I planned to go to the public lecture at The Annexe last Sunday, but I was diverted by an sms inviting me to a birthday bash. It’s no ordinary birthday bash, it’s a birthday bash or get-together activity of Rumah Solehah. Rumah Solehah is a shelter home for HIV Positive mums and children.
The event was held in Pantai Hillpark at the pool area. When I arrived, the kids were still on the way, so I helped with a few preparation stuff. The party was organised by a group of volunteers. They prepared table centres in theme of animal kingdom. They have balloons, and candies, all in themes of green and white. I am blessed to be able to meet these wonderful people with big, big hearts.
My first time getting to know Rumah Solehah, one of dedicated volunteer, Fathiiah, explained to me in great length of what the organisation did and the stories behind these kids and women. Their stories were so heart-breaking that when the kids arrived, I could not help but stared forlornly at these brave little souls. Then I saw the women, and my hearts just went out to them.
Most of the women, were passed the virus from their drug-addict husband. Then, like a baton, were passed to their children. There was a sex worker too. The children without their mothers, most of them were abandoned. One was found on the Chow Kit street. One was reported by a neighbour, when both of the parent died, leaving the child alone. Some were abandoned in the hospitals by their mother. And one, just lost her mother last week, to AIDS.
So many heart-wrenching stories, so little shield in my heart. Food tasted like dust in my mouth for the first few hours. I am deeply affected by what I hear and saw. Clearly my first time being around them, I don’t quite know what to do. Also, I am pretty useless around kids. So I tried to copy what all the other more familiar volunteers are doing.
I saw that these kids were polite and well-cared for. Never short of ‘thank you’s’ and ’salams’, I am really, really grateful that they have these good people teaching them good manners. The founder, Mak Wan, were with them all the time, like a doting grandmother following all their activities with close attention. It must be really challenging to take care of a bunch of early-schoolers, and most of them were rather sickly. As I looked at Mak Wan, and the caretakers, and the dedicatd volunteers – I am glad that even there’s a lot of not-so-no-nice people in these world doing all sorts of not-so-nice-things, there are a few good souls and on that Sunday, I feel blessed to be in their presence.
As I watched the kids played, and how the volunteers were entertaining them I felt happy that at least for 
today, they were showered with attention, and were blessed with good time. I also felt grateful that there are people like these dedicated volunteers that are willing to share their time and effort to come up with such amazing celebration for them. However, I could not help but wonder what will happened to them when they were all grown up, when fun times are scarce and real life starts?
I sure hope that there will be continuous effort to reach out to these unfortunate ones. More important, the effort in providing them skills to sustain their life in the future. One of my friend, with a few of the dedicated volunteers are coming up with ‘Sahabat Positive’, an organisation that will be a support group to Rumah Solehah. They will be doing an induction programme for volunteers sometime next month, I will update it here if there’s anybody interested.
