The discussion, the lawn mower and the 888 tag

As mentioned in my previous posting, I had been invited to join the discussion organised by the women’s wing of a political party, pertaining to problems faced by women. I didn’t get any proper letter to really know the exact topic to be discussed, but I just went anyway.

It was only at the meeting itself did I get the letter, and the actual topic of discussion was “Bagaimana Menangani Masalah Sosial”.

Other than representatives of the political party itself, others invited were NGOs, JAIP and the police. All the representatives were women.

As always, matters pertaining to women’s rights were raised… we spoke about empowering the women etc but then we realised, maybe we have been targeting the wrong groups for awareness. Many of the awareness programmes had been targeting the women, but what’s the point if men themselves are not made aware of their responsibilities? So yeah, target the MEN!!

Anyway, all the problems seem to be inter-related to one main thing – FAMILY.

I shall not go into each and every detail of the discussions. If we had not focused on a few major topics, then discussions would probably still be going on at this very moment! So we all agreed to set up a few sub-committees. I volunteered myself to be in the sub-committee for the setting up of a shelter home in Perak. A home which accepts the problematic cases without prejudice and without making any prejudgments. A home which wouldn’t say no to HIV cases.

I had expected the discussions to end by 4 pm (we started at 2 pm), but it went on and on until after 4.30 pm. Immediately after the meeting off I went to a machinery shop which sells stuff like lawn mowers and the likes. I had initially sent my old lawn mower there for servicing but when I got to the shop yesterday, I decided to trade in the old faithful for a new lawn mower. The old one is already at least 10 years old! A new one should be easier to start! I had promised the guy I’d come and get the new lawn mower at 4 pm today, but I was still in the discussion then. When I got to the shop, the guy said, “Haiya, saya ingat you sudah lupa! Saya punya orang sudah tarok minyak semua, tengok you tada datang. Pukui lima setengah tutup kedai lor!”

“Sorrylah taukeh, meeting habis lambat leh… ini baru pukui lima, sempat lagi apa?”

So yeah, I’ve got myself a new toy at home now. Am not sure when I’m gonna start “playing” with it. Maybe on Sunday, before my 10 am shift at the exhibition in Kinta City. Otherwise it will have to be during one of the weekdays next week but I will have to get it done before next weekend.

After a short rest at home, I checked my emails and then off I went blog-hopping… only to realise that I had been tagged by a blogging cat for the 888 tag. I promised her I’d respond, so here’s my response!

The rule:
1. Go to your photo files… select the 8th photo folder
2. Select the 8th photo in that folder
3. Post that photo along with the story behind it
4. Then challenge 8 blogging friends to do the same.

Hmmm… okay kitty, I’ve checked my photo files. They are divided into 5 main folders – Family, Alumni, Office, Buddies and Blogger. There’s no 8th folder. But I still kasi chan. The main folder have sub-folders under them, but only the Buddies folder have more than 8 sub-folders. The rest have less. So yes, I kasi chan again. I selected the 8th sub-folder in the Buddies folder. The sub-folder is for the Buddies Annual Family Day 2009. That settles rule #1.

Then I selected the 8th photo in that sub-folder to comply with rule #2.

Then comes rule #3. Aiseh… post the photo along with the story behind it?? Errrr… that particular photo shows a group of my PLHIV clients. For confidentiality purposes, I am NOT supposed to show pics of the PLHIVs to others! So sorry, I cannot comply with rule #3.

And because of that, definitely I cannot go on to rule #4!

But hey Cat-in-Sydney, I promised I’d respond… and I have responded! Aci tak aci belakang kira!!

Meetings & shopping

I hate meetings. But we need to have meetings especially to get things organised and to ensure that plans are carried out.

Well, Buddies was invited to send a representative to a meeting called by Jabatan Kesihatan Negeri Perak to discuss the state level of the National Strategic Plans for HIV/AIDS – for Perak Departments & Agencies. It was important to know the latest updates on the issue, and since I was free this afternoon, I went.

It was quite a pleasant surprise to notice that quite a big number of government agencies were represented this time around. The last time I attended a similar meeting sometime mid-year, many agencies did not send any reps.

Good for me, the more agencies represented, the more networking I get. As a matter of fact, since the Welfare Department was also represented this time, and questions were raised as to whether they’d be setting up any shelter homes for HIV infected women and children in Perak, I took the opportunity to meet up with the lady personally after the meeting. I asked if there was a policy for existing shelter homes under the welfare department (like the ones for problematic teenagers) to reject HIV cases.

She told me there was no such policy and that the homes should still accept such cases as long as the criteria is met ie pregnant or problematic teenagers. So I told her about Sharifah’s case earlier this year. I told her that while initially the lady whom my colleague spoke to had no objections to accepting Sharifah, the moment my colleague told her Sharifah has HIV, the lady immediately said no. The officer I met told me by right Sharifah should have been accepted. Well then, she’d better disseminate the info to all their staff. Otherwise, we’d be getting different answers from different officers all the time.

And oh, an officer who sat beside me, a lady doctor representing one of the PKDs, when given my card, first kept quiet. But after a while, she asked about the pronunciation of my NGO. She was quiet at first thinking the society was a Buddhist association. I highlighted to her about the difference in the spelling between Buddies and Buddhist. Sigh… don’t people know of the word buddy, which would be buddies when it becomes plural? Thank goodness, the officer who presented the papers for today pronounced our name correctly. In fact he expressed his appreciation for our assistance in providing support to PLHIVs especially at the ID clinic.

Ah well, no meetings tomorrow, but I will instead be going shopping.

Oh, I used to hate shopping too – and I still hate shopping on weekends. But for the children of the poor families under my care, I will still go shopping but I will make myself hate it less by going on a weekday instead of a weekend.

Tomorrow it will be Sofie’s children. Then on Monday I will take Yati’s children.

Join me shopping, anyone?