Friday, August 21, 2009

MERCY Malaysia

In November, few of my friends and I will be joining a outreach mission in rural area of Miri, Sarawak under MERCY Malaysia. The 4 day mission is to serve the unfortunate Penans and Kayans who lives in the villages in Long Bedian which is not equipped with proper health service. The trip will consist of Doctors, dentist,optometrist and other volunteers ranging from nurses,engineers to humble students like us. I will definitely write the detail of my journey there here..someday..after we have achieved the goal.
MERCY Malaysia or Malaysian Medical Relief Society is a non-profit organization focusing on providing medical relief and sustainable health related development for vulnerable communities. It was founded by Datuk Dr. Jemilah Mahmood (an obstetrics-gynaecologist) in June 1999 after faced much difficulty in getting the needed support from already established organisations to help those people involve in Kosovo War at that time. Its already 10 years, and MERCY Malaysia have achieved wonders and greatness. They not only had help those in Malaysia, they open up their wings to other countries like Vietnam, Indonesia, Myanmar,India, Sudan, Afghanistan, Palestine and the list goes on.

Dr Jemilah is my Idol, a superwomen with a kind heart and always thinks others in need. I salute you!She had resign the post as president of MERCY to fulfill a fantastic opportunity as a Chief of the Humanitarian Response branch for the United Nations Populations Fund (UNFPA). Congratulations and farewell Dr Jamelih. Make Malaysian proud in United Nation!




Heart warming story of MERCY & Dr Jemilah.

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Dr Jemilah was in Geneva waiting for a friend to pick her up near the Broken Chair monument on Place des Nations. A group of Sudanese women were gathered around there after a meeting and one of them came up to ask if she was from Malaysia – probably guessing from the way she tied her headscarf.

When Dr Jemilah replied that she was, to her surprise the woman then asked if she knew Mercy Malaysia.

“I froze. I said ‘yes. Why?’ She said ‘I am from El Geneina in West Darfur and now we don’t have to be afraid to give birth because Mercy Malaysia has built a reproductive health centre. They also trained our midwives and doctors so no one has to die in childbirth.”

Dr Jemilah was doubly shocked when the woman then asked if she knew Mercy’s Dr Jemilah.

“I panicked because I was wondering how I was going to answer that. And the woman fished out her call card and she was from a Sudanese local organisation so I fished out mine.

“When she saw my card, she couldn’t believe it. There was an uproar and she started screaming in Arabic and a lot of people started crowding around me,” she says.

At this point, Dr Jemilah was “rescued” by her friend who was honking from the car. So Dr Jemilah excused herself and got in.


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click the link below:
>Mercy's angel spreads her wings<

I postpone my backpacking trip to China due to this outreach mission. I think i made the right decision and definitely will be one hell of an experience that i can cherish and share. Hope i can contribute more to MERCY after this and wishing that i will be like Dr. Jemilah...a true 'Doctor without borders'.


p/s: the China trip will be replace with something else which need half the time and half the budget...any idea?? thinking of Scuba diving in Bali or Candi Borubodur & Mount Merapi in Yogjakarta or enjoying sunset at Angkor Wat? hmmm...



"Unselfish and noble actions are the most radiant pages in the biography of souls"

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

How do I join you?

Khairul Nizam Kamdi said...

1st of all..who r u?

Unknown said...

yeah, u chose a good choice to join mercy. wahhh, feel like i wanna join u there at miri. hahaha

Khairul Nizam Kamdi said...

next time ye gamat...may be ade kat sabah ..aku ajak ko.

Anonymous said...

just another medical student from other college. Stumble into your blog by chance!

P.S. I am Lea

Khairul Nizam Kamdi said...

hi lea..welcome to my blog!

I think miri chapter do not have any available place anymore in the november mission...maybe you can contact other sarawak chapter which i think will definately have monthly mission.

Anonymous said...

Thanks Kamdi for the infos. There goes my chance of joining your awesome clan in November. sob3

Lea

Khairul Nizam Kamdi said...

sorry for that! sob3