Young, single and ... (part 3)

I finally got to speak to Sharifah's mother. When I met Sharifah earlier on Sunday, I told her to give my number to her mother to enable her mother to talk to me direct if she needed to.

So yesterday morning while I was in my office, a call came in from a northern number. At first I thought it could have been a wrong number, but suddenly I remembered it could also be Sharifah's parents.

True enough, when I answered the call, a lady asked for Afizah. It was Sharifah's mother. She probably didn't realise I'm older than her because Sharifah has been calling me Kak Afizah.

Anyway, Sharifah's mother, whom I forgot to even ask for her name, but let's just call her Puan Nur (I never disclose their real names in this blog anyway!), just wanted to thank me for taking care of her daughter. She also explained why she couldn't accompany Sharifah to Ipoh.

According to Puan Nur, she had called up the welfare office at her state, explaining her daughter's situation, and asking if they could arrange to place her daughter at the shelter home for problematic teenagers (which is under the welfare department) in Perak, but was told by the officer there, that since Sharifah is already in Ipoh, might as well deal direct with the welfare officer here. I told Puan Nur that we are already liaising with the home for troubled teenagers but are still waiting for their answer.

I also told Puan Nur that if possible I'd like to meet up with her personally so we can discuss face to face what we can do for Sharifah's and the baby's future. Puan Nur agreed, and said she'd probably be able to come to Ipoh at the end of the month. Which is good timing I guess, since Sharifah herself needs to come to Ipoh for another appointment on 1st June. I told Puan Nur that hopefully by then, we'd be able to finalise the arrangements with the shelter home.

But yesterday afternoon when I went to my NGO center, I was told by my colleague (the one liaising with the people in charge of the home) that while the home accepts single unwed mothers below 21 years of age, they aren't ready to accept those who are HIV +ve.

Sigh...

We have to tell the shelter home about Sharifah's HIV status because she'd need to go for hospital appointments quite often, but when we do tell them about her HIV status, they aren't willing to accept her. Susahlah like this!!

Oh well, I guess we can't depend on gomen shelter homes for HIV cases...

Now we'll have to make other arrangements. Whatever it is, Sharifah is expected to deliver her baby next month. For the moment, the owner of the flat has agreed to let her use the flat whenever she needs to be in Ipoh for her appointments, so maybe, just maybe, we'll wait for her to deliver before we take the next step.

But I will need to discuss the matter with Puan Nur first. Do they want to give away the baby as Sharifah mentioned to me earlier, or how? Hopefully I will be able to meet up with Puan Nur soon.