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Here we pen our stories about our latest activities and our weekly feature on Humans of Medicine. Our team is forever expanding, if you’re interest in contributing to our blog, feel free to contact us.
“No obstacle is too great for a determined mind…”
“No obstacle is too great for a determined mind.” — Dr. Mehru Nisha
Interviewed and written by Eason Kong Qi Zheng and Tan Wen Weyn. Consent has been obtained for this publication.
This publication is in conjunction with the upcoming initiative by MMI aimed at raising awareness about mental health care in Malaysia.
“A well-rested mind is a better learner!”
“A well-rested mind is a better learner” — Jon Ng, a 21-year-old medical student pursuing a second year at Monash University Malaysia.
Interviewed and written by Zhan Xian and Sherwina Tee. Consent has been obtained for this publication.
This publication is in conjunction with the upcoming initiative by MMI aimed at raising awareness about mental health care in Malaysia.
“First and foremost, we are human beings, and human beings are kind.”
“First and foremost, we are human beings, and human beings are kind” — Tareq Nassri, HIV activist.
Interviewed and written by Eunice Tan. Consent has been obtained for this publication.
This publication by @mmi_milieu is in conjunction with MMI’s Mental Health Initiative on HIV and mental health.
“Disabilities can be great hindrances to the conveyance of emotions, thoughts and beliefs, but these should not be reasons a whole community is silenced.”
The least one would expect from a center for children with special needs, is that the staff members are equipped with adequate knowledge to deal with emergency situations. Yet, having worked at the center proved otherwise.
I was in my second year of medical school when I decided to take on a part-time job at a unit for special needs children. I thoroughly enjoyed teaching them, and was always coming up with new methods of conveying information to make sure I was getting through to the children. Pictorial representations always did the job, and I was happy to be able to connect with the children. I was young, passionate and naïve, cradling high hopes that we live in a progressive society with enough awareness towards disabilities health. However, the harsh slap of reality revealed how unprepared we were to receive the disabled community, as were the teachers and volunteers who froze in panic when a special child broke into fits of seizures
“Advocating for refugee health is the catalyst for me to become the physician I want to be.”
Refugee /rɛfjʊˈdʒiː/ n. A person forced to flee their country because of violence or persecution.
It started with an opportunity – “Oh, I’m starting a refugee clinic in Serdang.” “Great! What can I do to help?” – and my journey advocating for refugee health unfolded from there. Klinik Amal Muhajir (KAM) was the brainchild of Dr. Siti Noraida, a remarkable philanthropist I had the good fortune to know by being under her tutelage for PBL at one point during my pre-clinical years. I wanted to follow a leader of her calibre. I wanted to learn how advocates like her offer their services to a society that desperately needs their contribution.
“I’d like young girls to know that healthcare providers are their allies,”
A voice went, “I was raped,”.
It sounded odd. Garish and out of place. Yet, this was my voice. The words bounced off the walls of the doctor’s office in the private hospital where I had seconds earlier requested to have a pelvic exam and pap smear performed. I glanced at the clock and noticed a full minute had passed. Wrapping my ankles around the cold metal of my chair, I leaned forward and reiterated my intentions– “I want to do a pap smear, please,”
“...my hand remains resolutely above the surface, asking for help.”
To me, having depression feels like drowning. In an ocean so dark, so deep that no light could possibly penetrate it, my head is under water and all I see is black. But no matter how much I’m pummeled by the waves, my hand remains resolutely above the surface, asking for help. Anxiety, on the other hand, is like standing at crossroads, but one that branches out to innumerable directions. I stand there paralysed, not knowing where to go. “Ah,” I thought, “Here comes the tachycardia.”