School vacation is on us again and it invariably becomes time to put away the school bag and just enjoy not having to get up early and not having to worry about homework and that strict Madam Martinet.Yes? No? Perhaps it is a good time to get our kids to realise how lucky they are; that whilst they have the luxury of roaming shopping malls and stuffing pizzas, there are many kids whose life hangs by the thread.....our terminally ills kids. Will it be a challenge if I ask parents to take their kids to hospitals to spend some time with these kids? No, let it be just a suggestion. It could be a good exposure for our kids....unless we want to protect our kids from the truth.
I am posting here a blog-post of a Malaysian now residing in Madagascar. I met her recently when she came back to vote during the elections. She is a frequent visitor of my blog and recently donated RM5,000 to All Blogs, the Alliance of Bloggers. She describes herself as "famous blur aunty ...little bit hip many bits Aunty". Here is her (Gobloking aka Penny Chan, rabid BBGS alumni who swore she will never go near the Pavilion) latest posting:
Friday, 23 May 2008
Suffer the little Children..
I went to visit the General Hospital Oncology ward for kids and women yesterday in the "big city" of this country. It was a trip which tested my faith (whatever faith that is!)
I knew that in going there, there are only 2 things I need to do.
1 is NOT to cry. If I did, that may be a signal for hopelessness.
2 is I MUST touch the kids and talk to them. Even if they speak another language. (Princess Diana "taught" me that).
Yes. The place was barely clean.
Yes. The place was FULL of virus, bacterias and then Some!
Yes. It smells of everything that assaults the senses.
But I saw parents, grandparents, & sibling staying and living with these kids in the hospital for as long as they need to complete their treatments.
These kids with cancer ranged from 2 years old to 13 years old. There were "only" 12 of them here. All are skinny. Half are listless. All are in pain from the cancer or from the treatment.
3 of them no longer cared to live. No eye contact, just pain, pain, pain. But 1 little boy took my heart.
Yes. I know here I am beginning to make out like I was some f**king hero but the truth is, only 2 of us, foreigners made physical contact with the kids. The other 13 local ladies who went did not do so.
Now this little boy with a terribly big tumour that filled 50% of his mouth (it used to fill 90% of his mouth and covered to as far as his entire neck!) just SMILED & SMILED.
He had the best smile I have ever seen. No need to pay a dentist a million bucks for his smile. And all because of a bag of cheap toy guns which we opened together and started playing with.
Yes. I wouldn't buy a toy gun for a child because it supposedly promotes violence. But what the heck! I don't know how much longer this boy would live (he does have a huge cancerous tumor) & he so..ooooo LOVED his toy.
OK. I didn't think of toys. I thought of honey as sustenance if they couldn't eat. So I took pots of honey and condensed milk.
The families of these kids have come from far and wide, and they have come only because they love this child & because they had HOPE.
Here, they usually have 5 to 10 kids & to come here to the big city, they literally have to abandon eking out a small existence & who knows who is caring for, or looking after feeding their other kids?
Everyday these parents don't work, they don't eat. Fairly straightforward in poor countries like this.
I was wondering why are there only 12 kids here? Many reasons. But the primary one is lack of space, lack of info.
It seems there are many MORE out there (maybe for every kid in hospital now, 100 are not being hospitalized?) who don't know their kid have cancer, who don't care their kid have cancer or who just HOPE God is there to "cure" them.
So excuse me again. Where is God and why does he make little children suffer? What were their sins again?
wah! thank you for posting this piece & making me world famous man!
ReplyDeleteI do hope parents will follow yr advice & show their kids there are other "values" in life other than a mall.
and ya lor. I still absolutely BOYCOTT pavillion and have NEVER been there.
No interest.
Don't care.
The f**king developer showed NO respect nor sensibility to such a fine building [& institution :)].
THAT is another Msia Boleh for you!
Zorro, there is another hospital at Kuala Kubu Bahru you need to see.
ReplyDeleteThis hospital is near the GH and is specifically for the mentally retarded.
I remember seeing a child with head tumor smiling too during my round of charity with my family.
Regards.
It's not easy to reach out to those down and out
ReplyDeleteEven for politicians in parliament who 'scream and shout'
For not enough people care as to what it's all about
When they're too busy being involved in other bouts
(C) Samuel Goh Kim Eng - 250508
http://MotivationInMotion.blogspot.com
Sun. 25th May 2008.
Gobloking,
ReplyDeleteGod is Love. God is omnipresent. Your visit to the hospital is a manifestation of God's love to these children. God bless.
Lawrence
Miri, Sarawak
Lawrence
ReplyDeleteI am sorry to dissapoint you but my visit was not intended to be a manifestation of God's love.
I am almost always an accidental witness to the sufferings of humanity.
And I am quite anti-religious too.
I truly feel we don't need to display "the right emotions" just because we fear a God to answer to.
That is play acting and not sincere.
I believe more in the manifestation of Humanity.
But Thanks for reading the piece. I hope we continue to do something "humane" for all beings too.
So excuse me again. Where is God and why does he make little children suffer? What were their sins again?
ReplyDelete--------------------------------
This is a fallacy. God does not make children suffer; you attribute too much to God because he is not as all-powerful as you think he is in controlling everything. But I do know God does only goodness, and the tragedies we face are the consequence of tragic actions we have done in our past lives, our bad karma if you will.
This does not mean that I think anything bad that has happened to a person is a punishment well-deserved. On the contrary, tragedies that have happened to kids are the worst of all. Had I had the power to decide on the laws of karma and cause & effect, I believe that one's evil actions should be punished within the same life. Everyone deserves a clean slate at the start of their new lives as human beings, perhaps only retaining their good karma from a previous life, but all bad karma should have been exhausted in the life in which it was committed, or punished in non-human existences.
Back to the present, we can only hope for the best and do the best in our ability to help those who need it. Each hospital should set up a fund in which the public can donate to sustain needy patients, while the Malaysian Govt must continue to maintain high standards at public hospital, come up with a Universal Health Care plan that covers all citizens, especially the poor who needs it the most, and ensure healthcare remains free, constantly available and of high standards to the poor and needy.