Day 2: Mothers, We Care About You and Your Child...

As guided and arranged by Mr.Hamzah from the DHO, we visited the local court to learn the judicial procedure in dealing with food safety cases.This is the first time everyone went inside a court and none of us were familiar with the environment and situation inside.

The coming second activity of the day is visiting the Maternal Child Clinic which was attached to the DHO. This tour of KKIA (Klinik Kesihatan Ibu dan Anak) was guided by Sister Sitiaminah. This clinic provides special care for women ranging from pre-marital, antenatal, and postnatal services. Basically the system is similar throughout the whole Kedah; regular visiting which consists of serial parameters monitoring related to pregnancy. Special thing in Sik is that it is the only district which provides VIA (Visual inspection with Acetic Acid). Sister Siti allowed one of our female students to observe VIA, but unfortunately,there wasn't any procedure done during that day. Also,they have a special tagging system for women. Each record is attached with strings of different colours which represent different indications. Red colour is for Pregnancy induced hypertension; green string is for Gestational Diabetes Mellitus and orange string is for Bronchial asthma and others.

In the child clinic,regular routine follow up consists of measuring height/length and weight, developmental assessment done by nurses or MO, as well as nutritional assessment. Kids can receive various kinds of growth and developmental monitoring services here,as well as vaccination.A chart is prepared for every single child. As long as body weight is detected below average, medical personnel will advice on diet adjustment. In advance, they also provide food baskets to children whose family income is low or unstable. Vaccination and details about how a cold chain works in preservation of vaccines were discussed as well.

We ended our day with a visit to the local Pusat Pemulihan Dalam Komuniti. We were invited to go along with the nurse as well who was doing her routine visit. We were briefed by the teacher, with information about the PDK: organization, daily activities, special activities and facilities. There are around 8 teachers, 38 trainees and 60 students (20 of them not able to move) in this PDK. On beginning of the day they have a morning assembly and proceed to daily activities. Here, the child is taught how to live independently.

Once they are capable of doing this, they will be referred to a Special School. This PDK also has their own van and is used to fetch children if required. Physiotherapy services are also provided by a trained worker. They also have a physiotherapy pool,which is located at the back of the center. One focus on special activities is some of the kids around here are able to make some handicrafts which can be sold. They also have field trips each year, recently to Cameron Highlands.The budgeting is under the Welfare Department. However the success of the programme depends on the cooperation given by the caregiver.

Tan Chai Yih