23 rd June to 2 nd July 2012
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. :

I Had lunch meeting with members of new ostomy association now called MOSA (Malaysian Ostomy Association. ). President Mr Peter Chua, Vice President Mrs Mariam ( An ET in UMMC as well as president of METNA ), secretory , Mr K.C. Kong & others were present. Mrs Revathy Ramamurthy another ET and Metron of Gove. Hospital in KL along  with Mr Patric Wong from Coloplast Hongkong & his local team of Malaysia were alsoa invited to join this lunch meeting.

After initial introduction , I explained the purpose of my discussion with them. It was made very clear to them how the last world meeting of IOA was conducted & the changes in the constitution were adopted by the world body with almost 98 % members of IOA agreed to the
adoption of new changed constitution & there by new structure of IOA.I also explained how the joining of AOA and SPOA was adopted by all the members of respective country members and that they had agreed to have one bank account of new region ASPOA and both old regions will transfer their current balance of money in to account of ASPOA.I also told them about election of new EC members of ASPOA was done after every- body agreed with adoption of new constitution of ASPOA.

Mr K.C. KONG did raise his doubts about the new structure and its constitutional validity as well as his hesitation of transferring such large funds of old AOA to new ASPOA account. I explained the EC members of MOSA that I had the requisite minutes of the last IOA world meeting as well as the first ASPOA member countries meeting in which no body had
disagreed with formation of ASPOA & joining bank accounts & transferring balance by both old regions in to new account of ASPOA. I also explained that money of ASPOA will be spent for the betterment of countries of Asian regions as Australia & New Zealand do not need help and  in fact they are already helping individually many countries of Asia ( AOA )

After hearing my explanation , President and Vice president as well as other EC members of MOSA agreed with me that Malaysia which is holding funds of AOA must transfer money of AOA in to ASPOA account as the funds belongs to AOA and not to Malaysia. Mr K.C. Kong  still wanted the money to be transferred to Mr Michi Takaishi in Japan as he was the lastpresident of AOA.EC members of MOSA reassured me that funds belonging to AOA will be transferred to ASPOA after further deliberation and persuation of Mr K.C.Kong who was the last treasurer of AOA.

Meeting ended with satisfactory and good understanding of each other views on both sides MOSA EC members agreed to renew their membership with ASPOA. I had two press interviews with local news papers one in English ( Star Publications) and other in Chinese daily (Sin Chew Daily ). Both interviews were focused on my personal experience
of life as an ostomate as well about the issues that ostomates have to deal with day today life as well as how doctors , nurses and  manufacturers of Ostomy products help ostomates to live near normal life. The special problems of Ostomates in Malaysia as well as how MOSA and ASPOA/ IOA can collaborate to help ostomates of Malaysia to live a near normal life was also discussed. How Coloplast will help ostomates in community by arranging free home visits of needy ostomates in Kuala Lumpur was highlighted by local executives of Coloplast, Malaysia. These press interviews were scheduled to be published a week before WOD celebrations in Kuala Lumpur which was to be in Last week of September 2012

Singapore :
I had meeting with ostomy support group in Singapore for the first time in June 2012.  Once up on a time Singapore ostomy Association was very cohesive & active in the country as well as in AOA. But over the period few of the ostomates and  ET sister Ms Ong Choo Eng from
Singapore General Hospital (SGH ) continued to come to AOA meetings & last decade or so association became inactive locally as a national as well as member of AOA for unknown reasons.

Singapore has about six to seven major hospitals where ostomy surgeries are carried out. Nationally they do about 500 to 600 new ostomy surgeries mainly for colorectal cancerand there are about 23-25 WCET certified ET nurses in various hospitals. Few hospitals have local ostomy patient support group but largest & well organised group is in SGH under the leadership of ET Sister Ong. The ostomates who do Visiting are called Brand ambassadors or Ostomy ambassadors. Different hospitals Ostomy patients support group as of now in 2012
do not mix with each other nor they are planning to get together to form a National Ostomy Association. It is estimated that there are 5000 ostomates in Singapore.

Topic of my presentation to Ostomates in SGH was “ Lessons Learned in life as an Ostomatefor 36 years”. About 80 of them attended this meeting including Ostomates and Care givers as well as few local ETs and resident doctors & Two members from EC of Singapore Cancer Society (SCS ). Sister Ong kindly translated in Chinese . It was well received .|

At the end of seminar during dinner arranged by Mrs Lynette Lai , Manger of Coloplast ,Singapore, she introduced to me to few active ostomates as well as members of SCS. I explained the importance of Unity amongst all ostomates in Singapore & of having a National Ostmy organisation under Singapore Cancer Society ( SCS) that being a neutral body.The idea was well understood by ostomates & SCS mebers but SCS members were  doubtful about their ability to support National Ostomy Association due to lack of resources and funds. Ostomates were worried about having to loose support from SGH which was providing them all the help at present. But they agreed to give a further thoughts on this suggestion.I also agreed to help them making a decision in future as well as revisit them if they so desired.

Manila, Phillipines:

From Singapore I went to Manila , Philippines to give training to ostomates, nurses and  doctors on Visitor training. This was organised by Mr Ronaldo Lora, Secretory ASPOA with the help  from Mrs Sherry Claire F Atento, Manager Coloplast , Philippines. Mr Eric Chan of Coloplast Hongkong was also present for this event.It was a two days training program for different group of Ostomates, Nurses and; Resident surgical doctors and was organised in  National Kidney &Transplant Institute which is the biggest such super speciality center inPhilippines. Dr Mrs Aileen a. Riego- Javier, Executive Director of the center ingurated the seminar.
 
On day one about 26 -30 ostomates, nurses and resident surgical residents from differenthospitals of Manila attended this training. On second day due to heavy rains and  flooding inmany parts of Manila only about 10 patients and nurses attended this training but since it was
an inter active sessons on both days it was very successful and well received by all the participants.

Many ostomates agreed and  shared their experiences with each other as well as agreed to  counsel new or would be ostomate in future after this training. Philippines have probably about 10000 ostomates but because entire country is made of about 7000 islands and most are residing in rural areas it is difficult to form support groups. 

At present support groups are major hospital based in major cities. Stoma care is available only in major metro cities in major hospitals. There are only two WCET certified ETs in Manila (ET Nurse& Chief Nurse, DPPS Mrs Nelda Escueta in Philippines General Hospital ( PGH )
& ET nurse Mr Rhyan Hitalla in The Medical City ( a private hospital in Manila ) but they have trained few general nurses in Stoma Care but they are also working in major hospitals mainly in Manila. Due to distances and few stoma care nurses at present, more nurses needs to
be trained in Philippines. Most are Colostomates due to Cancer of Rectum.

Ostomy products are not easily available as they are expensive and most ostomates are very poor so cannot afford to purchase these products and most of them innovate & use make shift products to remain clean .