Sponsorship assessment: 1 done, 2 to go!

I finally managed to get a fellow volunteer who was able to join me for a sponsorship assessment visit on a weekday instead of a weekend. Of course, I had to ask one with flexi working hours, like myself.

So today, at 2 pm, the 2 of us headed off to north of Perak to visit Aza. As always, whenever heading to unfamiliar territory, I’d do my homework first. Last time I used to google for the place. Now that I have a GPS, I’d check on my GPS first. But the name of the kampong where I was heading today wasn’t on my GPS, and not even on google. The next course of action was to call Aza yesterday, asking for landmarks and directions. I then set my GPS to the landmark nearest to her kampong, and from then on, to look out for the other landmarks that she gave.

Halfway at the NSE, the error message appeared on my GPS. Hmmm… must be due to the updated map which I downloaded just 2 days ago. I decided to stop at the next R&R to restart the GPS. Just as I slowed down at the R&R, suddenly I heard a screeching sound. Alamak, panic seround. Please, please not the car! The sound stopped when the car stopped. After restarting the GPS (which worked well after that), I continued the journey… this time no more screeching sound. BUT I noticed the air from the aircond was getting less and less cooler. Ah, the screeching sound must have come from the aircond. The aircond had never given me problems before; but I did send the car for aircond servicing just last month! Aiya, like this baik tak payah service! But in a way I was relieved it was just the aircond – it would have been a problem if the car broke down at the highway!

As the journey continued, it got warmer. But the weather wasn’t too bad, so the “free sauna” was tolerable. :-)

Anyway, after reaching the landmark I set on my GPS, I could no longer depend on the GPS for further instructions, so I had to look around for the other landmarks and instructions given by Aza earlier. I must commend Aza – her instructions were quite clear and accurate. After getting into the lorong she told us to get into, I understood why it was not in the GPS. It’s not even called jalan or lorong, it’s called parit xxx (sorry, cannot lah mention real address here kan?) And it’s quite narrow, with padi fields on both sides.

Just to be sure I was on the right track, when we passed by a makcik on a bicycle who stopped by the roadside (erm, I mean ‘parit’side) I asked her where “parit xxx” was, and my, my, her instructions were good too! Yes, we were on the right path, but most of the time, based on my own experience, the instructions I’d usually get under such circumstances would be, “Jalan teruuuus jer…” This makcik’s instructions however were complete with, “sampai hujung tu, ikut titi, lepas titi ada surau..” Waaah, caya lah makcik! If I didn’t stop to ask her, I probably wouldn’t be too confident continuing taking the same route. You see, I had to drive quite far in just to reach the titi (small bridge) the makcik mentioned.

After the titi and upon reaching the surau, I called Aza for further instructions. You see, it wasn’t easy to see the house numbers in the kampong. Some are visible while some aren’t. And Aza told us to drive further until we reach a primary school. Yes, there’s a primary school in the middle of all those padi fields! No secondary school though.

A few hundred meters after the school, I stopped where I thought the house would logically be based on the house number given, and called Aza asking her to come out of her house. And whaddaya know, I had actually stopped right in front of her house! We’ve never met before but it wasn’t difficult for Aza to figure out 2 strangers looking like rusa masuk kampong. Oh ok, in our case it was Kenari masuk kampong (I was driving a Kenari meh…). Yayy!! We made it without making any wrong turnings whatsoever! Woo hoo!

Anyway, Aza is in her early 40’s. Her husband died about 9 years ago. Aza herself was diagnosed HIV+ when she was pregnant with her youngest child, who is now 10 (and free from the virus). Her husband had refused to go for check-ups until he was too weak. He died just 2 weeks after he went for blood tests.

So Aza was diagnosed HIV+ quite some time ago. But her case was never referred to us because we don’t have volunteers doing support services at Taiping Hospital where Aza goes for her appointments. Her case was referred to us this time by the doctor (the same specialist handles HIV cases in Ipoh and Taiping) because she felt Aza needed the help.

Aza’s 4 children are all schooling – 14, 13, 12 and 10. She stopped working last year after she started taking medication which caused her to feel drowsy and sleepy. Now she is much better and should be able to work again (provided she’s able to find one) BUT her mother, whom she’s staying with, is unwell and needs looking after. So for the moment, Aza is totally dependent on welfare aid of RM400/month and Baitulmal aid of RM150/month. The good thing is that she doesn’t have to pay house rental. But with the amount that she gets it’s not easy to support 6 people (including herself) staying in the household. What more during the beginning of each schooling year.

We can definitely cover the yearly schooling expenses with our Children Education Fund. Whether or not her children will be covered by our sponsorship, that will depend on whether I can get any sponsors!

OK, so one house visit done. 2 more to go… and the plan is, the one in Ipoh this Saturday, and the other one (almost reaching the East-West highway) on Sunday.

But tomorrow I’d better go to where I got my car aircond serviced last month – the guy better fix my aircond as I don’t intend to go through another free sauna…

House visits, house visits… bila mau pergi?!

Last week alone a few cases were referred to me to be considered for our sponsorship program, or at least for our Children Education Fund.

There’s Rajan, a single father (of 2 schooling kids) who’s too weak to work.

There’s Ramli, who is now bedridden and whose wives have left him to take care of 4 schooling children.

Then there’s a new case referred to me by the doctor herself. This lady goes for appointment at the Taiping hospital and we Buddies have yet to send any volunteers for support service at that hospital. So for the moment, if there are any cases which the doctor feels need financial help, she’d refer the case to us for our further action.

House visits for sponsorship assessment purposes require at least 2 Buddies to be present for the assessment. So, I don’t only have to find a suitable time when I can go, I’d also have to find a time when I can pull another volunteer to tag along.

That shouldn’t be too much of a problem in Rajan’s case, because he’s staying in Ipoh.

Ramli however, stays in a town about 1 1/2 hours drive from Ipoh. That is not inclusive of the time I’d need to find the particular kampong where Ramli’s family is staying. I’m not too familiar with the place, so I’d better get at least one male volunteer to come along. Besides, the client, a male, is bedridden, and so it’s probably best for a male volunteer to talk to him.

The third case referred by the doctor is Aza, a single mom of 4 kids, staying in a town north of Taiping. Again, unfamiliar territory and not in my GPS. But I did google to look for the town… and although I couldn’t find the specific road from my google search, I guess I can always use the AMTS system when I reach the town. Huh? AMTS? That’s Ada Mulut Tanya System…

Question now is… BILA MAU PERGI WEI??!

Updates

During my clinic duty last Wednesday, I met 2 clients whom I have not been in touch with for quite some time.

Nuri, a very reserved lady, looked skinnier than before. We did help her out initially in getting welfare aid and some other financial help for her children, but after that she preferred to be independent in earning some income for her family. She now runs a food stall near a school at her hometown. Good for her!

Guess who else I met at the clinic? Ahh, someone who used to be the main cast in my blog postings once upon a time… for all the wrong reasons! Yep, Yah Ah Ngau (for those new to this blog, I initially just named her Yah, but after the episode of getting bitten by the angau bug, when she fell heads over heels over Mr Darling, I named her Yah Ah Ngau…). Mr Darling ended up marrying someone else, and after that Yah began flirting around, with the intention of taking revenge on men. From a tough, independent & responsible kampong girl, she turned into a wild, problematic woman.

I’ve sort of stopped calling Yah ever since she started flirting around. No, not because I didn’t want to have anything to do with her anymore, but because she kept changing her phone number – so I’d have to wait for her to call me. Why does she change her number so often? Because when people start harassing her with phone calls, she’d just get herself a new number.

So when I met her last week, I asked for her phone number, and as expected, she had changed to a new number yet again. Her 2 elder daughters, Along & Angah are still at an orphanage and only come home during weekends and school holidays. It has been a while since I last met them, they must have grown! But I’m glad to note they are doing quite well in school, and they still do remember me (they still kirim salam to me from time to time).

As for her son, Achik, who had always been a problematic child (he had always been hyperactive & never listens to his school teachers or anyone else for that matter), according to Yah, he is now at “sekolah budak-budak kurang upaya”. I’m not really sure what sort of “kurang upaya” Achik is, but I had always suspected him to be suffering from ADHD (after a tip from a blog reader) and had been asking Yah to bring him for proper check-up, but she never did. I’m not sure if that’s the reason for him to be placed at the special school now (not easy getting accurate info from Yah especially when it comes to the proper medical terms), but I sure hope he is getting the proper and necessary help.

Two days ago, Halimah called me up. Initially I thought she needed another favour, until she said, “Saja je telefon akak, dah lama tak dengar cerita. Nanti akak kata bila sesak aje cari akak…”

Oh well, yayy! At least someone remembers me without having any udang di sebalik batu & cicak sebalik frame…

My dear little Cek Mek…

3rd June 2009, at 2.40 am, while I was asleep, I was awoken by the James Bond ringtone on my hand phone. That was the assigned ringtone for my HIV clients (now dah boring, so I’ve changed it to Mission Impossible… hehe).

At 2.40 am? Yep, and the call was from Sharifah, a 19 year old unmarried pregnant girl. Sharifah, who hails from a state up north was staying alone at a flat (courtesy of a friend of my fellow volunteer who allowed her to use the place temporarily until she delivered).

“Kak, sakit kak… dah keluaq ayaq… macam mana nak buat ni?”

Uh oh… I had earlier promised to pick her up at 9 am in the morning to bring her for her hospital appointment as her c-sect was only scheduled for 2 weeks later; but apparently the baby could wait no longer!

There wasn’t much time for me to think. If I let her deliver all by herself at the flat, I’d have more problems later on, so yep, the next best course of action was to get out of my house at such an ungodly hour, fetch Sharifah at the flats, and send her to the hospital. Tak pernah dibuat seumur hidup, I tell you! That was my first time! Luckily the flats were not that far from my kampong, and from the hospital. I managed to get her to the delivery hall by 3 am.

I didn’t wait with the fathers-to-be at the waiting area though… after making sure Sharifah was in good hands, I immediately headed home to continue with my sleep. Besides, my mother was fast asleep at home when I left, and I didn’t want her to wake up in the morning to find her 46 year old daughter missing!

Sharifah finally delivered at 9 am through normal delivery. For whatever reasons, the doctors decided not to proceed with c-sect. My guess is, although the MOs who saw her earlier told her she’d have to be operated as soon as possible, by the time the specialists got there, it was too late for c-sect.

Ah yes, and so a baby girl was delivered that morning. And that was not all to it. Puan Nur, Sharifah’s mom (who knew of her daughter’s pregnancy and accepted her – but Puan Nur & Sharifah decided it was best if Sharifah delivered in Ipoh instead of at their hometown to avoid the news spreading to relatives and neighbours) couldn’t come immediately as she had to arrange for her leave from work and for her other children’s needs. And so I was sort of Sharifah’s “mak angkat” temporarily (although both Sharifah & Puan Nur call me Kak). That makes the baby, My Little Cek Mek, my cucu angkat!

I had blogged a whole lot about Sharifah and Cek Mek last year. I had to go through a whole lot of new experiences because of the little girl. Little Cek Mek had left a rather big impact on me. It would be a loooong story if I were to recap everything in this posting, so those who hadn’t been following Cek Mek’s story earlier, you can read my previous postings about Sharifah and Cek Mek at the following links:

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, and Part 11

Actually there were a few more follow ups after that, but basically the above 11 series would cover the basics (the basics alone in 11 parts???!! Goodness, Cek Mek, you’re really something – I’ve never written about anybody else in that many series!!)

Anyway, Sharifah is now back in her hometown, and working. She still keeps her hospital appointments in Ipoh as she’d be using the opportunity to visit her little girl at the shelter home.

And the little baby who caused me to go through those blood-pressure-rising moments? Tests so far showed she’s spared from the virus, alhamdulillah. And oh, she’s one year old today.

To my dear little Cek Mek,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEETIE! May you lead a normal, healthy, blessed and happy life full of love!

Hugs and kisses,

Opah Pi

Nikmatnya beristeri 4?

♫ ♪♫ Senangnya dalam hati… ♫ ♪♫ kalau beristeri empat… ♫ ♪♫ bila dah sakit kini… ♫ ♪♫ hidup merempat!

(To be sung to the tune of P.Ramlee’s Madu Tiga)

 

Huh? Why am I suddenly going into this madu-madu topic? Is it because of the difficulty to get gula, we now need to use madu?

NO LAH!!

Actually, I was on clinic duty today. Remember Ramli, whom I had met during one of my clinic duties last year, and I posted his story under case #3 here? You probably don’t remember because I never followed up on that story. To recap, here’s a cut and paste version of my earlier posting.

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Ramli came in with a young lady - I thought his wife at first (he was wearing a mask, and he looked quite young behind the mask - hmm... I wonder if I looked young behind the mask too... haha!). Then the young lady introduced herself as his daughter. I looked at Ramli's file, and saw that he's 43. Well, still young, and with a grown up daughter, he must have got married at quite a young age. The daughter who came with him just got married recently.

I then asked how he found out about his HIV infection, and almost choked when his daughter selamba-ly answered, "Sebenarnya masa ayah kawin nombor 4 baru-baru ni kena buat test HIV. Dari situlah dapat tau."

I hope behind my mask they didn't notice my terkejut beruk face. Whoa... in our contact report form which we have to fill up, there is one column for "Spouse's name". Duh, do I now have to change it to "Spouses Names"??

I asked if his family members, especially his wives all know about his HIV infection. Here goes...

Wife #1 (also mother to the daughter who accompanied Ramli): She knows, but has yet to go for testing. 4 children with this wife... all grown up and all know about his HIV.

Wife #2: Also 4 children with this wife, the youngest is 4. All the children are staying with him. I was quite concerned about the 4 year old, but I told them to just get the wife to go for testing, if she's negative, then no need to worry about the kids. The problem is, while the children are with him, the family doesn't know the whereabouts of the wife now. As such, they are unable to get her to go for testing.

Wife #3: No children. It is believed Ramli got HIV from this wife. The wife, a foreigner from a country north of Malaysia, was infected by her earlier husband, but did not inform Ramli about it. She just mentioned she had TB. And she died of TB. Habis cerita.

Wife #4: Of course she knows lah, it was during the mandatory pre-marital testing that Ramli found out he was HIV +ve. But she still married him anyway despite the HIV and the 3 earlier wives...

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That was last year. Today was Ramli’s appointment at the HIV clinic again. This time his situation is different. Last time I saw him, he was still able to walk. Today he was on wheelchair (in fact I was told he’s already bedridden at home). Last time wife #1 & #4 still around, wife #2 missing and wife #3 died. Today even #1 and #4 dah cabut lari! I guess when you’re not loyal, nobody wants to be loyal to you too huh?

Today again he came accompanied by the same daughter who accompanied him the last time. Only difference is, his daughter is pregnant and is expected to deliver anytime soon.

SN referred this case to me again because Ramli’s younger children need help. That would be the 4 children from wife #2 – all of whom are still schooling.

With ALL his wives leaving him (except #3 who died, the rest asked for divorce… including #4 who earlier married him despite knowing of his HIV status), and Ramli being bedridden, who’s to take care of Ramli? Worse, wife #2 not only left Ramli, she left the children with him as well. So who’s taking care of the kids?

Thank goodness Ramli’s daughter from wife #1 is willing to take care of him AND her half sisters/brothers. But she’s not well to do herself – she’s not working and is financially dependent on her husband. And she will be having her own child soon, surely she’d need to spend more on her own child.

I will need to visit them at home first to do an assessment before I decide on anything. Whatever it is, the children must continue schooling. Whatever their parents did, they shouldn’t be deprived of basic education at the very least!