Humble Beginnings

Since Hospitals Beyond Boundaries (HBB) is now an officially recognized NGO under the Societies Act 1966, it is time for some serious groundwork. Currently, we are a team of six: Me, Hannan, Aizuddin, Sarah, Asmah and Izza. We are a mix of people from the medical, accountancy and business field. Ustaz Kausar from Cambodia is here in Malaysia so last night so we met up with him at my house to discuss plans to start things off. We have decided that our first project would be to build a hospital for the Muslim community in Phnom Penh.

  

Why Phnom Penh?

Initially the plan was to build a hospital in the remote areas of Cambodia, especially the Muslim villages of Kampong Cham and Kampong Chnnang. However, we have discussed that since this is our first project, it should be fairly achievable in a few years. As they say, ‘dream big, but start small’. My father had a friend who was trying to build a hospital in the rural areas of Sri Lanka, but his project was halted for years because of problems with biological waste disposal. Due to its remote location, there are no proper sites to dispose their wastes, and the transportation to the city where the incinerators are located is difficult. In the end they had to build their own incinerator to destroy the wastes, which delays the project further.

By building a hospital near the city of Phnom Penh, problems such as transportation and waste disposal should be readily taken care of because the city already has many hospitals, which means they must have proper system of waste disposal. The long term plan is to make this one in Phnom Penh a start and a learning curve to the management of hospitals in Cambodia. If things go really well and we are ready to extend into the more rural areas, the one here in Phnom Penh would be the centre of operations.

Why a hospital for the Muslim community?

The Muslim community is a minority and in Phnom Penh they mainly reside in the area called KM 7, KM 8 and KM 9. There already many hospitals in Phnom Penh but other than the government, they are run by the French, the Koreans and the Christian missionaries. The demands for a hospital built or managed by a Muslims is very high because of the problems they faced as stated in my previous post (link). Ustaz Kausar also has already established a network of kindergarten, primary and high schools in that area. Hence, at least they have the knowledge of how business works in that area. In terms of management, there are many Muslims around that area that are of the working class. Hence, finding human resources for the management and sustainability of the hospital should be easy.

Today I am going to meet up with 2 other potential members in Shah Alam to join me in this endeavour. We are still working out a website for our organization, so in the meantime, keep updated through my blog! ;)

Discussing some paperwork

13 Things I've Learned

I would like to share the things I have learned throughout this busy year of mine, having survived a whole year without failing in any of my exam papers while juggling responsibilities of both a national and college level Presidency at the same time:

1. Most of the solutions to my problems didn't come when I think hard but when I take time to relax or do prayers
2. Real peace of mind is not about hanging out by the beach, by the river or somewhere completely silent. It is about being in the middle of the hustle bustle of daily life and still feel peaceful inside. How? Work on feeling close to the Almighty. I have a ringing in my head 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. How am I supposed to feel peaceful if I keep waiting for silence?
3. We can adapt to almost anything if we expose ourselves to the challenge or unfamiliar situation long enough. Say...2 to 3 weeks.
4. Most of the bad things we worry would happen won't actually happen anyway
5. Time is relative. Wake up early in the morning and the afternoon comes very slowly. Wake up near the afternoon and the day will end so fast!
6. Doing things early in the morning is thrice as productive in terms of creativity and quality as compared to doing things after noon. Do your most daunting tasks early in the morning and reserve the less challenging ones for past noon.
7. There is always time. When there is none, you can always stay up all night
8. Everybody has a different definition of success. Even if you seem like the most successful person in the universe, other people will always reason that they are better than you in one way or another. So celebrate this malleability, stop being so uptight and let loose!
9. Never let success get too much in your head, but never let failure get too much in your heart too.
10. Not everybody thinks like you, if you don't understand their ideas, try to understand their way of thinking.
11. If your are obsessed with the bigger picture, work with someone obsessed with details. If you are obsessed with details, work with someone obsessed with the bigger picture
12. Preparations and deliberate practice do wonders
13. Missing a train only hurts if you run after it. If you know you are going to miss the current train, sit back, relax and wait for the next one which offers more seats and comfort. Same thing goes with daily life. Resist chasing things that naturally slips away from you. Learn to let go. Relax, sit back and have a good cup of coffee. I never have a daily schedule. I prefer a 'to-do' list. I work on the list at any time of the day I feel like I want to. By refusing to run to keep on schedule, I developed a sense of control over my time. I stand above the rat race instead of outside it. Well, it is difficult to lose a race you set up yourself, isn't it? 

The Last Speech

I could not believe it has been a full one year term since I swore in as the President of the MMA Medical Students Society. Last weekend was finally the time for me to step down. It has been a term full of learning experiences, but I will write all about it later. Much has also been achieved, but I am not going to write it down either. Because listening is easier than reading, so...listen ;) 

Final speech as SMMAMS President:

Opening speech for the 4th Malaysian International Medical Students Conference (MIMSC 2012):

HBB Is Now An Officially Registered NGO!

It has been more than a week since holiday ended, and my brain is finally starting to function again after months of intermittent idleness. I feel very happy today that all the efforts that I have done in between those intermittent idleness, where I spent writing proposals and preparing documents to set up the NGO Hospitals Beyond Boundaries (HBB) has finally paid off. I received an email notifying me that HBB is now an officially registered NGO under the Registrar of Societies, Ministry of Home Affairs Malaysia: 

  This could be a start of something really purposeful!

Turbulent Times

The past couple of weeks had been a turbulent period in my personal life. It was in shambles. I thought I’ve been through much worse situations, but there are always unfortunate events happening now and then to get me feeling low. To top it all off, last weekend I had a car accident where I smashed a car in front of me while driving my grandparents and sister. It gave a huge shock to me, and I was lucky that nobody was hurt in that incident. I thought ‘I cannot go on like this’, life can seem unfair, it can arbitrarily cut off our air, but that is a fact of life, and everything does happen for a reason. So I should just go on with it. Forget personal tragedies, I have to get back to doing things that brings meaning to my life. There is no use thinking about things that I cannot have and risk losing things I already have and cherish in life.

So life goes on. Last weekend I presented to my extended family members about the hospital project in Cambodia. We have agreed to register the NGO ‘Hospitals Beyond Boundaries’ to the Malaysian Registrar of Societies (ROS). We now have our own constitution. I cannot wait to get it registered so at last I can recruit people, open a bank account, raise funds and start writing a formal proposal. Thank you to those who had already shown interest to donate and contribute. I will let you know as soon as the NGO is established and the accounts are open. Meanwhile, in Cambodia, due to a few circumstances the land that has been proposed to be hospital site has been changed. We are moving to a much larger land, almost double the size of land previously proposed. But that also means higher costs. This is the last week of my nearly 2 month holiday. I hope I can get everything settled before class starts again.