On 18 March 2021, Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council (MHTC) launched its national campaign ‘A Hundred Unsung Heroes’ – an e-book that chronicles the journey of 100 frontliners who have been at the forefront of the nation’s fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. The e-book delves into the stories from men and women from various walks of life that embodied national unity […]

Being a doctor was my greatest dream, but I was fully aware that it wasn’t going to be a walk in the park. When the pandemic hit, I was initially confident that we would be able to contain it fairly easily, especially, with the imposition of the first lockdown in March 2020. My first experience of contact with the virus […]

My love for humanitarianism and volunteering comes from my family background. From a young age, my grandfather – a postman – told me stories of the people he met throughout his life which instilled a community-minded sense in me. At the age of 10, I was already helping out at my local temple, distributing food and water to devotees. As […]

For those of us managing laboratories, our priority is to deliver results as soon as we can. Especially during emergency cases, when the treatment plan will depend on the information contained in our lab reports. Even during the pandemic, delivering results on time has continued to be a top priority for our team. From the moment we step inside our […]

As a clinical nurse, apart from assisting doctors, we often deal with many of our patients, managing their paperwork, scheduling appointments, preparing patients for their chemotherapy, and other related tasks. Compared to pre-COVID-19 days, our workplace environment is slightly more tense than before. There was once when I was attending to my patient and I accidentally let out a sneeze […]

I used to be a broadcast journalist and a news anchor. In my time as a journalist, the stories about humanity were the ones that resonated with me the most. After 22 years, I realised that I wanted to contribute directly and kickstarted Institut Onn Ja’afar, after one of my heroes, missionary Dato’ Onn Jaafar. As an NGO, we are […]

As medical assistants, we are one of the first people to be in direct contact with patients when they walk into the clinic. We provide the initial assessments – from performing physical exams, right up till preparing the patient for examinations, treatments and procedures. When the COVID-19 outbreak started, people were not taking it seriously because the awareness level wasn’t […]

I’ve always had an interest in the uniformed services, because serving my country and making sure things run smoothly is important. When the pandemic started and the Movement Control Order (MCO) was announced, it was only natural that I was involved in the process. After all, this is what I wanted to do. My family was initially worried, but they […]

When the pandemic struck, nobody was ready for it. Because of how novel it was, and looking at how it had adversely affected millions of lives around the world, there was a general sense of paranoia. As someone working with people in the public, and as a new mother, my paranoia was amplified. However, regardless of what was happening, turning […]

I was stationed at a quarantine station in Perlis on 24 April 2020, which was the first day of puasa, when we reopened our state borders and started accepting people to the quarantine station. When we finished the registration process, I rushed back to bersahur with my children, something I had promised them. However, I was only able to eat […]