THE day Rotary Club of Kelana Jaya launched its “Adoption of Rumah Wake 1” project was also the day Crocodile Foundation gave them a grant of RM10,000 to be used for the home’s children’s educational needs.
Every year, the new president of the club chooses a core project to work on for a year and this year, club president Elizabeth Yam has chosen to adopt the home where 13 children aged between three and 15 are living.
“I was recommended to take up the cause by Malaysian AIDS Council’s former president Datin Paduka Marina Mahathir and hope to raise funds and help the innocent children in any way possible,” Yam said.
Caring lot: Rotary members interacting with some of the children at the home. According to Pink Triangle (PT) Foundation administration and finance officer Manis Chen, the three ways of passing on the virus is usually through unprotected sex and sharing needles with an infected person as well as from an infected pregnant mother to the child in her womb.
“Body fluids like semen, pre-cum, blood, vaginal fluids and breast milk contain highly concentrated amounts of the virus whereas sweat, saliva and tears have low concentrations,” Chen said.
He added that the virus was not likely to survive outside the body and that was why direct contact of body fluids puts one in the high-risk category whereas indirect contact was classified as low risk.
“People with the virus have to be extra careful and not contract diseases or illnesses.
“For regular people, a few days is enough to clear a cough whereas for those with the virus, it can take weeks,” Chen said.
He also said medication helped keep the virus under control and there were methods that pregnant mothers could adopt to reduce the risk of infecting their child.
“People who are infected with the virus may not even know of it until many years have passed because they will look and feel healthy.
“Only a special blood test called the HIV Antibody Test can detect the presence of HIV antibodies,” Chen said.
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