Women of Patience, Giving and Empathy

Picasso's Mother & Child

Have you ever wondered why social workers or volunteers or caregivers are always women (people) from a poor or lower-income background?

I have been sending my daughter Emma to her Early Intervention Program at PIBAKAT (Persatuan Ibu Bapa Kanak-Kanak Kurang Upaya; to be politically correct though PIBAKAT is the acronym of Persatuan Ibu Bapa Kanak-kanak Terencat Akal). Today was her second session.

Her therapists and case worker are very proud of her because she is considered to be very advance compared to other DS children they have worked with. They have concluded that Emma is at the physical age of 9 months, which is not too far behind.

Anyway, the head therapist, Eileen, is a wonderful woman in her forties. She has worked with children with all sorts of disability and herself a foster mother of one. The other therapist – Elizabeth, Annie, Suji, Ina and Fatimah – all have a common background with Eileen; women from lower-income background who have someone in their family who are physically and mentally challenged.

So where are those well-to-do women? Are they so well-educated that they end up as professionals i.e. engineers, doctors etc? Hey, Eileen and the gang are professionals; in fact more so because they know things which ‘ordinary’ professionals like you and I do not – like how to strengthen your child’s lower trunk, or how to loosen the mucus from a baby who is having the cold.

Though with my many years working with marginalized people ie HIV+, and my own personal ‘involvement’ with a child with DS, I still find these women courageous, dedicated, well-admired and very giving.

And today, having chatted and spend personal time with them, I find that after personally going through this personal life challenge, one tend to be more patient, giving, supportive of others and understandable of others’ predicament.

Maybe, I hope, I am on my way to being one of these women. And I hope that some day, I will be able to defeat “my own evils” to be able to start giving to others.

God bless these women!