My abstract

2 or 3 weeks after I registered for myself and my colleagues (just in time for the cheaper early bird registration) to attend the ICAAP in Bali this August, one of my colleagues encouraged... no, urged... no, PESTERED me to submit an abstract for the Congress. By then the initial deadline for submission of abstracts was already over, but the organisers had extended the deadline by 2 weeks.

Despite being the chair of my NGO, I am relatively new to this. I had never attended ICAAP before compared to many of my other colleagues, and I had never submitted any kind of abstract for any kind of Congress whatsoever. So I didn't really know how to even start doing the abstract. What topic was I to write about?

I'm definitely not an expert in any specific field, so if I were to submit an abstract, it would have to be on community issues. But this is already the 9th ICAAP - surely most of the more common topics have already been covered in previous ICAAPs. I'm sure the organisers wouldn't want the same old story repeated over and over again.

But this particular colleague (who was one of the pioneers of Buddies) insisted I should submit an abstract. She went on and on saying that I could do it... I had the potential bla bla bla. By then the closing date was nearing, and since I didn't want to get any side effects of not submitting an abstract (the side effect is getting nagged by this colleague later on), I decided to just go for it.

The only topic I could think of that I'm truly exposed to is our Education Sponsorship for HIV Affected/Infected Children. As a matter of fact, it has sort of become my "baby".

OK, so I've got the topic. How do I go about doing the abstract? What approach should I use? Well, time was running out, and so I decided to use the kind of approach most suitable for people like me. It's called the "Hentam Sajalah" approach.

And yes, I did submit the abstract online on time right before the ICAAP 09 website encountered some problems (I guess too many people were trying to submit their abstracts at the very last minute - just like our tax e-filing lah!).

And so, that was it. For an abstract that was done using the "Hentam Sajalah" approach, and submitted only to "release cough at the stairs" (hehehe... that's a direct translation of melepaskan batuk di tangga!), I didn't think it was worth the organising committee's selection. At least if my colleague asked, I could tell her that I had already submitted the abstract and she couldn't nag me about non-submission.

That was end of March. Then sometime in April, MarinaM blogged about having being holed up in Bogor with some colleagues, sifting through hundreds and hundreds of abstracts. Among others, she mentioned...

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"I must admit to one disappointment; there really aren't many submissions from Malaysia. I don't know whether it's because few people do any research in Malaysia or, few people submit their abstracts, or the quality of those submitted were just too low to be accepted. But what is clear is that there will indeed be very few Malaysians who will be presenting their work or experience in Bali this August."

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Alamak! Terasalah pulak... my submission must have been in the third category, ie quality too low to be accepted. Aiseh.. malunya! I hoped she didn't read my abstract.

This morning, I downloaded my emails and saw one from ICAAP 9 asking to log in to the ICAAP website and check if my application was successful. So I went to the ICAAP website, logged in to my account, and the status of my abstract submission was "Accepted Presentation". I clicked on the confirmation status, and on the next page was written...

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Dear AFIZAH BINTI BANI HASHIM,
On behalf of the Scientific Programme Committee, we are pleased to inform you that your abstract entitled:
Abstract Title : xxxxxxxxxxxx *
Abstract Number : xxxxxxxxxxxx *

has been selected for Poster Presentation in the 9th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific.

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*I deleted the abstract title and number - will tell about it later AFTER the Congress.

So my abstract has been selected after all! OK lah, not so malu now... hehehe...

I actually submitted the abstract for oral presentation, but it got accepted for poster presentation. Which means I will now need to come up with a poster to be brought along with me when I go to Bali in August. While it does mean I need to spend some time doing the poster, I guess the bright side is, I don't have to worry about being "darah gemuruh" if it is to be an oral presentation.