INITIATIVE
The
idea of starting and organizing a project of such a
grand scale did not come out of the blue from a single
source. Rather, it's the meeting of the right people at
the right place and time, against the backdrop of
suitable pre-existing conditions that the mission's
objectives, structural framework and action plans are
gradually formulated and implemented. During one of our
fellowship meetings last year, I shared my experiences
of an overseas project, 'Mission with Action in Cambodia
2000' I was involved in with members of the Buddhist
Fellowship of Singapore. Little did I expect that this
would stimulate their interest in organizing a similar
project and I was taken aback when Mr Low Teck Suan
(President, Buddhist Fellowship, BF) and Ms Angie
Monksfield (Vice-President, BF) approached me to take
charge of organizing a second mission to Cambodia. Just
as when I was making preparations for the follow-up to
Cambodia, another new development was taking place
elsewhere, much to my ignorance and later my
bewilderment. Mr Chan Chow Wah, who holds a managerial
position in Siemens Medical Instruments Pte Ltd (SMI), a
leading hearing aids manufacturer in Southeast Asia, had
written to Ms Ng Pei Fuen, President of NUS Buddhist
Society, to suggest to her the idea of organizing a
humanitarian mission to Myanmar. Chow Wah has traveled
widely in Asia and he felt deeply that conditions in
Myanmar warranted such a mission to help the financially
deprived and needy over there. Pei Fuen in turn referred
Chow Wah to Dr Ng Yee Kong of the Buddhist Fellowship,
who was once my anatomy tutor in Medical School. In
December 2000, Dr Ng contacted me to form a team of 10
student volunteers from the Medical Faculty to go on a
humanitarian mission to Myanmar in June 2001.
ACTION
In spite of a well drawn-up plan and contingency plans
for emergencies, the execution of our plans still
deviate from our initial intentions and expectations.
The fund-raising was conducted smoothly without much of
a glitch. The dates for the collection drive were made
known to the public through pamphlets and notices at the
respective collection points - PKS and BBT. The response
from the public was overwhelming. We were inundated with
mountain-loads of used clothes and soft toys at PKS and
BBT which we took 3 full days to finish sorting and
packing them into boxes in various categories. Dr Ng had
initially wanted us to hand-carry everything over to
Myanmar. However, in the week before our departure, the
amount of donations from well-wishers sky-rocketed and
we suddenly find ourselves with almost 80 boxes of CPUs
and monitors, as well as foodstuff, electronic
equipments and more clothes on our hands and in the end,
we had to order a container to ship the load over.
Upon arrival in Yangon, we were told that our mission
has been publicized in the local papers and we've to
prepare ourselves for more than 700 applicants for the
hearing aids which in any case, we're unable to stick to
our original action plan to complete our job in 3 days.
A provisional alternative plan was formulated only after
thorough discussions with the local authorities on
Sunday morning itself. A committee consisting of Dr Ng,
doctors from the EENT hospital and representatives from
MSBSC will determine the recipient of the hearing aid
based on age, financial need and social role. The
hearing aid team will conduct tympanometric and
audiometric tests for all the applicants at the center.
The recipients of the hearing aid will be notified
through the papers a few days later after which they
will return to the center again to have their hearing
aid fitted by the doctors from EENT Hospital. In other
words, we are no longer fitting the hearing aids for the
patients as originally planned. This important component
of our project has to be continued and completed by our
Burmese counterparts - the ENT doctors and those who
attended the audiology course conducted by the
audiologist from SMI.
PLANNING
The original plan we had in mind was to deliver 200 sets
of hearing aids to children with hearing impairment in
Yangon and Mandalay. Chow Wah will arrange audiological
training for the medical student volunteers to provide
the necessary technical expertise in conducting
audiometric tests to determine the degree of hearing
loss and the fixing of hearing aids of the right type to
the patient. Chow Wah is familiar with the situation in
Myanmar and he suggested that we collaborate with the
EENT Hospital, Jivitadana Hospital and Red Cross Myanmar
to select the recipients of the hearing aids and to
ensure adequate follow-up.
After doing some research and data analysis, we decided
that it's feasible and reasonable to purchase the
hearing aids from SMI at a discounted price. Due to the
cost and scale of the project, Mr Low Teck Suan decided
to rope in other partners to participate in this
project. We had meetings with members of the central
committee at Phor Kark See Kong Meng San Monastery (PKS),
Burmese Buddhist Temple (BBT) and Palelai Buddhist
Temple to tell them in detail of the mission, its
objectives and beneficiaries. It is through these
regular meeting sessions that we eventually form the
backbone of our organizing committee with Chee Meng from
PKS, Chong Jin and James from BBT, together with Dr Ng
and Teck Suan from the BF, and Pei Fuen and me from NUS
Buddhist Society. I also roped in my classmate, Ma Zar
Kyi Lin, a Burmese Chinese from Yangon into the
committee.
As the project progresses, further developments entails
that there are some inevitable changes to our original
proposal. Instead of going to both Yangon and Mandalay,
we decided to concentrate our efforts only on Yangon as
it will incur additional cost for us to travel to
Mandalay. Due to budget constraints, we had to be very
careful with our expenditure. SMI had agreed in good
faith to provide additional 50 sets of hearing aids for
the same price in addition to other accessories such as
batteries for the hearing aids, battery testers,
humidifiers and audiometrist's kits. They are also
sending an audiologist over to train the locals in basic
audiology and fixing of hearing aids. The Chief Abbot of
Burmese Buddhist Temple, Venerable Sayadaw U Pannavamsa
has procured for us the support and goodwill of the Maha
Santisukha Buddha Sasana Center (MSBSC) in Yangon to
provide us with lodging, food, transport and the
logistic support we required during our stay in Yangon.
The active participation of the Burmese Buddhist Temple
becomes critical as this juncture as they are our sole
link with the respective organizations in Myanmar
without whose help we'll be left on our own sailing in
uncharted waters. Venerable Sayadaw U Tiloka from BBT
suggested a few welfare homes in Yangon in need of basic
necessities such as food, milk powder, clothes and
accessories from which we decided to form another
student team - the social service team to take charge of
community projects in Yangon. While the original team I
had is composed of medical students, the social service
team will involve students from other faculties. Pei
Fuen will be the leader of the social service team with
the hearing aids team being led by me. In view of the
additional manpower and resources we'll have at our
disposal, we decided to conduct a fund-raising over
Vesak Day and a collection drive two weeks later.
Though the project layout and overall structure are
pretty much in place, the full itinerary and programme
in Yangon itself is still not finalized yet. An advanced
party team, consisting of Venerable Sayadaw U Tiloka, Dr
Ng, Chong Jin and James was despatched to Yangon during
19-23 May to make the necessary arrangements with the
homes and NGOs in Yangon. The finalized programme after
their return turned out to be quite different from what
we had expected. We are not co-organizing the hearing
aids project with either EENT & Jivitadana Hospitals or
Red Cross Myanmar and will be working very much on our
own. The specialists at EENT and Jivitadana Hospitals
will help us screen for patients whose hearing loss can
be remedied with a hearing aid. Using MSBSC as a base
for our operations in Yangon, we'll conduct audiometric
tests for the pre-selected recipients and to install a
suitable hearing aid for them. The patients will return
to EENT Hospital a week later for frequency adjustment
of the hearing aid and subsequent follow-up. They will
also be provided with free batteries for a year.
The
social service team will be making home visits to:
- 4 Orphanages
- Mary Chapman School for the Deaf
- Christian Fellowship School for the Blinds
- School for the Disabled
- Home for the Aged
- Monastic School
- Zamburatana Buddhist Cultural Centre, a language
training centre sponsored by a monastery,
- Monastery with 1,400 monks and nuns
to deliver the gifts we've collected from the public.
At
the behest of the School of the Deaf at Mandalay for
hearing aids, we've agreed to send a smaller team of
volunteers to Mandalay after the main mission team
completes its tasks in Yangon on 23rd June.
by Joseph Ong (June 2001)
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