Month: March 2020

“When I see young couples start a family and the man is being responsible for taking care of his wife and kid, it makes me both happy and sad.

I feel sad because my husband is not with me anymore and life is hard. I am unable to get money. It’s been a long time since he passed away. He died of TB.

He loved to smoke despite me telling him to stop. We both had 2 children. And both children have married early! One is my own biological baby and I adopted the other.

I couldn’t get pregnant again after my first child. I didn’t eat any medication or anything. I think it’s in the family genes to not have many children. I want to have more kids, but I can’t”.

“Which is better: to get married early or late?”

“Early! I got married for a year and I got pregnant a year later. I love being married.

If you have not settled down and gotten married, your heart is still free and can travel. Can enjoy. There’s a lot of responsibilities to hold when you get married.

There are some women who have gotten married but can’t have babies. They have tried many things to get pregnant but still no luck. It’s a pity for them”.

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– Humans of Kuala Lumpur​ went with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA Malaysia​) into the jungles of Sarawak, where they were helping out underprivileged Sarawakians and orang asal in their mission to deliver a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe and every young person’s potential is fulfilled.

For the next week, Humans of KL, as the biggest storytelling platform in Malaysia covering all the states as its capital, will feature the amazing stories and challenges faced by these Malaysians.

What is your advice to women who marry late in the Peninsular? 

Perhaps they married late because they haven’t found the one. So it doesn’t matter if they marry late or early but the most important thing is that they find that suitable partner. 

This boy has ADHD – or something else. He is extremely hyperactive. He is not under any medication. He is 6 years old. He’s schooling here in this preschool behind here. Next year he would be entering primary school and the school is not far from here. We just have to wait until he’s 10 years old to see how he progresses. I don’t know. He fell sick when he was just 5 months old (or he fell sick 5 months ago) and was sent to the hospital. After consulting the doctor, we were told that nothing is wrong with him. Just that he’s hyperactive. His grandmother is 36 years old. She married early and and his mom – both of them have a hard time taking care of him.

“I’m 90 years old. I was there during the Japanese occupation. I remember things here and there. I was in Sibu when they came to Malaya. I’ve been living here for 30 years. Before that I was in Brunei and was born in Sibu. I worked as a labourer – lifting cement and bricks.

There’s a lot of health problems here. Many do not understand what diseases that they have. Mostly because they are far from the city.

Maybe in the city a lot of young people have sex before marriage. Here, if you like someone, you would marry first before initiating anything else. Some things in life don’t change”.

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– Humans of Kuala Lumpur went with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA Malaysia) into the jungles of Sarawak, where they were helping out underprivileged Sarawakians and orang asal in their mission to deliver a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe and every young person’s potential is fulfilled.

For the next week, Humans of KL, as the biggest storytelling platform in Malaysia covering all the states as its capital, will feature the amazing stories and challenges faced by these Malaysians.

I am 70 years old. I have 4 children, my eldest child is 50 years old. Back in the days, I would plant rice seeds in the paddy fields and do some farming. I can’t do them nowadays – I’m unwell (I think she has gout). I need to go to the hospital every month. 2 days ago I went to the hospital to see a doctor. The doctor said my cholesterol is under control and I am not diabetic. I only have high blood pressure and gout. He gave me medicine for my high blood pressure, painkillers and some calcium to strengthen my bones. They usually last me for 4 months. When the time comes, I’d go back to the hospital to get them. 

I don’t have any money to buy them outside. My son isn’t working so he doesn’t have money either and he’s old now! My youngest child is 14 years old. But I didn’t send my eldest to school last time. It was very far from home. There was no school here. The nearest school was in town. How were we to send him to school when we didn’t have money? How would I know? Life was just planting paddy seeds, farming and tapping rubber trees. We sold what we got to get money. My son still couldn’t get a job – so what he did every day was eat and sleep. 

What is the secret in having a long-lasting marriage? 

It was easy last time!  No fuss like nowadays. You can’t divorce someone when you’ve married him. You have already built a family with him. 

My eldest son wasn’t even born yet during the japanese occupation! He was in my stomach then. I was young then. I can’t remember my husband’s age during the japanese occupation. A bit older than I was, I think.

I am a Nurse. I’m Ibanese. I’m from Mondamin. I was born in Seri Aman and from then on I moved houses because of my father’s job. I became a nurse through the SPA – Suruhanjaya Perkhidmatan Awam. I’ve been a nurse for 6 years. As nurses, we are working under the Health Ministry and we run a specific programme with our clinic which is called Women’s Health Programme (Program Kesihatan Wanita).  We would visit two villages in a month. One of the most interesting villages I had worked with so far would be Rumah ‘Bantal’ at Limbang because they have been cooperative in working together with the Klinik Kesihatan in running health programmes. A lot of people come to us who express interest in attaining knowledge about health. 

What is the biggest issue that women are facing in Sarawak? 

They’re shy. They see that we are local Sarawakian women and they believe that we will remember who they are. Or that they will be shy because we would normally see them on a daily basis. It is challenging because then we would have to establish relations with the public in different ways. We have to persuade them or have plenty of initiatives before they would come to us. Their most common health issues are normally non-communicable diseases especially hypertension, diabetes, and asthma.

Also, the women in Peninsular have a higher tendency to go to the clinic due to easy access whereas for the women here, they have trouble with transportation to come to the clinics. Here it is a matter of whether are they reachable or unreachable. So we, as public health nurses, would go to them if they are unreachable to run health programmes. The programmes by HRAM and UNFPA are beneficial.

What is your message to the Sarawakian people? 

Best practices would be to come to the clinic once you have given birth for check-ups and/or treatments so that we can detect and prevent diseases / illnesses. One day I would like to be a lecturer in Nursing so we can teach and pass the knowledge on to future nurses. Today we might give what we think is the best for the people now. By educating the future generation, we can be even better in helping our people.

Do the Orang Asli still believe in bomohs’ medicines?

There was once way back then, one person from the medical team got shot by the Orang Asli with their traditional gun. Understandably, the orang asli were scared. There are no longer those kinds of incidents now. Also, last time when the people saw a medical team, they would start running away because they are scared. They don’t know who they are and what purpose they bring to the people. Now that they know who the medical team is and that we have explained to them and we befriended them, they’re much okay. They understand that medicine can help people. 

The first step was to always befriend them. Build rapport between one another. Then we would explain to them what we are doing here in their village. 

I was told by the Orang Asli that the government doctors do not come to visit them often.

There aren’t many doctors here in Limbang especially last time. It’s slightly better now. A doctor would visit once every 3 months because they are busy with other different programmes and meetings held concurrently.