"I was confronted with the bad consequences
of cancer, as sadness, poverty, death, unemployment and loneliness of the
patients..."
Jana Kressin
Intern Student, Leipzig Germany Served MAKNA from 6th September to 16th December 2006
I
was so fascinated when I visited South East Asia in 2004 for the first time in
my life. During these two weeks, I spent in Hong Kong, I only could get a very
limited idea about what the life there is really about. That was when I decided
that I definitely want to go again to an Asian country and discover their
culture, their people and their everyday life. During my membership in the
international student organization AIESEC my goal became much clearer: I wanted
to do a Development Traineeship in Asia and do social work in an organisation
or NGO that cares for people in need and supports them. That is why I loved the
idea to work for MAKNA right after I read about its activities and its big aim:
fight against cancer and support the poor cancer patients. Moreover, I know how
important any kind of help is, because my family also had to cope with this
disease.
MAKNA gave me an idea about what it means to care for others. It impressed me,
how many activities were organised to create and increase cancer awareness in
public and to provide psychological and financial support for their patients.
Nearly every day there was at least one activity like an exhibition, a charity
event or a donation campaign. It was wonderful to feel the passion and
motivation of the MAKNA staff and volunteers who never gave up and who never
were afraid of trying to go new ways. One of the most important tasks were the
home visits of every patient who got MAKNA's support. As the cancer patients
are so poor that they cannot afford a telephone at home or going to the
hospital on their own, nobody would know how they are and what treatment or
follow-up they need. Therefore, MAKNA organizes home visits for all their
patients. These trips which are very expensive and time-consuming, were also
often very depressing for me because I was confronted with the bad consequences
of cancer, as sadness, poverty, death, unemployment and loneliness of the
patients. For these people MAKNA is sometimes the only hope and help.
Nevertheless, what ever difficulty MAKNA is faced with, it always tries to
help.
Besides these "everyday-activities", MAKNA has bigger plans: such as early
detection of cancer which is crucial for curing the disease. This NGO is the
first organisation in Malaysia, which wants to introduce the "Mobile Screening
Service" for early detection of breast cancer. It already has been implemented
successfully in a lot of other countries worldwide. I truly wish that MAKNA can
as soon as possible help many more people in Malaysia with this mobile early
detection.
During my traineeship I got the opportunity to learn how this NGO works. I got
several different tasks with high responsibility and I was integrated into the
important current activities. Especially during my work in several project
teams, my colleagues were very interested in my knowledge and my ideas.
Furthermore, I truly appreciate the very warm welcome and high interest in me
at MAKNA. I thank my colleagues for showing me what MAKNA is about and also how
amazing their country, its culture and its people are. I am really glad for all
these nice and beautiful moments we shared.
Moreover, I especially would like to thank the president of MAKNA, Dato' Mohd
Farid Ariffin for making this traineeship possible, my mentor Farah and Vem,
who always gave me advice and support.
I wish MAKNA all the best for its future activities and projects. May our
dream, to defeat cancer, come true one day.
