LIKE many starry-eyed eager beaver, Dr Yuwana Podin once dreamt of doing her bit to stem the tide of HIV/AIDS in Africa, the hotbed of the disease at one time.
But as fate would have it, she found herself doing equally important work in Sarawak where infectious diseases are also commonplace, eventually finding her true calling in the AIDS/HIV cause.
And she has never looked back since.
It all began with her involvement as a volunteer with the Sarawak AIDS Concern Society (SACS) in 1999.
And Dr Yuwana, who is now an exco member of SACS, has dug deep into her reserves to serve Sarawak which is in need of more awareness on infectious diseases, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS).
“I came back from my undergrad studies in the United States in 1999, and at that time, HIV/AIDS was in the news a lot, and there was a lot of focus on Africa.
“My first degree was in Microbiology where we learned about infectious diseases including HIV.
“At the time when I was finishing my undergrad degree, I had this vision of working in Africa. Because that’s where the diseases are and, of course, because of the influence of having studied in the US, so that’s why I wanted to go to Africa.
“But because I was under a JPA scholarship, I came back to serve here, of course still with the dream of going to Africa to serve and to save the world,” she told the New Sarawak Tribune.
Dr Yuwana returned to Kuching as a research assistant on infectious diseases, where she learned there were a lot of infectious diseases that were also being transmitted and circulating in Sarawak as well.
“So, I came back in 1999 after a hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) outbreak at that time.
“And there was also the Kawasaki disease in 1997. There was a huge outbreak in Sibu so I was involved in that,” she recalled.
At about the same time, Dr Yuwana said she was approached by a friend of her in her workplace who invited her to join SACS as a volunteer.
“My friend said to me, “Hey, you know there is a society called Sarawak AIDS Concern Society? We have an event called World AIDS Day on December 1. Would you like to be a volunteer?”
“It was just an event of giving out red ribbons and the place we went was the golden triangle of Kuching, where McDonald’s, Parkson and Sarawak Plaza were situated,” she said.
Dr Yuwana said when they were giving out the red ribbons, people kept asking her what was the purpose of the ribbons.
“We were not even asking for donations, we were just giving out the ribbons to spread awareness. And also flyers about HIV/AIDS.
“Then they said, “Oh HIV AIDS, don’t want lah, geli lah. From there, I realised that we had a challenge here.
“I don’t have HIV, but people did not want to have anything to do with me just because I was holding the red ribbons which signified awareness on HIV.
“Thus, I decided to join the society and the more I spent time with the clients and people working with the high risk group, I realised that there were more gaps and lots to do, so I stayed on,” she said, adding that was the moment she realised that Sarawak was her Africa.
It’s been over 20 years and Dr Yuwana said she has learned a lot from the communities she worked with, the different volunteers and staff who came and went in the society.
SACS came about following a need for a Non-Governmental organisation (NGO) to assist the State Health Department (JKNS) in spreading awareness on the disease.
“SACS registered with the Registrar of Societies (ROS) in 1998. HIV was discovered in the 80’s in US with research stating that it emerged from Africa and by the late 80’s or early 90’s, it arrived on the shores of Malaysia.
“By the 90’s, we saw an increase of cases in Malaysia as well as in Sarawak where there was a Sarawak AIDS Network led by JKNS in collaboration with other agencies, including the police and immigration.
“And they realised that something had to be done to address the spread of HIV among the Sarawak population and that it could not be done by the official medical services due to the limitations they had,” she said.
Besides that, Dr Yuwana said there was need for an outreach programme to get to the high risk population.
“Doctors and nurses could not be running around doing that as they were needed in the hospital and clinics.
“So, they needed an NGO to do that work. That’s how SACS was formed at that time to provide the service in collaboration with JKNS to do outreach and awareness work among the population in Sarawak due to increasing cases at that time, mostly through sexual transmission,” she explained.
Fighting stigma, challenges in SACS
“Our work involves prevention where we try to encourage people to get tested if they feel they have been in some unprotected sexual relationships or if they have been raped or have had a non-consensual sex encounter.
“Many are reluctant to get themselves tested because of the stigma that maybe associated with why they want to get themselves tested for.
“So for us, we are trying to erode that stigma associated with HIV so that people are much more willing to come out and get tested and if they are indeed infected, get treatment which will hopefully stop the virus from being transmitted to others,” said Dr Yuwana.
According to her, the stigma over the word ‘HIV’ is also always associated with, “How they got it?”
But Dr Yuwana said when talking to people with HIV, she would not ask such questions.
“Because it doesn’t matter. What matters is how that person is going to live his or her life now and move forward. That is more important,” she stressed.
Curiously, she said there is also a stigma attached to the volunteers who are almost always asked if they too have HIV.
“Many people still wonder about that,” she said, pointing out that one did not have to get it to understand the struggles of another.
“One’s only needs empathy and lot of understanding.”
Dr Yuwana, who served as president of SACS for a few terms until the end of last year, said while it might not be an easy NGO to run, given a not-too-easy subject to talk about, it was the community at large who made her persevere.
“I can see the difference between the year 2000 and now. People in Kuching are much more open, many are much more accepting but there are still people who still do not understand.
“The stigma is still there. That is why I feel although we have done a lot, there is still much more to be done,” she said.She said
more people now knew what HIV was and how it was transmitted. Hence, there’s much more acceptance of people living with HIV.
“The reason why I said people are more accepting is because when SACS did a Fun Run in 2019, when we tried to raise awareness and also to get people to sign up for the run, we were pleasantly surprised that many came to our help, showing that people are more accepting.
“I couldn’t imagine seeing that say 10 or 20 years ago. People wouldn’t want to associate themselves with even the words ‘HIV AIDS’, as at that time it evoked a different feeling,” she said.
Dr Yuwana feels really strongly about raising awareness, especially among the young generations.
“We can see increasingly the age group of those who get infected, not only with HIV, includes some really young ones including teens.
“What I wish for is that our Ministry of Education takes sex education seriously. We have seen lots of cases happening. They (youngsters) need guidance either from their parents or schools.
“If the parents disagree that it should be taught in school, they should take the responsibility to educate their children,” she said.
“They need to be taught about how to discuss the subject with the children. Many do not have skills or are shy to talk about it. It’s not a criticism of parents, but to get the children in today’s world to know what is happening now, it is crucial for them to be educated,” said Dr Yuwana.
