• TTA offer health services and respite to HIV-positive Cambodians. Photograph by Pushpa Iyer. •
July 27, 2009By SarahGrime
The WIP
“Can you hear me? Can you hear me, through the dark night, far away?” The voices of the children resonated in the one room schoolhouse on the outskirts of Battambang, Cambodia. Two young boys shared a lyrics sheet with me, and as I sang along to Rod Stewart, I could not help but smile from ear to ear.
We had arrived at the Tean Thor Association (TTA) about an hour before and were led around the premises by Ky Lok, the director. We crowded into a small room, largely occupied by two beds, and stood intently listening to the director. Ky Lok was explaining how HIV/AIDS patients come to stay at the clinic when I noticed that, staring at us from behind beautiful, dark brown eyes was a little girl wearing a “Merry Christmas” hat. She was staying at the clinic with her grandmother and two brothers.
I smiled at her and bent down to eye level, hoping I could get her to smile back, but she just stared at me with those big brown eyes. Ky Lok explained that she was one of the HIV patients. My heart dropped as my professor Pushpa Iyer bent down, pinching her cheeks and whispering to her that she was beautiful. I held back tears as we entered the second room of the clinic where we learned about the obstacles patients at the clinic face in accessing anti-retroviral drugs.
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