Month: March 2020

“I have a heart condition. Sometimes, I’d be in the hospital for a week then I will be sent home. A few days later, I am back again at the hospital for another 1-2 weeks. One day the District Administration office sent a letter for me to go to a heart institute in Kota Samarahan. T One of the arteries was blocked and... I’m not entirely sure what happened next. I was unconscious. I’m fine now. I realised that the Ibanese rice we eat has a lot of cholesterol. I can eat them still but I must control the amount that I eat. And I’m only 24 years old.”
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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 does this Iban tattoo symbolise?”

“A long long time ago, if an Iban person had a tattoo of a bunga terung, humans and other drawings, it signified that this person is a very strong person. Like a warrior.  Now it’s just an added feature to be more handsome. [Laughs] But really, I have it tattooed to honour and maintain our tradition. Last time we would use traditional tools such as the needle to tattoo it, but now we just use modern tattoo machines. Men usually tatoo at our shoulders, legs and the back. Men are not required to have it, but some do. Women have tattoos too. If a woman has a tattoo by her arm, it would mean that she is intelligent and skilled.”

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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.

“Saya sudah cerai. Tak sama haluan. (I’m divorced, our paths were not the same). I’m 27. Not many people from this kampung get divorced, it’s rare.

Our generation and our mother’s generation are very different. They had 5 kids. I don’t know how many kids I’ll have. They had more ‘sehaluan’, more, balance.

Last time it wasn’t difficult for them to find their way through life, now it’s hard, because even the men are lazy, and it’s them who wants to stay at home. That’s the difference.

Back then, its the husbands who wants to and go to work.

Now, today, its the reverse, they don’t want to work and mereka suruh isteri kerja (they ask their wives to work), but they don’t go to work.

That’s how its like around here. Its weird. Like this grandmother here, her children work – but her husband stays at home. The grandmother takes care of the kids. Of course she gets angry.

Now there is no longer much arranged marriage, we still choose who we’d get married to. They also wear their traditional outfits. Iban people marry at the longhouses, and sit on top of the ‘gong’. They call it the gong tawak. Then we make them wear ayam – as in they take the live chicken, and move it around. Its their adat”.

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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.

“In Iban culture, if you ‘touch’ a lady of young age, you have to marry her before doing anything. In our traditions and belief, if for example, someone impregnated the girl and ran off, the growing child in the mother’s womb is a pig”.

We need to touch on topics that are considered taboo like sex before marriage to the young people here. We have cases whereby teenagers of ages 13 and 14 are having sex. Roughly 60-70% of these teenagers of this age bracket are having sexual relations.

We need to raise awareness in them of the dangers and repercussions of having sexual relations at a young age”.
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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 have been a nurse for 35 years, since I was 20, because I want to help the community. I like to help people since I was young. So my dream has come true.  I myself am from the Bisaya tribe.

 What were the times that impacted you most as a nurse?

I think the sad ones are when people find out that they are either terminally ill or very sick without being aware of their sickness. Their lack of knowledge literally killed them. For example, non-communicable diseases. Some would suddenly die because of their diseases such as hypertension and diabetes. Some would die of stroke. We initially had to approach the people of these diseases in order to raise awareness. They are more aware of it now. 

Where would the past generations go to seek medical attention when there were no clinics or hospitals nearby?

 To the Bomoh (a shaman). Or consume traditional medicine. Back then when someone has fits, they would say that a spirit is bothering them but in actual fact, that person is having high fever. When a person’s body temperature is too high, fits would start. But the belief in the olden days was that a spirit was bothering that particular person.

 What was the treatment for that then at the time?

Probably smoke and start chanting spells. We would just sit back, watch and wonder whether is it true. However, when we started to be more exposed to these awareness campaigns, we then learn that being pestered by ghosts is not the cause for fits. It might have caused from infection, high fever and so on.

 

“The doctor has told us that there is a possibility that the women in my family will have problems with our uterus – a hereditary disease. My mother had cancer of the uterus, my sister had cervical cancer. So there is a possibility for me and my daughters to have cancer but to many people here, that is a lie. That it isn’t possible.

Most Iban women here do not know much about cervical related diseases nor proper postnatal care.

It is a very sensitive topic because talking explicitly about these issues can lead to misunderstanding and non-respect of our culture.

However, these women must know the dangers of these diseases. Yes, culture is something that needs to be respected but people must open their minds to these issues and the harm it can bring to you.

Hence why we would like if there’s a programme or initiative to open the people’s mind and raise awareness. The Doctors from the Klinik Kesihatan come once every three months – they are very helpful, but it’s not frequent enough.

There are others apart from me and my family who have been diagnosed with cervical cancer. Normally, we are not able to detect that we have cancer in our uterus or cervical.

We only realise that something is wrong when symptoms like stomach ache persists during menses or that we are unable to bear children after our last pregnancy. We initially thought it was normal and the old folks would say that it is in our family lineage to not be able to bear many children.

But when the pain persisted, I brought my mother to the hospital for a check-up and we found out that she has cancer which was at its later stage.

In the case of my sister, after childbirth, we were wondering why only her stomach was ‘bloated’ but she remained skinny. Many said it was ‘normal’ to look as such.

My sister didn’t experience much pain except during her menses and when trying to be intimate with her partner. We finally brought her to the hospital and the doctor said that she was lucky because the cancer was in its last few stages.

She was required to remove her uterus and since then she could no longer bear children.

We do have clinics that are situated nearby to us but the problem is that there is a deficiency in the number of doctors available in the nearby clinics, hence we have to wait for a long time before being attended.

Doctors only come here on Mondays, twice a month. I’m not entirely sure of the doctor’s working hours because we rarely visit that clinic. I am lucky because I have my own transportation to go to town / city to seek medical attention.

We would like that if the government could raise more awareness and importance towards health. This is because most of us, or at least what I feel is that, we do not have enough information regarding medical related illnesses particularly in the ageing community”.

– 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 24 years old. I got married at the age of 18. I am 9 months pregnant and this is my second child. We will ride the motorcycle to the hospital when the time comes. It’ll take roughly 30 mins to get to the hospital in town and I ride myself there. My husband is a contractor. He’s from another Kampung. I stopped schooling at Standard 5 and I stayed at home after that. My husband also didn’t let me go to town and work. Now I take care of my kid and I go out with my friends. My mother is the one in yellow t-shirt. She’s 42! My sister doesn’t want children for now. She’s doing family planning, she got to know about it herself and through the nurse and UNFPA’.

‘Aren’t you afraid that when the time comes, you’ll have to give birth on the motorcycle on your way to the hospital?

“Nope!”

– 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.

 

“Tell us a little about your wedding ceremonies.

We follow our traditional customs. For Ibans, they would get married in the long house. The food spread depends on the family. Some would sit Gong / Tawak. We have a tradition where we hold a live chicken and bring it round in circles. It’s in our adat. I’ve never really seen it, as I got married in a church.”

“My name is Katherine Mendung Anak Embau and I’m 26 years old. I married when I was 19 and had my first child a year later, and my second child last year in 2015. But I’d like to have 5 children. It’s a Sarawakian culture to have many children because they are considered assets.

Most people around here get married around the age of 20, and they would find a job prior to getting married. The youngest mother here is 13 years old, married to her husband who is about 30 something.

The best age to start having children is in your 20s. It’ll be a bit too late and more difficult if you have them in your 30s. There are cases instead where a married couple can’t get children. And it’s not because of contraceptives, but speaking of that, my husband does not like to use a condom.

My children was born in the government hospital about 40 km from here. It would take us about 30 mins or so to reach the city. Of course it would be more helpful if there is a hospital nearer to us. But it is what it is. So we learn to plan our trips during our pregnancy. Like when is the expected time or date for me to go to the hospital.

We only have a motorcycle to move around, not many people have cars here. If we have to go to the clinic, we’d hold our children on the motorcycle – there are ways of holding them. We’re used to it.”

– 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. Please check out their page to find out more about how you can be involved.

Is there a stigma for women who get pregnant outside of marriage?

 

There is. Here in Iban language we would call it as Tinggan Adat (?). This means that they go against the Adat (customs) of the Ibanese people. If a woman is pregnant without being married to a man, we would make her bathe in pig’s blood. This is because we want to ward any bad things happening to their paddy crops. This could affect our crops too. The ritual occurs  in the river. We would slaughter the pig in the river and make her bathe there. I’ve never seen this before. I’ve only heard stories of it.

However nowadays when it comes to contraceptives, we don’t use condom here. Most women here use injections / medication instead. It’s far for us to buy condoms anyway. It’s all the way in the Pasar (market) and it’s rather expensive.

Last time, we had to use the perahu (small boat) to go and see the doctor. If we want to go to the hospital it would be very far for us. But with the KK (Klinik Kesihatan) here, it has made things easier for us as it is much closer to us compared to the hospital. The work they (the Klinik Kerajaan) do here is very helpful because if they did not come and visit us, it would be difficult for us all. I wish they came here more often. We do not have proper transportation – some don’t even have transportation at all. Our main problem here is transportation. Sending our children to school is a problem. And when it comes to water, some people have access to water some don’t. But that highly depends on who can afford it.