www.ipohecho.com.my IPOH echoYour Community Newspaper echoServing the people of Ipoh, Taiping, Kuala Kangsar, Gopeng and Kampar. FREE for collection from our office and selected outlets, on 1st & 16th of the month. ISSUE PP 14252/10/2008(007226) February 16- 29, 2008 30 sen for delivery to your house by news vendors within Perak. 44 RM 1 prepaid postage for mailing within Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei. BEHIND THIS GREEN GATE LIES A DEEPLY MOVING STORY AND THESE ARE THE PEOPLE WHO MAKE IT HAPPEN Nisha Devina Roy’s story - page 2 Photographs by Rosli Mansor 2 IPOH ECHO February 16 -29, 2008 Your Community Newspaper CARE GIVING IS THEIR BUSINESS It’s non-governmental, non-religious and non-profit. It’s also inspiring, as Nisha Devina Roy finds out THE PERAK PALLIATIVE CARE SOCIETY Left to right: Sumathy A/P Arumugam, Leong Lai Peng, Devi, Phan Mun Yee and Nancy Koh. It is the Perak Palliative had its teething problems, over it with a positive Care Society. Arguably, but nearly 13 years on, the attitude that will make no other charitable PPCS has become a pillar, them appreciate what organisation would have a meaningful addition to is left of life. In a way, a better grasp of the Perak life. we help each other. We words need, isolation and The nurses work help them alleviate their hope than the staff of five closely with the Palliative symptoms and they help who toil quietly from Care Unit of the Ipoh us by demonstrating that their headquarters in Hospital. Dr. Boon Chai there is a point to what we Lebuh Woods in Ipoh’s Peng, honorary medical are doing.” Canning Garden area. director oversees their She adds: “We have Sister Nancy Koh, work which is always to maintain a disciplined Nurse Sumathy A/P demanding – there are view. Compassion is Arumugam, Senior Nurse always new cases referred there but our work must Phan Mun Yee and Centre to them and it is difficult be performed with an Coordinator Leong Lai to turn them down. unsentimental vision, Peng, assisted by general It is a group with otherwise, our patients will factotum Devi, confront an undeniable mission lose heart. We don’t want the issue of life and death initially etched by Dame that to happen. We want daily. It is, they say, their Cicely Saunders, founder them to remain dignified. job. Anyone who takes of the Hospice Movement: That’s what everyone a closer look at their ‘You matter because you wants.” everyday schedule would are you, and you matter most likely refer to it as a until the last moment of BEYOND THE CALL vocation. your life. We shall do all OF DUTY “It is important that we can, not only to help patient may be magnifying was convened. The staff would be too taxing. The decided Lumut was a good all of us cherish life and you die peacefully, but also Aside from the small concerns and decision was relayed and destination and swiftly show our appreciation for to live until you die.’ usual medical help and reading more from what is explained to Hong Ching. organised a trip. it until the very end. We It is, by all standards, assistance given, the said or done in his midst. But it did not end Nurse Sumathy help our patients maintain a big mission. It is not just presence of a PPCS Misunderstandings occur. there. The nurses asked declares: “We have this view,” quips one of the a matter of parting with nurse can prove useful in The PPCS nurse where else he might wish meetings, but we cannot nurses. They are palliative cash, handing out gifts and bridging gaps between then goes beyond the call to go. He thought long and talk around in circles. Our care specialists who draw organising charity fairs. a patient and the rest of of duty and becomes a hard, then smiled, “ The patients need things and we strength from one another. For the doctor, the nurses the family. Illness has a listening board. Many beach. .” cannot afford to waste time They exchange notes daily and the volunteers who way of creating tension times, the patient ends up Another meeting belabouring issues.” and together examine the keep the PPCS running, a in a household and often confiding more in his or Tee Hong Ching cases they are handling. different temperament is a point is reached when her nurse. enjoyed Lumut very much “They work very hard, needed. A compassionate communication becomes “This is okay,” Sister always on call,” attests yet unsentimental view has Nancy Koh pursues, “at and was very responsive Devi as she prepares least, we know that we throughout the excursion. morning coffee. The staff have not made them feel In his words, he was are comparing notes and they are a nuisance. The overjoyed. plotting out the day. The more they share their After the outing, his phone rings incessantly. sentiments with us, the condition deteriorated better it is. That means, very rapidly and soon A DISCIPLINED VIEW they remain interested. after he passed away. His That’s quality of widow, in her grief, PPCS was formed in life.” found consolation in October 1994 to answer an the memory of the important community call WISHES joyful time in for specialised care giving. Lumut. After It was registered and then P a t i e n t s that, she given charitable status in s o m e t i m e s said, her June, 1995. The Palliative convey their h u s b a n d Care Unit in the Ipoh wishes not to appeared General Hospital could their immediate to be serene. not cope with growing Nancy Koh and Sumathy Arumugam review one of their families but to She was grateful that numbers of terminally ill cases. the nurses or the Hong Ching believed he patients many of whom to inform their care giving. stilted and difficult. The volunteers. There mattered to others until were still comparatively “We believe in hope,” family members may feel was the case of Tee the end. self-sufficient and preferred Sister Nancy Koh says, put-upon – something they Hong Ching who to stay home. “but we are also realistic. may deny but which could said that his last wish A decidedly important We want our patients to be manifested in various was to go to Genting void had to be filled and be reconciled with the dire little ways, like staying Highlands. The request (continued on the private sector readily truth of whatever illness away, keeping silent or was deliberated on and it page 11) stepped in. The beginning they have, then prevail simply not listening. The was decided that the drive Your Community Newspaper IPOH ECHO February 16 -29, 2008 3 www.ipohecho.com IPOH echo Your Community Newspaper Those interested in helping The Perak From the Editor’s Desk by Fathol Zaman Bukhari Women for Women Society and those in need of help can contact the society at these numbers: EMPOWERING WOMEN 012-5212480 and 012-5050547. NO! TO DOMESTIC VIOLENCE If you think domestic victims are shielding the and children as to their violence is only confined perpetrators of inhumane rights in protecting to those at the bottom treatment! Reporting the themselves against sexual half of the social ladder, case to the authorities harassment and physical think again. Cruelty is construed as being abuse. – both physical and detrimental to the family Dr Sharifah and her psychological – cuts across unit. Silent sufferers may be team have conducted all social boundaries. It scared, not just of incurring several seminars and does not differentiate the further wrath from their discussions where both rich from the poor. oppressors, but, ironically, sexes are represented. The Your friendly neigh- of losing the relationship success of these group bour or your timid-looking with these people. It is a interactions has given colleague can be an abusive psychological issue that PWW members a renewed husband or partner. needs to be addressed. sense of purpose and pride. There are no identifi- There are also the very sad Dr Sharifah Halimah Like all other non- able marks to separate them cases when women think governmental organisations from non-violent members they have no choice – the problem is so widespread in Malaysia, funding and of society. A person’s financial aspect hems them and further propped up staffing are problematic. explosive behaviour is in. What would happen if by cultural and religious “Getting volunteers is usually concealed behind they run away? Who would taboos. indeed difficult,” says a facade of polite or even support the children? How Sharifah. “PWW is amiable manner in public. would they cope? THE PWW operating with the barest Only those who are closely Domestic violence minimum but we survive associated with the person is a truly complex social Ipoh is fortunate to nonetheless.” would be aware of his problem. have a group of concerned unkind ways. A caring society must citizens led by Dr Sharifah BOLD ATTEMPT institute measures to contain Halimah, an obstetrician MAJOR HURDLE the problem. The setting up and gynaecologist, that The society organised of the Women, Family and helps undertake the its first fund-raising dinner Despite the passage Community Development responsibility of caring at a leading Ipoh hotel in of a law by Parliament Ministry helmed by Dato’ for victims of domestic 2007. They managed to in 1994 to criminalise Seri Sharizat Abdul Jalil in abuse. Her brainchild, The collect a substantial sum acts of violence against 2004 is a step in the right Perak Women for Women from a sympathetic public.