to look for information. So, if we Buddies don't make our information available on the internet, it will be very difficult for people to find us unless they have contacts who already know about us. It doesn't matter if the info displayed on internet is on a very simple blog site with very basic facts. At least now when people google up "HIV Ipoh", they will find Buddies of Ipoh.

That was how the HR personnel of a factory near Ipoh found us. Their Company has quite a large number of female foreign workers (mostly Indonesian and Vietnamese) and apparently of late there had been quite a few cases of social problems when their staff became pregnant and had to be sent back to their country. The HR personnel thought it would be a good idea to get their workers to learn more of HIV/AIDS, how it spreads, the stigma and discrimination that comes with it, etc, with the hope that the workers will be more careful with their social life.

But the HR personnel did not know anyone in or around Ipoh who'd be able to give the talk and never thought that such an organisation such as ours exists in Ipoh. So she googled up "HIV Ipoh" and that was how she got hold of our contact number. It just so happened that she called when it was my turn to take care of the phone, so the call came straight to me.

So this morning, after putting all the necessary stuff (my laptop, posters and brochures on HIV/AIDS) into my car, before 8 am I was already out of my house. I even had to forgo my Saturday morning pasar tani routine as the management of the factory wanted to start the talk at 8.30 am. Met up with a colleague of mine who agreed to come along with me and off we went. We got to the factory's canteen (where the talk was held) ngam ngam 8.30 am. The factory workers who were "forced" to listen to the talk just finished their shift at 8 am. Probably all they had in mind was to go home and sleep. The only consolation was that, to get them to stay back and listen to the talk, the Company sponsored breakfast for them.

While I set up the necessary equipments (I brought my own laptop but the projector was the Company's), my colleague helped to put up the posters on the wall. Usually if I go alone for talks, I don't put up the posters as there'd be nobody to help me out. Another advantage of having a colleague come along was that I finally had someone to take pictures while I gave the talk. At least our reports later will look more lively with pictures attached, no?

Usually for students, I'd have the slides in English and my explanation in both Malay and English. This time the talk was fully in Malay, both the slides and the explanation. For the benefit of the few Vietnamese workers who may not be too fluent in Malay language, they had one of their colleagues doing the translation for them.

Well, despite the workers all longing to go home and rest, at least some of them were attentive enough. They did respond to my questions and at the end of the talk, a few of them did ask questions. As a matter of fact, one Indonesian worker, came over to get additional pamphlets and brochures from us. Apparently before she came to Malaysia to work, she did get herself involved in an NGO in Indonesia carrying out similar activities. I did ask her if she may be interested to join us, but ahh... as a factory worker with 12 hour shifts, where got time to do voluntary work.

Anyway, after the talk ended and their HR personnel said, "OK, sekarang boleh balik", in less than a minute they were all out of the canteen. They already had a tiring 12 hour shift, I bet they couldn't wait to go home. In fact, maybe a few of them were already cursing this makcik... bilalah nak habis bercakap ni...

It was our first time giving a talk to factory workers. Hopefully this is a start to having more Companies interested in creating awareness amongst their staff.