Various Updates

1. Sharifah will be going back to her hometown today - temporarily. Since we can't get her a place at the shelter home for problematic teenagers in Perak due to her HIV status, she'd need to go home first. Yes, we can send her to any of the shelter homes in KL/Selangor, but Sharifah is due to deliver soon. The owner of the flat has agreed to let her temporarily use the flat whenever she needs to be in Ipoh for her hospital appointments, and so we thought if we need to send her elsewhere, might as well wait until she delivers in June. Besides, I will need to discuss with her mother on the future of Sharifah and the baby, so I cannot really say for now what the arrangements will be like. Sharifah's mother promised me she'd come along with Sharifah to Ipoh during her next appointment as it will be during the soon coming school holidays. Coincidentally, my next clinic duty will also be on the same day as Sharifah's next appointment at the HIV clinic.

Yesterday I bought the bus ticket for Sharifah. Since she needed to see the doctor first this morning, I bought a ticket for the 4 pm bus. I told her I'd fetch her at the flat at 3 pm. So yes, I will send her off to the bus station today, pass her the bus ticket and get the key (of the flat she's been staying in) from her. I will be seeing her again, insyaAllah, next weekend, hopefully together with her mother.

2. Remember I mentioned in my posting here about SN calling me from the HIV clinic to inform me about a new case of a poor single mother with 4 kids? I had been busy with Sharifah's case earlier so I didn't call the lady immediately. But I finally managed to call her last Tuesday. Sofie, divorced, has 4 schooling children - 2 in secondary and 2 in primary. She used to help out at a canteen to earn some income for her family, but for the past 3 months she was too weak to work. Unable to earn anything to pay for house rental (or any other expense for that matter), she and her children now stays at her sister's kampong house. The sister already has 6 children of her own staying in the same house - imagine how much space each person has!

I promised Sofie I'd visit her this week. Sofie was initially reluctant to let me visit. She was thinking I may be coming in a Jabatan Kesihatan van with a few other colleagues, and so she got worried. You see, she's staying in a kampong area with *ambil tahu/kaypoh neighbours, (*strike out whichever you think is not applicable) and an official visit as such will definitely attract attention. I told Sofie I'd be coming alone in my own car and that I can easily pass off as a relative visiting from another kampong. After all, I myself am a kampong girl! (Ni kira woman perasan masih girl... hehehe...)

An office-mate of mine had also asked me to deliver some fidyah puasa through me to any poor families I visit, and Sofie definitely sounds like an eligible recipient. By the sound of it, I think Sofie's children too may need to be considered for our Education Sponsorship programme.

More updates after the visit....