They were the first organisation to engage in HIV/AIDS prevention work here in the late 80s, but almost closed down after 2005 due to lack of funding. This year, PT Foundation turns 21 and it’s back as one of the leading NGOs in the fight against the spread of the deadly virus and champion of the marginalised. In conjunction with Aids Memorial Day today, TAN CHOE CHOE speaks to some veterans.

Tai says it was an organic growth for PT to extend its services to people living with HIV.

PT not only provided a safe space for Roslan, but also an avenue for him to help others like him.

HIV/AIDS made its way into our history books when three Malaysian men were found to be HIV-positive in 1986 - sparking fear and alarm in the general population.

HIV/AIDS was thought of as a 'gay disease' and normal people couldn't get it because its first recorded cases were among the gay.

But a group of young professionals - a lawyer, a doctor, an actor, an accountant and some corporate executives who were either gay or gay friendly - knew otherwise.

So on Dec 21, 1987, they set up Pink Triangle Sdn Bhd in Kuala Lumpur, now known as PT Foundation.
Its objective: to offer sexuality counselling and HIV/AIDS information over the phone.

"I remember sitting in a circle in someone's living room in Damansara and we talked about what needed to be done," says actor and founding member Jit Murad.

The group rented a little room in Jalan Alor, put in two telephone lines, some tables and chairs, and it was all systems go.

"It was a dingy little place that we got for RM200 a month in what is essentially a red light district," recalls one of the organisation's veteran volunteers, Hisham Hussein, who is now PT Foundation chairman.

They were getting a lot of calls from gay and men-who-have-sex-with-men who were afraid they were infected or felt guilty about their sexuality. Some were at their wit's end because they had already contracted the disease.

Some were married and wanted to know how they could protect their wives and children.

"We were also getting calls from people who were being discriminated against because of their sexuality or because they were found to be positive," says Raymond Tai, executive director of PT.

Some callers were people who knew people who were positive and wanted to know whether it's safe to live with them in the same place and share utensils.

"There were a lot of ignorance, fear and hysteria about this mysterious illness - that's why the tele-counselling was important because it provided information with the assurance of anonymity to callers," says Jit.

But tele-counselling wasn't enough - there was a need to organise info-sessions for their target community to discuss issues of sexuality and sexually-transmitted illnesses, and to relay the whys and how-tos of safe sex.

"We also began to use our office as a safe place for them to come out and talk, with the guarantee that the identity of attendees and what was said or discussed would be kept secret," adds Tai.

But the organisation was struggling to stay afloat as funds were low; whatever they had were what PT could raise at clubs, shopping malls and donations from volunteers.

"We couldn't get any funding for our programmes locally because many people think our target group was too controversial so we had to raise funds ourselves, until the foreign funds came in."

Their first break came in 1989, when the Australian Federation of AIDS Organisation gave them "seed money" for their HIV/AIDS work, through the Ministry of Health on a government-to-government funding programme.

"We got A$20,000. We were ecstatic! But they tell us it's the smallest amount of grant given out to any country - because it was based on our small one-room set-up with the two telephone lines," Hisham recalls with a laugh.

The following year, in recognition of the exemplary community work that PT was doing, AFAO encouraged PT to adopt a bolder vision.

"They were confident in our ability to do more and challenged us to expand. They told us what we could do and how to do them. So in the second year, they gave us A$90,000."

The money paid for their rental, printing of call cards and flyers on HIV/AIDS, and a full-time worker to start their outreach programme.

"We were cruising night spots to hand out condoms and the flyers to encourage safe sex practices."

The Australian organisation later invited PT and similar NGOs from India, Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia for a two-week visit to Canberra, Sydney and Melbourne to learn about their HIV prevention work.

"It was a training programme. We learnt and we networked. That was the beginning of our expansion."

Not only that, they were recommended to get money from the European Union, from the Danish government HIV initiative, and occasionally American AIDS Research Foundation.

"We were getting around US$100,000 a year from these groups," adds Hisham.

In 1989, with the encouragement of the Ministry of Health, PT members like Hisham helped found the Malaysian AIDS Council, which took on the lead in the fight against HIV/AIDS in Malaysia.

By 1992, PT gradually expanded its services to other marginalised groups - the transsexuals, the drug users, the sex workers and eventually, people who are living with HIV.

"We felt we needed to provide information and counselling services to these groups because we were the only NGO that focused on marginalised communities. It was an organic growth in a way," says Tai.

It started when the transsexual group approached them for help to disseminate information on HIV/AIDS among their people.

"This involvement then spilled over to include sex workers, drug users, and eventually people who were infected and affected by HIV."

Today, PT provides a safe space, runs an outreach programme and provides drop-in centres at various spots in Kuala Lumpur for each of these communities.

Many of them were street people who don't have a place to call home. So the centres were essentially a place for them to go and bathe, rest and have a decent meal -- on PT.

"PT has done a lot for the mak nyahs (transsexuals) and without PT, we couldn't have become the way we are now, more empowered, more confident in ourselves," says Khartini Slamah, founder of the Mak Nyah programme at PT, and who now sits on PT's board of trustees.

Looking at her now, it is hard to imagine her as a sex worker for some nine years after the economic recession of 1986-87.

"I am not particularly proud of my past work as a sex worker, but it is part of who I am today. I am thankful for PT because my involvement with them got me off the streets in 1996."

Now a strong advocate for the rights of the Mak Nyahs, Khartini is also co-ordinator of the Asia Pacific Network of Sex Workers and the first transgender to work with UNAIDS in Asia.

"PT, and a supportive family, encouraged me to believe that my sexuality cannot stop me from achieving what I dream of," says Khartini.

For Roslan Hamzah, PT gave him an avenue to help other HIV-positive individuals like himself.

He was volunteering under the Mak Nyah programme when he was tested positive for HIV about 12 years ago.

"I went home and like everybody else, cried myself to sleep for almost a week," he says.

"But I resolved to not give up on myself. I wanted to do something for myself and others who are infected like me."

The thought gave Roslan and many like him, the strength to live positively and not give up on life.

"We can still contribute to society in our own way. We are not useless people that are to be written off."

A change of policy in the countries of their major sources of funds in 2002, crippled PT Foundation in the subsequent years.

"The governments of countries like Australia decided that their funds would only be given to really poor countries and they viewed Malaysia as a fairly rich developing country. So our funds were cut off," says Hisham.

With whatever money it saved up, PT went on for two more years on its own, until it couldn't pay any of its staff and they left in 2005.

"There was no money to run our programmes. But many needed us to continue. So I forked out my own money whenever I could to do some small activities," says Roslan.

With a volunteer or two and on the insistence of people like Roslan and Hisham, PT continued to provide whatever basic services it could - until the day when the ministry increased the allocation to the Malaysian AIDS Council from the hundreds of thousands to RM4 million.

"Thanks to the ministry and the council, the money came just when we needed it most and with the over RM400,000 yearly grant for our programmes, we managed to survive," says Hisham.

"We paid off our rental and got running again, albeit with an almost skeletal staff."

Money crisis or no, PT managed to win the UNAIDS Red Ribbon Award for its Transsexuals Programme in 2006 and was one of the top five nominees for the 2007 NST Humanitarian Award for its programme on sex workers.

Things got even better for PT when the ministry gave RM870,000 to PT to upscale their men-who-have-sex-with-men (MSM) programme.

Then, the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry came into the picture late last year.

"They were very interested in the outreach work we were doing and wanted to collaborate with us," says Hisham.

With them on board, PT is now running at full sails again - with some 50 staff and more volunteers than before.

And recently, it has been short-listed for the Nanyang Foundation NGO Award.

"PT is a fantastic organisation. The work they do is amazing. They are the first to respond to the HIV epidemic in this country, at a time when no one wanted to talk about it.

"They worked at a time when people were rejecting simple things like red ribbons because they'd think you have HIV if you help give out the ribbons," says UNICEF communications officer Indra Nadchatram.

Indra, who worked with Malaysian AIDS Foundation, says: "PT has given me valuable lessons not just in my work with HIV but also in life, through the work they do and the issues of the marginalised that they raised."

Thank you, minister

"THANK goodness for (Datuk Dr) Ng Yen Yen," says Hisham Hussein, chairman of PT Foundation.

"She is a minister who dares to say that enough is enough and something must be done about it (the issue of HIV/AIDS)."

Commending Dr Ng for being a "minister who has foresight", Hisham says PT has been gravely worried about the direction of the epidemic in our country.

"It is really high time that we educate our young about what is happening or else, we are headed for a disaster."

Dr Ng announced on Tuesday sex education and the danger of HIV/AIDS would be among the new courses taught to National Service trainees.

She said several non-governmental organisations would also help in implementing the new courses, aimed at preventing the youth from getting involved in unhealthy activities.

"Principally, the idea is very good," says Unicef communications officer Indra Nadchatram.

"But from our experience, for HIV education to be effective, it can't just talk about the disease, but should be aimed at educating and equipping children and young people with the skills that they need to cope with the pains of growing up and the responsibilities of adulthood.

"Empower them by teaching them how to make the right decision, have the confidence to say no, and to cope with pressures - whether in academics or relationships. It (the programme) shouldn't just be about what HIV or AIDS is."