.jpg "Hisham (right) and Tai work tirelessly at the PT Foundation to fight for the rights of people living with HIV. u00e2u20acu201d Picture by Ahmad Yusni")
KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 1 — In a time when HIV/AIDS was regarded as a “gay disease”, it was not by chance that PT Foundation (formerly known as Pink Triangle Sdn Bhd) came into play.
Initially established to help men who have sex with men (MSM) in issues like sexuality, coming out, and acceptance by way of telephone counselling, PT soon found that there was a need to give correct information on HIV/AIDS.
It was also one of the seven founding members of the Malaysian AIDS Council (MAC).
Fast forward some three decades later, the non-governmental organisation (NGO) continues to give support to key populations affected by the disease.
Their work was recognised by the Malaysian AIDS Foundation (MAF) in 2008 when they were awarded the Tun Dr Siti Hasmah Award.
“We started in a small room in an apartment on the 13th floor of City Tower in Jalan Alor, Kuala Lumpur. That was our telephone counselling. It was a seedy area but we didn’t care. This is where the people we were serving were,” says chairman Hisham Hussein.
Rental, he says was RM200 a month which was sponsored by private donors for a year.
They only had a part-time coordinator in the early days. That figure is now 18 — three in core management and 15 running projects. There are about 50 regular volunteers.
“Our target was gay men. In those days, particularly with the Malays, there was an overlap with mak nyah (transwomen). So then they became interested and came onboard,” he says adding that was when they received funding from the Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations.
Soon, the thread that strings the affected communities together came to include female sex workers and injecting drug users. Ikhlas, Positive Living and SEED are among the programmes that they have started.
“We are proud. Many of the NGO activists in the field of HIV/AIDS have passed through the corridors of PT Foundation,” he adds.
“Nobody will know how many people we have helped per se. But there is the comfort that I’ve got when people come up to me out of the blue and thank me.”
He says that the simple reason PT got involved in HIV work was because those attached to the NGO did not want people getting infected. Besides obtaining training from Befrienders for the telephone counselling line, volunteers were also trained by doctors from the Kuala Lumpur Hospital.
“We were looking at helping individuals, people who needed counselling. We are not here to agree or disagree, encourage or discourage whether you are gay, transgender or lesbian,” he adds.
“You have to find out for yourself. That has been our policy until today.”
The office moved from Jalan Alor to Jalan Inai and finally to its current location at Jalan Ipoh Kecil.
They also run the Community Health Care Centre in Sentul where anonymous and confidential HIV screening is provided with pre and post-test counselling. They also offer telephone and face-to-face counselling.
Keeping afloat
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Funding has been a perennial problem for PT even from the early days.
Acting chief operating officer Raymond Tai says despite this, there have always been “angels” who have rescued them.
“There were so many times when we faced financial problems and didn’t have enough money for our programmes and services. But there were always friends, companies and government agencies who helped us. It has been very motivating and encouraging for us,” he says.
PT has also started a social enterprise where people are charged for testing services carried out at their Sentul centre. Payment is between RM40 and RM70 depending on the type of test carried out. Clients can also pay it forward for others who cannot afford to pay for the tests.
This centre was recently accredited as an Impact Driven Enterprise (IDE) by the Ministry of Finance. The accreditation falls under the Malaysian Global Creativity and Innovation Centre and seeks to create a systemic change by helping the IDE sector grow and create a more people-centric economy.
They also obtain funding for the ISEAN-Hivos Programme, a regional grant funded by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM).
The programme helps MSM and transgender people have a better quality of life by strengthening community systems besides empowering them to have equal opportunities and become effective partners in the delivery of health services.
Raymond remembers how HIV/AIDS was often a death sentence in the early days while people living with HIV were often treated like outcasts and isolated.
“We then started getting cases of people dying of HIV/AIDS. It was a painful death and there was no treatment those days,” he adds.
“We made that phase in their life as smooth as possible by showing them love and giving them support.”
He says volunteers were also trained to give last rites for the homeless who did not have any next-of-kin.
“There was a turning point around the year 2000 when treatment became available and we started seeing fewer clients and friends dying. You could finally see hope. Clients now are not just surviving but doing very well,” he adds.
However, he says that with this there was the younger generation who took things for granted.
They think that all they have to do is take the medication and there is no need to wear condoms, he says.
On the future, he says PT has a strategic interest in ensuring MAC becomes more successful adding that there needs to be more strategising, leadership and financial advocacy.
“The existence and importance of MAC cannot be understated. Moving forward, MAC must continue to play an important role but more prominently in not only providing direction for the national AIDS response but in implementing it,” he says.
“That calls for a much stronger advocacy role.”
* ENDING AIDS: Silver Linings in the first 25 years of Malaysian AIDS Council was a coffee table book written by Malay Mail’s Weekend Editor Audrey Edwards that was produced by the council and Malaysian AIDS Foundation.
Malay Mail, as media partner of the Tun Dr Siti Hasmah Award Gala Dinner, has been given permission to republish some of the articles contained in the book.
The story this week is about PT Foundation that won the Tun Dr Siti Hasmah Award in 2008.
PT Foundation, on Nov 30, 2018, also received the Community Organisation Award 2018 from Apcom Foundation, a non-governmental organisation whose aim is to fight HIV and advance LGBT health and rights in the Asia Pacific region. PT’s award is for being a pioneer and an internationally respected provider of care, support, education and advocacy for people affected by HIV in Malaysia.
** Tables are available in the following categories: diamond (RM50,000); platinum (RM30,000) and gold (RM20,000). For more information, please contact Nurshaliza Manaf at [email protected] or 014-504 8927 or Azahemy Abdullah at [email protected] or 016-646 5874.
