Free clinic for refugees

Yante Ismail

Sep 20, 07 7:24pm

An unprecedented free clinic for female refugees proved a huge hit at the weekend when more than 300 women queued up to see doctors at a community centre in Kuala Lumpur.

Volunteers turning up at dawn on Sunday to run the half-day clinic – organized by the UN refugee agency with funding from the private Obstetrical and Gynaecological Society of Malaysia (OGSM) and the IS Puvan OBGYN Foundation – were amazed to see dozens of women waiting for the medics.

Most of those using the facility were refugees from Myanmar. “We were taken aback. We’d never seen this before at any of our other clinics. It was only 6.00am and at least 50 refugee women were already there,” said OGSM volunteer Chong.

The number had swelled to more than 300 women by the time the clinic opened three hours later

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YANTE ISMAIL is External Relations Officer of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Kuala Lumpur.

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