Our clinic duties…

During our AGM last week, we were informed by our HIV clinic coordinator about the request by SN, the staff nurse at the Ipoh HIV clinic asking us if possible to send in volunteers every Wednesdays instead of our current practice of every 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of each month.

I understand that they probably need more help now that they have HIV clinic every Wednesdays and Thursdays, when previously the clinic is only on Wednesdays. If we can send our teams every Wednesday, then maybe SN can fix the appointments of new cases to be on Wednesdays so she can easily refer their cases to us. Otherwise, it can be quite difficult for her when there are new problematic cases to be referred on a clinic day when we don’t have any volunteers there.

On our part, for the moment we only have 7 people available for clinic duty ie those who are either no longer working, self employed or with flexi working hours like myself. It will be difficult for those working 9 – 5 to join us for clinic duty as they will need to take leave from work, which is unfair to them given that this is just our voluntary work. Previously we used to divide the teams into groups of three, but due to lack of manpower, we’re reduced the teams to groups of two with one team ie mine, having 3. And how come my team has 3 members instead of 2? That’s because the other 2 in my team are both trainees.

By sending in volunteers every alternate week, each volunteer involved will be on duty once every 1 1/2 months. My last duty was on the first Wednesday of March, so my next duty will be on the second Wednesday of April.

But if we are to fulfill SN’s request, we probably need to be on duty more often. Now, I am not sure if every volunteer in the HIV clinic team would be willing and able to go for clinic duty more frequently. Maybe what we can do is stick to the present duty roster, and for those who can do more, we may just slot in their names for the Wednesdays in between. Or maybe we revamp the teams. Besides, I feel that the 2 trainees in my team are ready to be confirmed and as such they should be able to be on clinic duty without me supervising.

We will have to discuss this further in our coming Board meeting end of this month.

In addition to more clinic duties, we were also informed that the Taiping HIV clinic also needs our services. Aiyo, how lah? We don’t even have enough to cover Ipoh HIV clinic! Again we will need to discuss this in the next Board meeting. Maybe we can consider sending volunteers once a month. If we do, then definitely we will have to pay for their mileage. In addition maybe we can get new volunteers staying in Taiping to join us. At least during the initial stages they can be trained by the senior volunteers on clinic duty at Taiping, then later on we can leave the Taiping HIV clinic to Taiping volunteers. That is, IF we can get volunteers from there who, again, are either self employed, have flexi working hours or are no longer working. Whatever it is, their “cari makan” jobs come first. We don’t want their jobs to be affected by their voluntary work.

So, anyone in Ipoh and/or Taiping wanna be a volunteer?

Various Updates

I have managed to get a few options for Aman (refer my previous posting). A few calls and emails from concerned organisations and individuals came in, providing me with some options. However, to date, Aman has yet to call me although he was supposed to leave his aunt's house by last weekend. I hope no news is good news. Hopefully Aman has found a place to stay... or his aunt decided not to chase him out. Whatever it is, probably I will have to check with SN if Aman comes for follow-ups at the HIV clinic. Usually those who don't show up for follow-up appointments are those who have given up hope. Hopefully that's not the case with Aman.

I am still holding my NGO's hotline phone. The phone rang a few times for the past few days and each time it rang I thought it may be from Aman. But no, Aman didn't call. The calls lately came from the management of a Company, wanting us to conduct a talk on HIV/AIDS for their factory workers - mostly foreign workers ie Indonesian and Vietnamese. Yesterday, 2 of the staff came over to the our center to discuss the matter further. The talk will be held this coming Saturday morning. The workers are not fluent in English, so the talk will have to be held in Malay. Besides, none of our volunteers are able to converse in Vietnamese language! The management will try to get one of the Vietnamese workers who are more conversant in Malay to translate for the Vietnamese workers. The Indonesians shouldn't have any problems understanding Malay... I hope! For all I know I may end up using the Indonesian accent!! (that may help for my Bali trip in August though...)

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Shila sent me another SMS telling me about her health problems again. She kept asking me why she was having such problems... whether the problems were due to the medication she was taking etc. Sigh... why lah these people prefer to ask non-medical people about their medical problems. Apparently when she felt unwell last week, I wasn't the only one she SMS-ed. Another colleague of mine also got her SMS but to that colleague Shila said she didn't have enough money to go to the clinic. To me she never complains about not having enough money for her medical needs. BUT she's always giving me all sorts of excuses not to see the doctor.

This time when she sent me the SMS, again I replied telling her to go to a clinic or hospital. In addition to that I also told her not to assume things and not to wait for her condition to worsen before she decides to see a doctor. Shila came up with yet another excuse...

"Saya takut kalau pergi hospital nanti doktor cakap ada sakit lain pulak, nanti kena tahan kat wad. Tak nak susahkan mak kalau saya masuk wad nanti."

Haiya, this woman! Memang cari pasal nak kena bebel! She thinks she won't susahkan mak if she gets sick at home? But lucky her I was too lazy to membebel that day, so I just told her to go to the klinik kesihatan near her place. Well, she promised she'd go the next morning. I hope she did.

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We had our AGM last night. Oh, just the usual AGM stuff... adoption of reports etc. And as usual, the election of office bearers too went on like previous years - I propose so and so, I second, I propose nomination closed, I second. That actually went on for every single post where there was no need to vote for anyone. Having just enough quorum for the meeting, we didn't really have many volunteers to choose from, so other than one or two changes here and there, year in year out we'd usually end up with the same faces in the Board. Yeah, so guess who's still stuck as the Chair? :(

After the meeting we decided to take a group photo. OK, ready Buddies... SMILE!!

The lady wearing the tudung had 10 seconds to catwalk to her chair after setting the camera on self-timer.

Out of the above, 10 were elected to the Board. See what I meant when I said we have a shortage of volunteers??

Of house visits, new volunteers and peer support...

Ramadan is coming in a few days time. I’m already getting cash contributions for me to buy Raya goodies for the poor. That means I need to start shopping for necessities to be distributed to my poor clients.

While I had earlier mentioned that I was not sure if I’d be able to do my usual Ramadan house visits this year, chances are I may still be able to do so. My mother’s condition has improved a whole lot and my sister will be around on weekends so I may be doing my house visits on Sundays without having to worry about my mother.

I hope to be able to bring along a few “babies” (the new volunteers who are still under probation) to come along with me. The visits are important as part of their training and heck, I may need the extra manpower to help carry the stuff in and out of my car!

This year alone we managed to rope in 4 new volunteers, 2 males and 2 females. One of them actually started off as our client (he’s a PLWHA) and based on our assessment, we asked him if he’d like to become a volunteer and he agreed. That makes him only the 2nd PLWHA to have joined the Buddies.

The PLWHAs who joined as volunteers are both financially stable. The way I see it, none of my own clients can become volunteers – they have enough problems of their own. Well yes, Jah may be the happy-go-lucky type and can really make others laugh; but she’s not working and is dependent on others to travel anywhere. How to do voluntary work like that?

Ah well, at least having 2 of them as volunteers is a good enough start. We do intend to set up a peer support group in the near future so hopefully these 2 will one day lead the way…

Recruiting new volunteers...

I had wanted to update my blog earlier today but I had been purging and vomiting since afternoon – the day when my story was featured in Malay Mail’s BlogSpot column. Hmmm… I guess I may be allergic to the MSM. (Just kidding, Sheila, just kidding…)

Am feeling a lot better now, although not fully recovered yet. Hopefully by tomorrow morning, I’d be back to normal. I promised to meet up a potential volunteer tomorrow afternoon.

When we did our exhibition last month during International AIDS Memorial Day, we had a list of people who submitted their names to become volunteers in our organization. But we don’t simply accept anyone who wants to volunteer. We’ve got to assess first if they are suitable for the line of voluntary work that we do. Some people may not fully understand the nature of things that we need to do. Some people may not understand the confidentiality issue. So we’ve got to interview them first, albeit an informal one. Then if we feel they may be suitable, we take them in as trainee volunteers, whereby they will be assigned a senior volunteer to take them around during our house visits or during clinic duties. After they are given enough exposure and if the senior volunteer is satisfied that he/she is capable, then only he/she will be confirmed as a full-fledge volunteer. I had to go through the same process when I joined in 2004.

Since we are all busy people, during the last Board Meeting we decided we should divide the list amongst a few of us so we could call the potential volunteers to arrange for the interview. I took down the phone numbers of 3 people. And last week I started calling.

The first one told me her off days are Mondays and Tuesdays, so our meet is tomorrow afternoon.

The second one, who does part time business (I’m not sure if it’s insurance or direct-selling), asked what the meet is all about and if we could just speak over the phone without having to meet up. Hmmm…. bad start. Come to think of it, I wonder if she knew what she was volunteering for. She did say she knew where our center was, but she mentioned the center of the Perak Family Health Association, not Buddies. Maybe she wanted to volunteer for the PFHA? Oh well, she said she’d call me this week when she’s free, so I’ll just wait and see if she’ll really call me back.

The third one, didn’t even answer my calls. I was thinking maybe she didn’t want to answer calls from unfamiliar numbers, so I sent her a text message explaining who I was and why I called earlier. I didn’t get any replies either.

So yeah, from the three names, I guess I will just have to be contented with one who still sounds interested.

Hopefully my stomach won’t be giving me any problems tomorrow. I wouldn’t want to make a scene in public…

Getting hold of Kak Som/Meeting a new volunteer

It has been about a week since I was assigned to be Kak Som’s buddy. During my group meeting last Tuesday, I took the opportunity to ask for more details from one of my group members who happened to be on clinic duty during Kak Som’s hospital appointment. I wanted to know who accompanied Kak Som to the hospital as it could give me some clues on her family’s acceptance of her HIV.

Too bad I couldn’t really get the info I thought I could get. According to my colleague, Kak Som actually came in an ambulance accompanied by 2 nurses from the district hospital where she was warded. So no, she was not accompanied by any family members. As such, the only info we got on her family was based on whatever she told the volunteers on duty. And sometimes the info obtained during the first contact at the HIV clinic may not be the whole truth as the PLWHAs may still hide the facts.

Although Kak Som didn’t talk much during the first contact at the HIV clinic, she did agree to the idea of being assigned a buddy and she did allow us to call. However, the number given was a hand phone number supposedly belonging to her daughter who stays with her.

Yesterday I decided to give Kak Som a call. I thought Kak Som’s daughter would answer the call and so I’d introduce myself to the daughter before I asked to speak to Kak Som. But when I called, a guy answered. Apparently the hand phone belonged to Kak Som’s son-in-law who seemed quite reluctant to talk when I introduced myself to him. I don’t blame him really, I don’t think any of Kak Som’s family members knew about us since none of them accompanied Kak Som to Ipoh GH last week.

All I managed to find out from the SIL was that Kak Som was still warded at the district hospital. So I didn’t get to speak to Kak Som. And I didn’t manage to get much info from the SIL either as he was reluctant to talk. Maybe he wasn’t sure he should be talking about his mom-in-law’s HIV status with a stranger… maybe he wasn’t comfortable having a mom-in-law who has HIV… maybe there were other people around him at that time… I don’t know for sure.

If Kak Som stays nearby, I would probably go and visit her at the hospital. But the town where she stays is quite far, so I guess I will have to give her some time and maybe call again when she gets discharged from the hospital. Or the other option is to check with SN when is Kak Som’s next appointment in Ipoh and I will try and meet Kak Som then.

Later yesterday, a fellow volunteer called me up to ask if I was free to meet up with someone who’s interested to become a volunteer. Usually we’d have an informal chat with any potential volunteers before accepting them into our organization. Not that we’re choosy people, but given the nature of our voluntary work, there are many things we need to consider.

Anyway, since I was free, I agreed to meet up with this lady, together with the colleague who called me up. The lady is a retiree, and both my colleague and I almost fainted when she told us she’s 69. Thank goodness before we fainted she managed to correct herself – she’s actually 59. Tak jadi pengsan! If she was indeed 69, before anything else we’d want her to give us a talk on “Staying Young”!

Well, my first impression is that she’s suitable for the job. But we will have to start bringing her around with us during our house visits to give her exposure to our work. Then only we'll know for sure if she is indeed suitable.

I had to go through the same thing when I first joined...

Of PLWHAs and Volunteers

We had just finished the elections of office bearers during our AGM last week when a call came in on my hand phone from an unfamiliar number. I jokingly told my colleagues somebody was already calling me to congratulate me on my new post…

I was taken by surprise when the guy who called introduced himself as so and so from Cameron Highlands Hospital. He said Yah was in Cameron Highlands that day and did not bring along her medication – her HIV meds which she was not supposed to miss. So she went to the hospital to ask if they could supply her with the particular meds. Not knowing the name of the drug, she just told them “ubat yang warna biru tu”. Duh! When they insisted to know the name of the drug, she gave them my phone number, telling them that I was the one who’s taking care of her. (Huh?? Since when did I become her nanny?!)

I told the guy I’m from an NGO which provides support service, and as such matters regarding medication etc must be referred direct to the HIV clinic, not to us volunteers.

Yah… Yah… who does she think I am… easily giving away my phone number to others? And what was she doing in Cameron Highlands?! If it was a planned trip, she should have remembered to take her meds along. Did she go for an unplanned date or something?

Aduuuh… I miss the old Yah lah. I mean the pre-Mr. Darling Yah. *Sigh*…

Anyway, lucky me, during my recent holidays, none of my PLWHA clients called. I only told Fuzi about it when I visited her last week but none of my other clients knew about my trip to Langkawi. Good thing none of them had problems to discuss during that time. So that was really a good break for me.

But just one day back from Langkawi, I received a text message from Shila, telling me that she had missed her medication for 2 consecutive nights already. When asked why, she said she was so tired she slept early and as such she missed her medication which she’s supposed to take at 9 pm. I told her that even if she was tired, she should have asked someone else in her house (her mother or her sister) to wake her up at 9pm to enable her to take her meds. Or at least she should just set her alarm to ring at 9 pm so that she’d be reminded of her medication whether or not she’s sleeping at that time. She has not been doing so because she said so far she had not missed her meds.

That’s the trouble with some of these clients. I always tell them to set the alarm (either alarm clock or their hand phone) so that they’d be reminded EVERY time to take their meds. But NOOOO…. they always insist they won’t forget and as such there was no need to set the alarm. So stubborn! *Sigh*…

Last night we had our Board Meeting – the first board meeting after our recent AGM. Hence the first board meeting I chaired. Last night’s meeting was more to determine who’s taking which portfolio. Something like sorting out our cabinet lah – except that we didn’t have to worry about watikah perlantikan or angkat sumpah… (sumpah-menyumpah maybe lah!)

I am still handling the Education Fund and Sponsorship for Children, so those of you who are sponsoring any children through Buddies, you can still liaise with me on this matter.

Other portfolios include Outreach, Client Welfare, Training, Volunteer Care, Fellowship, Fund Raising, HIV Clinic and Buddy Bears.

What was obvious during the last AGM was that we are really in desperate need of more volunteers. It’s the same pool of people we have to pull into the various sub-committees… and as such, I’m afraid soon we’re going to have a group of volunteers suffering from burnout (myself included).

So last night, we decided to create a new portfolio for Publicity and Recruitment. This sub-committee will have to come up with ways and means not only to publicize our NGO, but also to create more awareness amongst the public on HIV/AIDS. Along the way, we hope to be able to get more volunteers (especially the young and energetic ones) to join us.

Those of you staying in and around Ipoh - any takers?

The excitement continues

Just another week to go to our Family Day outing and for the past week I had to make quite a number of phone calls. There will be 23 adults and 35 children (age ranging from 6 months to 16 years) from the PLWHA families joining us and out of these, 10 of the adults and 22 of the children are from the families under my care. Naturally I had to make the most phone calls!

Although they had informed us earlier that they’d be joining, we had to confirm again as there may be some cancellations due to whatever reasons. From our past experiences in handling the Family Day outings, there are bound to be those who cancel but never bother to tell us - which is fine if we don’t have to pay first. For this year’s outing, we are going under group package to cut down on cost, and so we have to pay in full at least 7 days before the date of the event.

When I called my PLWHA clients who are coming, they told me their children are already all excited. They have already decided on what to wear and all those stuff. I am not surprised if they have already packed their things in their bags.

Yah had already arranged for her neighbor to send her and the children to the bus station. It’s not easy getting a bus from her kampong early in the morning and if she is to wait for a bus from her place, she’d probably reach Ipoh late. Yah also told me that her younger sister, who was happy that Yah’s children are getting the chance to go for such an outing, actually bought some new clothes for the children to wear. She may not earn much herself, but she was so happy for them, she thought it was the least she could do.

When I called Zainab, although she was excited at the prospect of bringing her children for the Family Day, she had her concerns. She asked if she had to bring any money to buy food. She usually gets her pay in the middle of the month and since our Family Day is on the 5th, she’s usually broke at that time and may not be able to afford buying food at the park. Only when I assured her that everything is provided for and that she didn’t have to bring any money did she finally give an affirmative YES.

Out of all those I called, only Sha had to cancel as she and her family was moving to another house that week. Maybe she can join us during some other outings. Bashar (brother to the late Lily and the new guardian of Lily’s children) also assured me that he will bring all of Lily’s children to join the fun. Meanwhile Fuzi said she’d be taking a “teksi sapu” as there is no public transportation from her place.

Anyway, other than confirming their attendance, our calls to our clients are also to inform them of all the arrangements – where to meet and what time… what to bring… what not to bring… who’s fetching who… and all those stuff.

4 volunteers will be waiting at the bus station to fetch those from outstation who are taking the bus to come to Ipoh. Most of those who need a lift from the bus station are my clients. They know me, but they don’t know the rest of the volunteers waiting there so I will have to coordinate things there and I too will have to be the last to leave the bus station to go to the park.

Since the theme park does not allow outside food to be brought in, we had to remind the families not to bring any. They have never been to such a place before and if we don’t remind them not bring any food or drinks; they may just think it’s best to bring some of their own. And who knows, it is now rambutan and durian season…. you know…

Other than that, the theme park also has dress codes for those who intend to get themselves wet either in the pool or at the water slides. No this no that… actually in the dress code posted outside, even track bottoms are not allowed, but the nice gentleman who’s handling our package told us they are rather flexible on that. So we just told our PLWHA clients to wear something suitable. As long as they don’t jump into the pool in a sarong, it’s quite okay. They can bring in t-shirts, shorts, swim suits…bikinis…or trikinis… as long as they don’t bring zucchinis! Outside food not allowed, remember? :) And speaking of which… if I wear a track bottom, long sleeved t-shirt and a headscarf; will that be considered a trikini too? Three piece whaaat… But anyway, if they don’t intend to get wet, then they can wear whatever they want.

All the above guidelines may be something we take for granted but not for these families. Many of them never had to chance to visit such places and so if we don’t forewarn them on the do’s and don’ts, they may just be like the “rusa masuk kampong” kind… or in this case, the “ayam kampong masuk bandar” kind… (Unlike the volunteers who are more of the “ayam baru bertelur” kind – so kaypoh…)

I just hope everything will run smoothly… and most importantly, that the weather will be fine…

The excitement begins...

Yesterday, together with a fellow volunteer, I went to survey the place where we are supposed to have our Family Day outing next month. At the same time, we were supposed to negotiate for a special rate as this is a charitable organization and the people joining us will be underprivileged children and families. They need a break but they can’t afford a luxury holiday.

Well, we ourselves are funded by donations from friends and the public who understands our work, so we can’t afford to give them a luxury holiday either. But we honestly hope the Family Day, which we organize every year, will be able to let them forget their plight and their sufferings, and just enjoy themselves, at least during this one day of the year. Of course, at the same time, we volunteers too will get the chance to let our hair down and enjoy ourselves silly (and maybe even act more childish than the children themselves!!).

So, yesterday I had the chance to have a “sneak preview” of the place – free of charge. We had a half hour tour of the place… so at least we now know what to expect, and as such it will be easier for us to plan our programmes for the day. The nice gentleman who showed us around even offered a free spinning chair ride… but my friend just had a cup of coffee and she was afraid she may throw up after the ride… while I was not in the proper attire… in my jubah and tudung labuh, which would probably be flapping all over when the chair goes spinning in the air! (Now, that may look like a different version of the movie “The Flying Nun”, don’t you think?) But come that day, I will make it a point to go properly attired so I will not miss any of the thrilling rides available.

Our main concern was the children. We need a strategic place so that we can easily keep an eye on the children. Kids being kids, they are bound to try anything… and especially because most, if not all, of these kids have never been exposed to such fun and amusement before. We just have to be extra careful. So yes, we got ourselves a strategic place where the mothers can easily supervise their children.

Now, coaxing the families to come is another story. For the first timers especially, they ask all sorts of questions… will their illness be discussed in any way? What if their children find out about their illness? What if people look down on them? But once we managed to convince them that there is nothing to worry about as it will be just like any other family day outings, they agreed to join. In fact, the kids are already excited the moment they found out where we’re going. (Oh okay, this overgrown kid here is just as excited…)

Actually, in organizing such events, we volunteers too tend to be caught in a dilemma. On one hand, we want to show the public that there is no harm mixing around with PLWHAs, but on the other hand, on the issue of confidentiality, we promised our clients that we will not disclose their status to anyone without their consent. And so, even in organizing this event, we have to be on low profile…

But THAT will not stop us from having fun!

These next 3 weeks running up to the Family Day, we have meetings every week to ensure the smooth running of the event. We want to make sure it will be a day the families, especially the children, will remember for a long long time…

Volunteers... PLWHAs... unwind!

Some people have been asking me what other things we volunteers do other than giving moral and emotional support to people living with HIV/Aids. Well I guess the stories I highlight in this blog so far are rather “heavy” – mainly on the moral, emotional and financial aspect of the lives of the PLWHAs.

So, how do we keep ourselves “sane”?

Well, we do let our hair down from time to time with our fellowship activities. We look for every excuse we can come up with to celebrate anything… NGO anniversary… centre anniversary… welcoming dinner for patron… year-end dinner… whatever!

But what I like most is our annual Family Day. This is the day when our NGO organizes a trip somewhere where the volunteers AND our PLWHA clients and their families can really enjoy ourselves. This way, not only the volunteers can loosen up a bit, but at the same time we can get the PLWHAs to feel as though they are part of us.

Last year we went to Teluk Batik. Before the big day, all the volunteers were required to invite their PLWHA clients. Of course not all could come, but the more the merrier. I remember inviting people like Jah and Shida who were all excited about the trip but Shida had to cancel last minute after she got involved in a minor accident.

But the hardest part for me was to get Ifa to go. No, not that she didn’t want to go and I forced her to. She really wanted to go, but because she had lost her father’s trust (due to her troubled teenage years), it was difficult for her to get the approval from her father. Her father didn’t really believe her when she said our NGO was organizing the trip. He thought she was just making excuses to “jumpa entah jantan mana”. So, her mother suggested that I (yes, yours truly) should meet the father personally to seek his permission to bring Ifa along for the trip.

Aiyyeee… from the stories I heard from Ifa and her mother, Ifa’s father is so garang… alamak…

When the day came for me to meet Ifa’s father, my heart was going dup dap dup dap… but I tried to put on the most angelic face I could manage (I tried, okay?), and went on to seek his permission. I even promised him that I would personally fetch Ifa, her sister and her cousin from her sister’s house and that I’d send them back after the trip. Permission granted without much fuss. Visa approved… phew!! Laku jugak muka seposen aku ni…

The trip turned out great! Despite staying in Perak, it had been ages since I last visited Teluk Batik. So many things had changed… for the better! And that day we were extra lucky as the weather was just nice – not raining, not too hot… and the breeze was simply lovely!

Everybody, adults and children, enjoyed themselves – some swimming, some building sand castles, some strolling along the beach, some just lying down under the tree enjoying the scenery.

Later we held some games – mostly for the children, but the adults had a fair share too. We even had the “Musang & ayam” game where the adults became the musang and ibu ayam while the children became the anak-anak ayam. I was one of the musang… and my colleagues commented that I was the most aggressive musang around… the other musangs ran out of breath too early in the game (musang pencen maa…)

Even the public who were there (it was a public beach) seemed to enjoy themselves becoming our spectators. None of them knew there were PLWHAs amongst us. Even if they knew, I bet they wouldn’t be able to tell who was and who was not HIV positive.

The PLWHAs and their children had a great time… and the volunteers had a swell time letting their hair down! It was simply fantastic!

We organize the family day trip every year – and in the bus on the way back fromTeluk Batik, Jah was already asking me about the next trip…