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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.

“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.”