Birthday and PTD

Birthday cake for the birthday girl..

Last Monday was Francyne's birthday (21st July). But she was smart - she took leave that day and told us that she won't be in the office on Friday (18th) afternoon. She had a feeling that we were going to do something. We were smarter -- we did a suprise do for her on the 17th afternoon.. here are some pix.. Happy Birthday Francyne..

'I know you guys are up to something'...



The ladies in the new wing with the birthday girl..

Also, last week Meor received a good news, he got accepted as PTD and now has to go for a 2 weeks course in INTAN, Kluang Johor. He stopped by our house yesterday before continuing his journey to Kluang this morning. Congratulations Meor!! You deserve it..

Saudara Baru...

Earlier this year (I think during February ke March gitu), dengan kuasa Allah ntah macamana me and hubby 'ter'berkenalan dengan seorang saudara baru dari France. Ali Jerome nama Islamnya - nama French dia - Jeromé Armenío. He's from Sete, South of France.

Kebetulan hari Sabtu tu, dalam keboringan, hubby ajak kluar jalan-jalan (masa tu lebih kurang pukul 2.30 ptg). Tak tahu mana nak tuju, drive ke area Lake Garden tapi memandangkan keadaan tengahari terik tu, in the end we decided to go to Muzium Kesenian Islam (memandangkan selalu asyik ter'miss' je peluang nak ke sana).

It was a good trip - the models of masjid2 terkemuka di dunia was marvellous. We spent an hour jugak la membelek model2 masjid kat situ. Bila we all move on to the other part of the exhibits, terserempak la dengan sorang mamat 'mix' ni. We all mula2 ingatkan org uzbekistan or maybe orang Bosnia ke because he has that kind of look.

Ali came from a family yang tak ada agama (atheis).. lama sebenarnya dia mencari dari satu ugama keugama yg lain, kata Ali hatinya rasa tak selesa, dia rasa jiwanya masih kosong. Masa umur dia 17 tahun (this was 4/5 years ago), dia mula mengenali ugama Islam dan terus tertarik. Yang menariknya tu, he manage to find Islam against all odds. Ye la kat sana kan masjid tak banyak macam kat sini. Tak ade sesiapa yang bagi dia guidance, kawan-kawan semua question dia kenapa nak masuk Islam - because to them, Islam is associated with terrorism. Tak ramai orang2 kat situ tau pasal Islam..Makanan halal, memang susah la nak dapat - he said he survived dgn vegetables saja masa awal2 tu.

Mulanya dia sorok dari pengetahuan keluarganya, after few weeks mak dia insist Ali to tell the truth (mungkin naluri ibu) sebab tengok perubahan dari segi tingkah laku anaknya. The moment Ali explain everything to his mother, terus mak Ali ni tarik tangan anak dia pergi mini market halal kat area bandar Sete. Kata Ali dia terharu tengok ibunya bersungguh nak mencari barangan halal. Ali rasa serba salah nak explain bab minyak masak, kuali & utensils lain.

Memang benarlah spt yg dikatakan 'kasih ibu berpanjangan' - mak Ali kata jgn risau dia akan belikan set yg baru khusus utk masakan halal utk Ali sorang. Masa ni kata Ali dia benar-benar terharu sangat melihatkan pengorbanan ibunya.

In fact, bab makanan halal nilah Ali faham hikmah disebaliknya. Adik lelaki dia siap puji masakan mak dia lagi, bila mak dia masak halal dishes - 'Kenapa hari ni mak masak lain dari yg dulu?...sedap betullah mak masak hari ni.' So Ali mula realised dia dah buat keputusan yg tepat dan dia rasa bertambah yakin dgn ajaran Islam. In fact kata Ali, the beautiful part is from that day onwards mak dia terus masak makanan halal sbb the whole family termasuk kakak, bapak, datuk & nenek Ali dah prefer masakan halal. He's really hoping that one day the whole family will join him as a muslim. Tak putus dia berdoa pada Allah.

Anyway, tujuan utama dia datang ke Malaysia sbb nak melawat dan bersolat di dalam sebanyak mungkin masjid yang dia boleh sepanjang dia ada kat Malaysia. Disebabkan asyik bersembang dengan dia sepanjang masa tu, we all pun ajak la dia ikut we all lepas dah habis kat Muzium tu.. Dia dengan gembiranya accepted the invitation. Tapi dengan syarat, we all kena pegi solat Asar kat Masjid Negara dulu dengan dia. After solat, we went makan-makan with him kat Bangsar and eventually dropped him off kat Bukit Bintang area where he was staying. He left for France the next day. Since then, we've been constantly in touch with him.

Interestingly immediately lepas peluk agama Islam, dia sambung belajar bahasa Arab for one whole year untuk memahami kandungan Al-Quran. Recently he completed his studies in Mandarin language diShanghai. Rasanya macam he took Nabi Muhammad's s.a.w. advise literally - pergi menuntut ilmu hingga ke Negeri China.

He is now back in France and planning to pursue his studies in University of Paris. He told us he keep telling his family about Malaysian, how welcome he felt when he was here (we all la tu.. hehehe) and now his family felt that he might eventually live in Malaysia - mana tak nya sebab kata Ali dia asyik citer pasal Malaysia je..

Masa makan2 kat Bangsar.. sempat jugak bergambar

Bila dengar cerita Ali dan tengok keazaman dan tekad Ali dalam mendalami Islam, nampak benar kesungguhannya. Sepatutnya kita lebih bersyukur kerana dilahirkan sebagai seorang Islam.

HIV/AIDS - Dulu vs Sekarang

Dulu sebelum I mula kerja kat ABU ni, tak banyak yang I tau pasal HIV and AIDS ni.. Sekarang ni alhamdullilah dah banyak la sikit ilmu yang diperolehi especially bila I dapat jumpa dengan "people who live with HIV and AIDS" not only in Malaysia but also from other countries in Asia-Pacific..

Disebabkan my medium is media -- whenever we attend seminar and conference, mesti akan kedengaran suara2 NGOs or UN agencies yang menyuarakan rasa tak puas hati dengan media.. Sebab according to them, media la penyebabnya why the discrimination and stigma against PLWHA started.. And it's still much alive in our communities. I guess there are some truth to it..
Ye la dulu2 kalau kita tengok kat TV -- messaging dia balik2 -- HIV/AIDS ialah penyakit yang berjangkit, berjangkit melalui seks bebas, not curable -- so mestila orang ramai jadi takut dengan disease tu..And bermulalah diskriminasi terhadap orang2 yang menghidapnya..

Itulah sebabnya sekarang ni, kami sedang mencuba untuk merubah tanggapan ini. 'Kami' disini bermaksud our little team kat office ni (consists 3 ladies) who are working hard to help change that perception. However, it will definitely take time -- our main role now is to change the broadcaster's perception first then only can the audiences perception change.

In order to change the broadcaster's perception, we have to train mainly the producers and reporters on the sensitivity of the issue (language/picture usage etc) and not further discriminate the PLWHA. A lot of other issues pertaining to confidential rights, verification of facts and preventive measures which are acceptable in their communities that journalists/producers need to understand.

Because of that, we are given the mandate by the Global Media AIDS Initiative to bring along about 6 journalists from the Asia-Pacific Region -- namely Thailand, Indonesia, Fiji, Malaysia, Pakistan and China to the XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City next month. Estimated about 25,000 delegates will be at this conference including people who are living with HIV/AIDS. I really hope that this will be an eye opener for the journalists as well as myself. And I also hope that this small steps we are taking will eventually benefit the PLWHA and ease their burden in their life.

So, it's definitely not just a makan angin trip for me.. it is work..