Upcoming Activities…

3 months passed by so quickly. We now have 3 more months to our Family Day (it’s usually held on the first Sunday of August, but since August this year is fasting month, we’ve decided to have it on the first Sunday of July instead), and based on how fast the first 3 months of the year seemed to fly, we figured it’s time to start planning for our Family Day immediately.

Before that, there are quite a number of activities we have to plan for. On the 17th of April, we’re taking up an exhibition booth during the “Men Against Violence” campaign to be held at Dewan Serbaguna Chenderong. On the 23rd of April, we’re taking up a booth during the Open Day of UniKL-RCMP here in Ipoh. I will also be giving a talk to the students on that very same day. Then, on the 29th of April, there will be a PLHIV gathering at Hospital Ipoh, sponsored by a pharmaceutical company. Actually a medical rep approached the doctor at the HIV clinic about the matter, and the doctor approached me to help organise the gathering. The pharmaceutical company pays… the HIV clinic staff takes care of the place and ordering the food etc, while we Buddies help to invite the PLHIVs and to organise the do. At the same time, I was also been offered 4 free places for “my children” to participate in a Leadership Camp to be held from 30th April – 2nd May.

So yeah, I’ve been doing lots of calling and running around. On Thursday, I went over to the HIV clinic to discuss with the staff nurse about the PLHIV gathering. I needed to be sure what we needed to do. So yeah, who’s doing what is now settled.

Back from the HIV Clinic, I started calling/texting my clients to inform them about the gathering. I also approached 3 of my clients with children in forms 3, 4 and 5, asking if their children would like to join the leadership camp. Managed to get Sofie’s 2 older sons (forms 3 and 5), Fuzi’s form 4 daughter, and Aini’s form 5 daughter. 2 girls and 2 boys. Perfect! Since I only got the forms for the camp on Thursday itself, I needed to visit these clients to get the children and their mothers to sign the form.

So on Friday afternoon, first I went to visit Fuzi. I purposely went in the afternoon so that Wina, the daughter would be home to sign the form. When I got there, Fuzi’s 2 younger sons, Ijam and Iwan were playing outside. “Tak sekolah ke?” I asked Ijam, knowing that his school session is in the afternoon. Fuzi said he complained earlier that he wasn’t feeling too well.

Anyway, Wina immediately filled in the form and signed it. She also helped to fill in the section for the guardian’s permission. All Fuzi had to do was to just sign. She didn’t even bother to read what she was signing.

After leaving Fuzi’s house, I immediately  headed to Sofie’s house. However, her 2 older boys were not home so I couldn’t get them to fill in the form immediately. So I just left the form with Sofie and told her I’d get the forms from her when I bring Saiful to get his glasses which should be ready by early next week. (Just as I’m typing this out, a call came in on my handphone… “Akak, cermin mata anak akak dah siap dah." Nasib baik tak sempat nak cakap salah nombor, terus teringat it’s Saiful’s.)

This morning, after my usual pasar tani routine, I went over to Aini’s house to get her daughter to sign the form for the camp. Unlike the 2 younger boys, the girl is not the type who likes to go out on weekends, so she was home. I managed to get her to fill in and sign the form on the spot.

2 forms filled in and signed. Now just to get the forms from Sofie’s sons. I should be getting them when I fetch Saiful to bring him to get his new pair of glasses.

Later today, I went over to the center to meet up with a few fellow volunteers before going together to the suggested venue of our coming Family Day in July. Since we had never been to the place before, we figured it would be best if we could look around first to be able to decide on what kind of activities we should plan for the day.

I so love the place. So beautiful and serene. All 4 of us who went today agreed it was a perfect choice for this year’s Family Day.

Now to raise funds for the event…