Last Saturday, I had to force myself to wake up in the early morning because I signed up for an event somewhere in KL city centre. I wrote down my name in the registration list because most of my friends were enthusiastically persuading me to join few weeks ago. However after the remarkable Diwali Night on Friday night, all of my friends chose to rest at home on the next day instead of attending the event.
Since I already registered myself and felt bad to pull out, I have no choice but to drag myself to attend that event. We gathered in front of school at 9am, and the bus pulled off 15 minutes later. It brought us to a very descent place inside KL city centre, called Saloma. It is situated next to the famous club, Zouk and Renaissance Hotel. Saloma is a theatre as well as a restaurant, the whole compound is surrounded by trees and small gardens. Beside its main hall, there is another building functioned as Tourist Centre, which provides information and sells souvenirs.
Upon our arrival, we were greeted by the friendly organizing committees. After registration, we were given a document folder and served with light breakfast like bread, croissants, kuih-muih and plain water. Few minutes later, other school representatives (UPM and UM) also came in. To my astonishment, all of them wore proper formal attire and looked smart. On the other hand, we as IMU representatives wore casual clothes with jeans and khakis. After checking with Mei Ann, actually there wasn’t any dress code for this event. Phew….
Around 10am, the event officially started. This event was organized by MSD, Malaysia AIDS Society, MaSHM and participated by medical students from IMU, UPM and UM. It Begins With You, was the title of this event, emceed by Phat Fabes and Ben from FLY FM. As expected, the event began with unavoidable boring speech from the VIPs, followed by a video presentation compiled by a medical officer from Infectious Unit in Hospital Sungai Buloh. The highlight of the video was about discrimination of HIV patients, not solely from the public, but mainly from the medical staffs. That was something really hit on my head when the doctor talked about his experience in handling HIV patient. He said if you see a medical staff wearing a full, aerospace-like costume in the middle of hospital, as if preparing for a biological warfare, don’t worry, it just shows that there is a HIV patient nearby. This is not an exaggeration, it did happened and hurt a lot of patients’ brittle heart. All of the medical staffs know how HIV can be transmitted, yet they are reacting in such an ignorant attitude. Maybe we can blame the public for not understanding the mechanism of HIV spreading, but for medical staffs, there shouldn’t be any excuse. After the doctor’s presentation, 2 HIV+ patients came up to the stage and shared their stories. You wouldn’t believe how hard for them to cope with this illness, accusation and maintenance of normal life, when you hear the stories. People around them abandoned them, unable to get desired job, struggling hard just to find a purpose to stay alive. But thank god, they are living happily now and currently helping other HIV+ patients to set up a support network. Before the stories ended, they gave us a take home message: how come HIV+ people can be so positive while HIV- people can be so negative? Think….
Around 10am, the event officially started. This event was organized by MSD, Malaysia AIDS Society, MaSHM and participated by medical students from IMU, UPM and UM. It Begins With You, was the title of this event, emceed by Phat Fabes and Ben from FLY FM. As expected, the event began with unavoidable boring speech from the VIPs, followed by a video presentation compiled by a medical officer from Infectious Unit in Hospital Sungai Buloh. The highlight of the video was about discrimination of HIV patients, not solely from the public, but mainly from the medical staffs. That was something really hit on my head when the doctor talked about his experience in handling HIV patient. He said if you see a medical staff wearing a full, aerospace-like costume in the middle of hospital, as if preparing for a biological warfare, don’t worry, it just shows that there is a HIV patient nearby. This is not an exaggeration, it did happened and hurt a lot of patients’ brittle heart. All of the medical staffs know how HIV can be transmitted, yet they are reacting in such an ignorant attitude. Maybe we can blame the public for not understanding the mechanism of HIV spreading, but for medical staffs, there shouldn’t be any excuse. After the doctor’s presentation, 2 HIV+ patients came up to the stage and shared their stories. You wouldn’t believe how hard for them to cope with this illness, accusation and maintenance of normal life, when you hear the stories. People around them abandoned them, unable to get desired job, struggling hard just to find a purpose to stay alive. But thank god, they are living happily now and currently helping other HIV+ patients to set up a support network. Before the stories ended, they gave us a take home message: how come HIV+ people can be so positive while HIV- people can be so negative? Think….
The climax of the event came when the screen started showing entries of Photography Competition. I really need to brush up my photographing skill after watching so many nice shot. Besides, all contestants are like poet, giving impressive caption for each photo. Lucky Aaron Yeoh, who got third place in the competition, grabbed away RM500 on the day. But he was not as lucky as the UPM dude, who got first place as well as Most Thought Provoking Award, grabbed away RM2500 on the spot. What I could do was just envy him… Sigh!
For me, the best part of this event was the lunch, it was a buffet and very delicious. The Ball Committee even considering to have our last ball there. After the lunch, I entered the bus happily with a full stomach and back to Bukit Jalil.
However it was a sad day for Ching Li because she lost her camera on that day, if anyone find it please inform her as soon as possible because she really sayang the camera.
The stage in Saloma Hall
Contestants are taking their token of appreciation
Aaron Yeoh won third place in Photography Competition
IMU representatives
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