Calls and more calls...

I've been getting quite a few calls for the past few days relating to my NGO work - a few came in through our hotline number while a few direct on my personal hand phone.

As mentioned in my previous posting, last Tuesday, a university student called, asking for info on HIV/AIDS and TS. I passed her the number of our vice-chairman who's involved with outreach work as I thought he'd have more info on TS, but after talking to the student, he figured she'd get more reliable info from other NGO's dealing direct with TS. So he gave her their contact particulars.

On Thursday morning, another call came in through our hotline number. It was from a lady who called on behalf of her employers. They were planning to hold a talk for their foreign employees on the topic of HIV/AIDS, safe sex etc. They have quite a number of Indonesians and Vietnamese in their workforce. I guess this talk will have to be held in Manglish. I told the lady to inform us in black and white, either by fax or email, so that we can make the necessary arrangements. At the same time I also told her not to give us short notice as we may not be able to get any of the volunteers to do the talk.

On my way home from work the same day, a call came in on my personal hand phone. The call was from a member of the Perak Women for Women Association (PWW). I gave a talk last year to members of PWW - explaining to them on what we Buddies do, and since at that time we didn't have our hotline number yet, I gave them my personal number. PWW focuses on empowering women, and they wanted to organize a talk for women particularly those with problem marriages, so she wanted to find out if any of our HIV clients may be interested to join. Well, some of the HIV women under my charge who are still married, have problems getting the necessary "visa" from their husbands to attend any functions - even for our family day, so it'll be a tough task for me to coax them to join. And while the talk would also be suitable for single mothers, it was rather short notice. She called me on Thursday and the talk was on Saturday. The PWW lady had actually wanted to meet up with me to discuss things further - so maybe we can make arrangements to hold similar talks later; but that Thursday afternoon I had to drive to KL. And Friday was out too because I wasn't sure what time I'd be back from KL. Next week she won't be around - so I just told her to call me when she's free later.

On Friday morning I brought my mother to Putrajaya Hospital for her follow-up appointment (after her knee surgery last year). While waiting for my mother's supply of medication at the pharmacy, a call came in from a Penang number. A guy introduced himself from Community AIDS Services Penang (CASP) and he wanted to discuss about holding a joint event amongst northern partner organisations of the Malaysian AIDS Council to commemorate this year's International AIDS Memorial Day (IAMD) in May. The line wasn't so clear - and in addition to that people around me were talking, so it wasn't really convenient for me to talk then, so I asked him to call me later in the afternoon.

I just got home (yes, back in Ipoh) when he called me again. I asked him what they had in mind for the northern region IAMD, but according to him they don't have plans yet. They intend to call the various partner organisations from the northern region for a first meeting next Sunday, and from then on they will set up a steering committee to get things going. He also told me that someone from MAC suggested that maybe for logistics purposes, we may want to join KL's event; and that it's up to us to decide.

I am not too sure yet myself if we're joining either group. Last year we joined forces with the Perak Family Health Association to hold an exhibition at Ipoh Parade. It's easier because both organisations operate in Ipoh. Joining either the central group or the northern group means we will need to travel outstation. Any decision we make will have to be discussed in our Board meeting, and the next Board meeting will be the last Tuesday of this month - and that's after our AGM.

Whatever it is, getting all these calls is a good thing. Those who called for info or wanting us to give talks on HIV/AIDS means awareness is indeed spreading. And the calls from PWW and CASP show that our networking is also expanding. That, to me, is a good sign for better things ahead. At least I hope so...

A visit by a TS

I was at my NGO center as usual on Thursday afternoon last week, having a final browse at the reports for the coming AGM, when suddenly I heard a knock on our front door. We don't have any doorbells, so visitors will either have to knock or call out for us. I got up, opened the door, and saw a lady and a TS. For the uninitiated, TS means transsexual.

"Ni Buddies kan?" the TS asked.

"Ya, cari siapa?" I responded.

"Saja nak jumpa Buddies lah. I pernah datang sini dulu."

Then I remembered a few years ago when I was still a newbie in Buddies, a 2-day workshop was held at our center whereby Persatuan Wanita dan Kesihatan, KL (WAKE) sent a team to guide us in carrying out outreach work. A group of TS came over, and Geena was one of them.

While visiting Ipoh last week, Geena decided to drop by our center with a lady friend. The lady friend owns a salon and knows many of the TSes who frequent her salon. In fact, Geena became one of her best friends.

Anyway, they came just to have a chat and to find out more about Buddies. They thought our center was some sort of walk-in or drop-in center where they could come in anytime. I explained to them that we don't have any full time or part time staff manning the center and that one or two of us would come in once a week to check on admin matters. Geena and her lady friend were just lucky that they came when there was somebody around.

Geena: "Kira gaji ikut hari lah?"

Me: "Tak... takde gaji."

Geena: "Oh, dapat elaun ajelah?"

Me: "Tak... elaun pun takde. Ni semata-mata volunteer. Cuma kalau kena travel luar Ipoh, bolehlah claim mileage."

Both Geena and her friend were rather amused that we're not paid anything. I guess to them it's always "ada kerja ada gaji".

Geena was more interested to find out the things that we do... whether we do rapid testing and the likes.

They didn't stay long though. It was just a "saja-saja singgah" visit, so after a short chat and exchanging phone numbers, they left.

Coincidentally today I received a call on our hotline number (since we don't have anybody full time at the center to answer calls, we got ourselves a mobile number whereby the Board members will take turns to keep the phone - and it's now my turn until the next Board meeting). The call was from a university student who got our hotline number from our site. She and her friends are doing a research on HIV/AIDS and transsexuals, and so they wanted to interview Buddies to get some info. I told her I'd call her back once I can arrange for the right time and the right people. I don't mind meeting her myself, but given the topic, I feel it would be best if one of the volunteers from our outreach team attends to this...

International Women's Day

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Today, 8th March, is International Women's Day. (although people like Kerp prefer to remember today as Dato Seri Samy Vellu's birthday - Happy Birthday Dato Seri!)

How and when did the International Women's Day come about? Okay, for my posting today, let's go back to history (I hope you don't mind history lessons once in a while). Found the following article at the International Women's Day website.

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The First International Women's Day

In 1869 British MP John Stuart Mill was the first person in Parliament to call for women's right to vote. On 19 September 1893 New Zealand became the first country in the world to give women the right to vote. Women in other countries did not enjoy this equality and campaigned for justice for many years.

In 1910 a second International Conference of Working Women was held in Copenhagen. A woman named Clara Zetkin (Leader of the 'Women's Office' for the Social Democratic Party in Germany) tabled the idea of an International Women's Day. She proposed that every year in every country there should be a celebration on the same day - a Women's Day - to press for their demands. The conference of over 100 women from 17 countries, representing unions, socialist parties, working women's clubs, and including the first three women elected to the Finnish parliament, greeted Zetkin's suggestion with unanimous approval and thus International Women's Day was the result.

The very first International Women's Day was launched the following year by Clara Zetkin on 19 March (not 8 March). The date was chosen because on 19 March in the year of the 1848 revolution, the Prussian king recognized for the first time the strength of the armed people and gave way before the threat of a proletarian uprising. Among the many promise he made, which he later failed to keep, was the introduction of votes for women.

Plans for the first International Women's Day demonstration were spread by word of mouth and in the press. During the week before International Women's Day two journals appeared: The Vote for Women in Germany and Women's Day in Austria. Various articles were devoted to International Women's Day: 'Women and Parliament', 'The Working Women and Municipal Affairs', 'What Has the Housewife got to do with Politics?', etc. The articles thoroughly analyzed the question of the equality of women in the government and in society. All articles emphasized the same point that it was absolutely necessary to make parliament more democratic by extending the franchise to women.

Success of the first International Women's Day in 1911 exceeded all expectation.

Meetings were organized everywhere in small towns and even the villages halls were packed so full that male workers were asked to give up their places for women.

Men stayed at home with their children for a change, and their wives, the captive housewives, went to meetings.

During the largest street demonstration of 30,000 women, the police decided to remove the demonstrators' banners so the women workers made a stand. In the scuffle that followed, bloodshed was averted only with the help of the socialist deputies in Parliament.

In 1913 International Women's Day was transferred to 8 March and this day has remained the global date for International Wommen's Day ever since.

During International Women's Year in 1975, IWD was given official recognition by the United Nations and was taken up by many governments. International Women's Day is marked by a national holiday in China, Armenia, Russia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.

A day at the clinic

It has been quite a long while since I was last on clinic duty. The last time, if I remember correctly, was in November last year. Even SN was pleasantly surprised to see me this morning - she probably thought I had opted out of the Buddies HIV Clinic team.

I got to the hospital rather early today, and when I got to the room for support group, to my surprise the room seemed rather crowded. Usually we (the support group) would have to share the room with the pharmacists for HIV clinic, who'd be giving detailed explanation to the patients on their medication.

Today we also had another group, albeit a smaller group, of pharmacists giving advice to heart patients about their medication.

In addition to the above, there was also a group of pharmaceutical students doing their attachment - also in the same room.

Wow! So many people in the same room - and to think that we're supposed to talk to the patients in private, confidentially! Thank goodness it was a rather a large room - so I could still have the heart to heart talk with the patients - by getting them to sit right beside me and lowering my voice when talking to them. Besides, the others in the room were busy doing their own thing - I doubt they heard our conversation. We've brought this matter up before (about the need for privacy especially when talking to newly diagnosed HIV patients who may not want to talk when there are so many people around), but the hospital simply doesn't have any more rooms to spare.

Anyway, I got the duty roster for this year's clinic duty last week during our Board Meeting. We still have 3 groups - 2 groups consisting of 2 volunteers each, while the 3rd group, that's my group, has 3 volunteers. Waaa... I'm so lucky to have 3 in the group, huh? Not exactly. You see, the other 2 in my group are both new volunteers, still under training, and so for the time being, I still have to do all the talking while they observe. But I did get one of them to write down the patient's details in our contact report based on the medical file given to us. Today was their first ever clinic duty, so there are still lots of things for them to learn.

We had 3 cases referred to us today. The first case was a Malay-speaking Thai Muslim lady, Aminah, who has been working in Malaysia for more than 2 years. She got divorced about 4 years ago, and has no child.

Aminah came to Malaysia with a friend to work. Late last year she had to do a medical check up to renew her work permit and that was when she found out she was HIV infected. When I asked her what she knew about HIV, she admitted she didn't know much. Her concern was if her condition would in any way affect colleagues and customers at her workplace. She seemed relieved when I told her she wouldn't harm the others if she continued working there.

Aminah seemed rather calm and while she agreed to be assigned a buddy, I don't think she'd be much of a problem to the buddy assigned to her. The only worry is, the friend whom she's staying with, doesn't know she has HIV although this very same friend accompanied her to the hospital. Aminah may need our help later on when and if the friend begins to suspect something.

The second case referred to us was a young pregnant lady, Jayanthi. When I looked through her file, I got a shock when I saw her age. Oh my goodness, she's only 17!! She got married last year at the age of 16! Yeah, so my late grandma got married at the age of 13, but that was 83 years ago!

Jayanthi got pregnant recently and that was when she found out about her HIV. She does look rather mature for age. If I had not looked at her medical file, I would have thought she was in her early 20's.

Like Aminah, Jayanthi too seemed rather calm. Well yeah, she admitted sometimes she still feels angry and confused, but still, she remained calm and could even laugh when I talked to her today. She's definitely more mature than some of the older ladies I've handled before.

Jayanthi however, wasn't too sure if she wanted a buddy. Probably she needs to talk it over with her husband first. I gave her our brochure, told her to think things over, and to call us whenever she feels like talking to someone about it.

After Jayanthi left the room, we waited a while but no other cases were referred to us. So I went over to the doctor's room to see SN and find out if there were any more new cases. There was supposed to be one more new case, a single mother, but that lady didn't turn up for her appointment.

However, there was one old case which had never been referred to us before. There's this lady whom SN thought may need our help and since she was at the clinic today (she didn't have any appointment but needed to see the doctor), SN figured she might as well let me talk to this lady.

Before calling the lady, Nora, to see me, SN briefed me about Nora's background. Nora, a young lady in her 20's, is a divorcee. She has been admitted to a mental hospital before and seemed to be a very very stubborn lady. Her family could accept her HIV, but due to her stubbornness, they don't seem to get along very well. Nora used to stay with her parents, but later moved out to a town outside Perak, and stayed with a male friend.

Nora had actually been on medication before, but stopped going for follow-ups at the hospital when she moved out of Perak. Now she's back in Ipoh, and back on medication. She's still not staying with her parents though, instead she's staying with another male friend. When I spoke to Nora, she just mentioned she was staying with a friend, without mentioning if the friend was male or female. I didn't ask much though. This was our first meet, and I didn't want to dig too much.

I did ask Nora how she initially found out about her HIV. Apparently it was during her pregnancy with her youngest child 7 years ago that she found out she was HIV positive. And according to Nora, her 2 older children, aged 11 and 10, are staying with their father, her ex-husband, who has since remarried. The youngest one is staying with Nora's mother.

I think I may need to speak to Nora's mother to find out what Nora's problem really is. Nora reminds me so much of Zana, the problematic young woman I had handled earlier. The difference is, in Zana's case, her parents had disowned her. In Nora's case, the parents are still willing to talk.

As I got home today and wanted to touch up a bit on the contact reports, I realised something. Nora is 24 years of age. If she really has a child who is already 11, that means she gave birth to the child when she was 13. Younger than Jayanthi!!

But, but, but... SN did mention about Nora's earlier mental problems - could Nora have just created the story? Maybe she was like Zana, who tells a different story to someone and another story to someone else? Or was it because of her early pregnancy that she needed psychiatric help?

Alamak, right now I'm the one who's confused...

What's up in March

What?? It's already March 2009??! I thought we just left 2008...

So, what's up in March?

Pi's Twist anniversary is in March. Come 4th March, Pi's Twist will be 2 years old.

March is also the time for my driving license renewal. Well, not every year lah. But the last time I renewed my driving license was in March 5 years ago, so I need to renew my driving license this year. I did that this morning actually at JPJ Ipoh. It's one of the agencies I don't mind going to because things are done rather quick. Went inside the JPJ compound, parked my car, walked up to the building, took my number, and as I was about to get myself a seat while waiting for my number, it was already my turn! So, no, I didn't get to warm any of the seats. At the counter itself, it didn't take any more than 2 minutes to get my license renewed. Walked down to my car, and drove off. I looked at my watch - from the time I drove in, to the time I drove out... all done in 10 minutes! If I need to go to the hospital, looking for a parking space alone would take much longer than that!!

What else is in March? Oh yes, my NGO's AGM. It's almost a year since I was elected as the Chair. There will be elections again this year, but this time, since we have already amended our constitution, office bearers will hold office for a term of 2 years. There are not many of us to choose from anyway, and chances are we'll be seeing the same faces in the Board, so why go through all the trouble of having elections every year, right?

March is also the month when my office usually organize our annual company trip. In March 2007 we were in Genting and March last year we were in Langkawi. So, where are we going this year? Well, we're not organising any trips this year, and it's not because the Company decided to save money, but more so because our staff decided to save their money!! You see, we left it up to them to think of a place to go this year. They said they wanted to save money, and so they asked if we could skip this year's trip and go next year instead. But, but, but... isn't the Company paying for all the travelling and accommodation and even food?? Yes... but our staff said they still need money to spend to buy souvenirs or whatever. Oh whatever, it's their decision...

Not a problem for me, really. My NGO will be having a retreat for volunteers in Cameron Highlands this year (accommodation provided for by our patron), then there's our annual family day for the HIV families, and then the Congress in Bali... so I'd have enough jalan-jalan for the year... all sponsored. So nope, no complaints from me in that department...