Silence and Sorrow

One of the usual Monday mornings when Mae Toe Clinic supplied free nutrition supplements and vaccinations to the babies, I was volunteering at the CPPCR registration booth which was closed to the child centre of the clinic. Babies' cry and Mothers' talk were making noises to the surroundings. A suffocated atmosphere filled with medicine smell, odor of human sweat and dusty air gave me a headache.

Often, I was quite puzzling and hard to fill their babies' birth-registration forms based on the answers from the parents and guardians who plainly said ‘don’t know’, ‘approximately, and ‘anonymous’ on the biographical data of their families. During my work there, I was told many genuine heartbreaking stories from these people. It was a bit funny I had no idea how to take the foot-prints of just-born babies.

Meanwhile, a young mother in her mid-thirty and four year old child checked in. She showed up without her birth record from the clinic. I asked her to get her preganancy record from the clinic. She came back later with the record in which I found that she was HIV Positive, and bottle-fed her child.

Then, I looked at them. The mother in her slender shape looked good, clean and healthy instead of being transmitted by deathly threatened HIV disease. Her innocent look showed she didn’t know what record written in English said about her health condition. Her lovely baby girl was enjoying sugary snacks and coughing as normal. Again, I looked through the medical record to prove myself that she is positive. While filling her registration form, I learnt that her child would be registered at a local school next year using the birth certificate that we would provide.

I told her it was a wonderful plan and good for the baby while I was taking the baby’s foot-print. Upon touching very soft feet of the baby, I was shock to see the baby was already contracted HIV infection. It was the first time I encountered and contacted HIV patients. With the knowledge that the clinic had very limited pills for HIV patients, I questioned myself whether she would send her girl to school or not if she knew her child was infected.

Eventually, the woman and her little girl thanked me with smiles and left. The women might be imagining of her child in a classroom and the child might be thinking of playing with other children on the school playgrounds. Staring at their backs, I remained silence and sorrow with a deep sigh.

Winmay