WAO ANNUAL REPORT 2009 - Women's Aid Organisation

There were 6 women between the ages of 20 years to 29 years who sought shelter to “hide
“their pregnancy. One was a student who lived alone and wanted support towards her last
trimester.
While at our shelter, they learnt about family planning, empowerment and soft skills such as
how to write a resume, and interview and presentation skills.
The women revealed that they had known about family planning but did not pay much heed to
it as they did not anticipate getting pregnant while they were single, and would only have
considered family planning options after marriage. All 6 of them had consensual relationships.
However, their boyfriends abandoned them when they found out about the pregnancy.
Most had not gone for pre-natal checkups and were sent immediately to the nearby ‘Klinik
Kesihatan’. WAO’s social worker, Nazlina, talked to them about the delivery process, how to
look after their bodies and post-natal hygiene. Most often, Nazlina acts as our ‘bidan’ and
adviser, providing information to the expectant mother.
All the women except one gave their babies up for adoption, arranged by the hospitals where
they delivered. Some of them brought their babies back to the shelter to show them to their
friends and to spend some time with their infants before handing them over to the adoptive
parents. These are always tearful farewells, and thus some prefer to turn their babies over at
the hospital and return home immediately.
The one mother who decided to keep her baby planned to find a baby sitter and her boyfriend
had begun saving up for a wedding and their life together.
The Malakoff Project: A booklet for single and pregnant women
Social workers mooted the idea of handbook for women at the Refuge. We received funds from
Malakoff Corporation to hire a writer for this project which was completed end March 2010.
1.1.6 Challenging Cases
Although the majority of WAO’s cases are domestic violence cases, we deal increasingly with
refugee-cum-trafficking situations. We highlight 2 such cases below:
Case 1
A young Myanmar woman who had been trafficked to Malaysia stayed at the Refuge for more
than 18 months. Collaborating with Trafford, Thailand, World Vision Myanmar/Vietnam and
UNIAP-Myanmar, and NGOs located in Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia and Vietnam, we were able
to locate her family members in Myanmar whom she had not seen for at least 7 years.
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