My sister, Michelle-Ann Iking's 3% chance of conceiving naturally was a success! Here's her story:
(My apologies as I've been overwhelmed with personal matters. I've only managed to get to my desk. So finally got around posting this).
This is the story behind my sister's pregnancy struggle and how she shared her journey over her Facebook page.
Because some may have not caught her LIVE session chat with me (https://www.facebook.com/daphneiking/videos/687743128744960/) , or read her lengthy post (as it's a private page);
she's allowed me to copy and paste it over my wall, in case you need to know more about her thought process on how AND why she focused on the 3% success probability. Read on.
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Posted 10th May 2020.
FB Credit: Michelle-Ann Iking
A week ago today I celebrated becoming a mother to our second, long awaited child.
Please forgive this mother's LONG (self-indulgent) post, journalling what this significant milestone has meant for her personally, for her own fallible memory's sake as well as maybe to share one day with her son.
If all you were wondering was whether I had delivered and if mum and bub are OK, please be assured the whole KkLM family are thriving tremendously, and continue scrolling right along your Newsfeed 😁.
OUR 3% MIRACLE
All babies are miracles... and none more so than our precious Kiaen Aaryan (pronounced KEY-n AR-yen), whose name derives from Sanskrit origins meaning:
Grace of God
Spiritual
Kind
Benevolent
...words espousing the gratitude Kishore and I feel for Kiaen's arrival as our "3% miracle".
He was conceived, naturally, after 3 years of Kishore and I hoping, praying and 'endeavoring'... and only couples for whom the objective switches from pure recreation to (elusive) procreation will understand how this is less fun than it sounds ...
3 years during which time we had consensus from 3 different doctors that we, particularly I (with my advancing age etc etc) had only a 3% chance of natural conception and that our best hope for a sibling for our firstborn, Lara Anoushka, was via IVF.
Lara herself was an 'intervention baby', being one of the 20% of babies successfully conceived through the less intrusive IUI process, after a year and a half of trying naturally and already being told then my age was a debilitating factor.
We had tried another round of IUI for her sibling in 2017 when Lara was a year old. And that time we fell into the ranks of the 80% of would-be parents for whom it would be an exercise in futility... who would go home, comfort each other as best they could, while individually masking their own personal disappointment... hoping for the best, 'the next time around'...
So the improbability ratio of 97% against natural conception of our second baby, as concurred by the combined opinion of 3 medical professionals, was a very real, very daunting figure for us to have to mentally deal with.
Deep, DEEP, down in my heart however, though I had many a day of doubt... I kept a core kernel of faith that somehow, I would again experience the privilege of pregnancy, and again, have a chance at childbirth.
And so, the optimist in me would tell myself, "Well, there have to be people who fall in the 3% bucket... why shouldn't WE be part of the 3%?"
Those who know me well, understand my belief in the Law of Attraction, the philosophy of focusing your mind only on what you want to attract, not on what you don't want, and so even as Kishore and I prepared to go into significant personal debt to attempt IVF in the 2nd half of 2019, I marshalled a last ditch effort to hone in on that 3% chance of natural conception... through research coming across fertility supplements that I ordered from the US and sent to a friend in Singapore to redirect to me because the supplier would not deliver to Malaysia.
I made us as a couple take the supplements in the 3 month 'priming period' in the lead up to the IVF procedure - preconditioning our bodies for optimum results, if you will.
At the same time, I had invested in a sophisticated fertility monitor, with probes and digital sensors for daily tracking of saliva and other unmentionable fluid samples, designed to pinpoint with chemical accuracy my state of fertility on any given day.
(UPDATE: For those interested - I obtained the supplements and Ovacue Fertility Monitor from https://www.fairhavenhealth.com/. Though I had my supplies delivered to a friend in Singapore, and redirected to me here since the US site does not deliver to Malaysia, there are local distributors for these products, you will just have to research the trustworthiness of the vendors yourself...)
I had set an intention - in the 3 months of pre-IVF priming, I would consume what seemed like a pharmacy's worth of supplements, and track fertility religiously... in hopes that somehow, within the 3 month priming period, we would conceive naturally and potentially save ourselves a down payment on a new property... and this was just a projection on financial costs of IVF, not even considering the physical, emotional and mental toll it involves, with no guarantee of a baby at the end of it all...
It was a continuation of an intention embedded even with my first pregnancy, where all the big ticket baby items were consciously purchased for use by a future sibling, in gender neutral colours, in hopes that sibling would be a brother "for a balanced pair", though of course any healthy child would be a welcome blessing.
It was a very conscious determination to always skew my thoughts in service of what the end objective was. For example, when 3+year old Lara would innocently express impatience at not yet having a sibling, at one point suggesting that since we were "taking too long to give her a baby brother/sister", perhaps we should just "go buy a baby from a shop", instead of getting defensive or berating the baby that she herself was, we enlisted Lara's help to pray for her sibling... so in any place of worship, or sacred ground of any kind that we passed thereon, Lara would stop, close her eyes, bow her small head and place her tiny hands together in prayer, reciting earnestly, "Please God, please give me a baby brother or baby sister."
After months and months of watching Lara do this, in the constancy of her childlike chant, Kishore started feeling the pressure of possibly disappointing Lara if her prayer was not answered. Whereas for me, Lara's recitation of her simple wish became like a strengthening mantra, our collective intention imbued with greater power with each repetition, and the goal of a sibling kept very much in the forefront of our minds (hence our calling Lara our 'project manager' in this endeavour).
And somehow in the 2nd month of that 3 month period, a positive + sign appeared on one of the home pregnancy tests I had grown accustomed to taking - my version of the lottery tickets others keep buying in hopes of hitting the jackpot, with all the cyclical anticipation and more often than not, disappointment, that entails...
This time however I was not disappointed.
With God's Grace, (hence 'Kiaen', a variation of 'Kiaan' which means 'Grace of God'), my focus on our joining the ranks of the 3% had materialised.
It seems poetic then, that Kiaen chose to make his appearance on the 3rd May, ironically the same date that his paternal great-grandfather departed this world for the next... such that in the combined words of Kishore and his father Kai Vello Suppiah,
"The 1st generation Suppiah left on 3rd May and the 4th generation Suppiah arrived on 3rd May after 41yrs...
One leaves, another comes, the legacy lives on..."
***
KIAEN AARYAN SUPPIAH'S BIRTH STORY
On Sunday 3rd May, I was 40 weeks and 5 days pregnant.
The baby was, in my mind, very UN-fashionably late past his due date of 29th April, so as much as I had willed and 'manifested' the privilege of pregnancy, to say I was keen to be done with it all was an understatement.
In the weeks leading to up to my full term, I had experienced increasingly intense Braxton-Hicks 'practice contractions' - annoying for me for the discomfort involved, stressful for Kishore who was on tenterhooks with the false alarms, on constant alert for when we would actually need to leave home for the hospital.
Having become a Hypnobirthing student and advocate from my first pregnancy with Lara, and thus being equipped with
(1) a lack of fear about childbirth in general and
(2) a basic understanding of how all the sensations I would experience fit into the big picture of my body bringing our baby closer to us,
I was less stressed - content to wait for the baby to be "fully cooked" and come out whenever he was ready... though I wouldn't have minded at all if the cooking time ended sooner, rather than later.
With Lara, I had been somewhat 'forced' into an induced labour, even though she was not yet due, and that had resulted in a 5 DAY LABOUR, a Birth Story for another post, so I was not inclined to chemically induce labour, even though I was assured that for second time mothers, it would be 'much faster and easier'...
That morning, I had a hunch *maybe* that day was the day, because in contrast to previous weeks' sensations of tightening, pressure and even spasms that were concentrated in the front of my abdomen and occasionally shot through my sides and legs, I felt period - like cramping in my lower back which I had not felt before throughout the pregnancy.
It was about 8am in the morning then, and my 'surges' were still relatively mild ('surges' being Hypnobirthing - speak for 'contractions', designed to frame them with the more positive connotations needed to counteract common language in which childbirth is presented as something that is unequivocally painful and traumatic, instead of the miraculous, powerful and natural phenomenon it actually is).
I recall (masochistically?) entertaining the thought of opting NOT to have an epidural JUST TO SEE WHAT IT WOULD BE LIKE...
I figured this would be the last time I would be pregnant and so it would be my 'last chance' to experience 'drug free labour' which, apart from the health benefits for baby and mother, might be *interesting* in a way that people who are curious about what getting a tattoo and skydiving and bungee jumping are like, might find these *interesting*...even knowing there will be pain and risk involved...
Since I have tried tattoos and skydiving (unfortunately not being able to squeeze in bungee-jumping while my life was purely my own to risk at no dependents' possible detriment) a similar curiousity about a no-epidural labour was on my mind...
In the absence of other signs of the onset of labour (like 'bloody show' or my waters breaking), I wanted to wait until the surges were coming every few minutes before we actually left the house for the hospital, not wanting to be one of those couples who rushed in too early and had interminable waits for the next stage in unfamiliar, clinical surroundings and/or were made to go home in an anti-climatic manner.
I was even calm enough through my surges to have the presence of mind to wash and blowdry my hair, knowing if I did deliver soon I would not be allowed this luxury for a while.
Around 9am I asked Kishore to prep for Lara and himself to be dressed and breakfasted so we could head to hospital soon, while I sent messages to family members on both sides informing them 'today might be the day.'
My mother, who had briefly served as a midwife before going back into general nursing and then becoming a nursing tutor, prophetically stated that if what I was experiencing was true labour, "the baby would be out by noon".
The pace in which my surges grew closer together was surprisingly quicker than I expected; and while I asked Lara to "Hurry up with breakfast" with only a tad more urgency than we normally tell her to do, little Missy being prone to dilly-dallying at meals, I probably freaked Kishore out when about 930am onwards, I had to instinctively get on my hands and knees a couple of times, eyes closed, trying to practice the Hypnobirthing breathing techniques I had revised to help along the process of my body birthing our child into the world.
I recall him saying a bit frantically as I knelt at our front door, doubled over as he waited for Lara to complete something or other, "Lara hurry up! Can't you see Mama is in so much pain and you are taking your own sweet time??!!"
SIDETRACK: Just the night before, Lara and I had watched a TV show in which a woman gave birth with the usual histrionics accompanying pop culture depictions of labour.
Lara watched the scene, transfixed.
I told her, simply and matter-of-factly, "That's what Mama has to do to get baby brother out Lara, and that's what I had to do for you also."
In most of interactions with my daughter, I have sought to equip her to face life's situations with calmness, truthful common sense, and ideally a minimum of drama.
Those who know the dramatic diva that Lara can be will know that this is a work-in-progress, but her response to me that night showed me some of my 'teachings' were sinking in:
She looked at me unfazed, "But Mama," she said. "You won't cry and scream like that lady, right? You will be BRAVE and stay calm, right?"
#nopressure.
So as we prepped to leave for the hospital I did indeed attempt to be that role model of calm for her, asking her only for her help in keeping very quiet,
"Because Mama needs to focus on bringing baby brother out and she needs quiet to concentrate...".
As we left the house at 10.11am, I texted Kishore's sister Geetha to please prep to pick up Lara from the hospital, and was grateful Kishore had the foresight to ask our gynae to prepare a letter for Geetha to show any police roadblocks between my in-laws' home in Subang Jaya and the hospital in Bangsar, this all happening under the Movement Control Order (MCO).
To Lara's credit, in the journey over to the hospital, she - probably sensing the gravity of the situation, sat very quietly in her seat at the back, and the silence was punctuated only by my occasional deep intakes of breath and some variation of my Ohmmm-like moans when the sensations were at their height.
By the time we got to Pantai Hospital at around 10.30am, my surges were strong enough I requested a wheelchair to assist me in getting to the labour ward, as I did not trust my own legs to support me... and Kishore would have to wait until Geetha had arrived to take Lara back to my in-laws' house before he himself could go up.
I slumped in the wheelchair and was wheeled up to the labour room with my eyes closed the whole time, trying to handle my surges.
I didn't even look up to see the attendant who pushed me... but did make the effort to thank him sincerely when he handed me over, with what seemed like a palpable sense of relief on his part, to the labour ward nurses.
The nurse attending me at Pantai was calm, steady and efficient. I answered some questions and changed into my labour gown while waiting for Kishore to come up, all the while managing the increasingly intense surges with my rusty Hypnobirthing breathing techniques.
By the time Kishore joined me at around 11am (I know these timings based on the timestamps of the 'WhatsApp live feed' of messages Kishore sent to his family), I was asking the nurse on duty, "How soon can I get an epidural??" thinking what crazy woman thought she could do this without drugs???!!!
The nurse checked my cervix dilation, I saw her bloodied glove indicating my mucous plug had dislodged, and she told me, "Well you are already at 7cm (which, for the uninitiated, is 70% of the way to the 10cm dilation needed for birthing), you are really doing well, if you made it this far without any drugs, if can you try and manage without it... I suspect within 2 hours or less you will deliver your baby and since it will take about that time for the anaesthesiologist to be called, epidural to be administered and kick in... it might all be for nothing... but of course the decision is completely up to you... "
So there I was, super torn, should I risk the sensations becoming worse... or risk the epidural becoming a waste?? And of course I was trying to decide this as my labour surges were coming at me stronger and stronger...
I was in such a dilemma...because as a 'recovering approval junkie' there was also a silly element of approval-seeking involved, ("The nurse thinks I can do this without drugs... maybe I CAN do this without drugs... Yay me!") mixed with that element of curiosity I mentioned earlier ("What if I actually CAN do this without drugs... plenty of other women have done it all over the world since time immemorial.. no big deal, how bad can it be...??") so then I thought I would use the financial aspect to be the 'tiebreaker' in my decision making...
I asked the nurse how much an epidural would cost and when she replied "Around MYR1.5k", I still remember Kishore's incredulous face as I asked the question, i.e."Seriously babe, you are gonna think about money right now? If you need the epidural TAKE IT, don't worry about the money!!!"... and while we are not rich by any stretch of the imagination, thankfully RM1.5k is not a quantum that made me swing towards a decision to "better save the money"...
So in the end, I guess my curiosity won out, and I turned down the epidural "just to see what it would be like and if I had it in me" (in addition of course to avoiding the side effects of any drugs introduced into my and the baby's body).
My labour occuring in the time of coronavirus, it was protocol for me to have a COVID19 test done, so the medical staff could apply the necessary precautions. I had heard from a friend Sharon Ruba that the test procedure was uncomfortable, so when the nurse came with the test kit as I was starting another surge, I asked, "Please can I just finish this surge before I do the test?" as I really didn't think I could multitask tackling multiple uncomfortable sensations in one go.
The COVID19 test involved what felt like a looong, skinny cotton bud being inserted into one nostril... I definitely felt more than a tickle as it went in and up, being told to take deep breaths by the nurse. Then she asked me to "Try to swallow" and I felt it go into my nasal cavities where I didn't think anything could go any further, but was proven wrong when she asked me to swallow again and the swab was probed even deeper. Then she warned me there would be some slight discomfort as she prepared to collect a sample... but at that point all I could think about was:
(i) I really don't have much of a choice
(ii) please let this be over before my next surge kicks in
(iii) if all the people breaking the MCO rules knew what it feels like to do this test maybe they won't put themselves at risk of the need to perform one...
In full disclosure as I was transferred into the actual delivery room at some point after 11am, another nurse offered me 'laughing gas' to ostensibly take some of the edge off... I took the self-operated breathing nozzle passed to me but don't recall it making any difference to my sensations..so didn't use it much as it seemed pretty pointless.
I recall some measure of relief when I heard my gynae Dr. Paul entering the room, greeting Kishore and me, and telling us it was going well and it wouldn't be long now and he would see us again shortly.
From my previous labour with Lara I knew the midwives pretty much take you 90% of the way through the labour and when the Dr is called in you are really at the home stretch, so was very relieved to hear his voice though knowing he would leave and come back later meant it wasn't quite over yet.
I do remember realising when I had crossed the Thinning and Opening Phase of labour to the Birthing Phase, by the change in sensations... it is still amazing to me that as the Hypnobirthing book mentioned, having this knowledge I was instinctively able to switch breathing techniques for the next stage of labour .
Was my opting against epidural the right choice for me?
Overall? Yes.
Don't get me wrong.
I *almost* regretted the decision several times during active labour... especially when I felt my body being taken over by an overwhelming compulsion to push that did not seem conscious and was accompanied by involuntary gutteral moans where I literally just thought to myself, "I surrender, God do with me what you will..." (super dramatic I know but VERY real at the time...).
I think I experienced 3-4 such natural explusive reflexes (?), rhythmically pushing the baby down the birth path, one of which was accompanied by what felt like a swoosh of water coming out of a hose with a diameter the size of a golf ball... this was when I realised my water had finally broken...
The nurses kept instructing me to do different things, to keep breathing, to move to my side, then to move to the middle, to raise my feet... and when I didn't comply, Kishore (who was with me throughout both my labours) tried to help them by repeating the instructions prefaced with "Sayang..." but I basically ignored all the intructions because I felt I had no capacity to direct any part of my body to do anything and someone else would have to physically manoeuvre that body part themselves.
When I heard Dr. Paul's voice again and the flurry of commotion surrounding his presence, I knew the time was close... and when I heard the nurse say to Kishore, "Sir, these are your gloves, for when you cut the baby's cord", it was music to my ears...
I'm very, VERY grateful Kiaen slid out after maybe the 4th of those involuntary pushes... the wave of RELIEF when he came out so quickly... it still boggles my mind that my mother was essentially right and as his birth time was 12.02pm, it was *only* about 1.5 hours between our arrival at the hospital and his arrival into the world.
Kiaen was placed on my chest for skin to skin bonding and remained there for a considerable time.
For our short stay in the hospital he would be with us in my maternity ward number C327... another trivially serendipitous sign for me because he was born on the 3rd (May) and our wedding anniversary is 27th (July).
I was discharged the following day 4th May at about 5.30pm, after I got an all clear on COVID19 and a paediatric surgeon did a small procedure on Kiaen to address a tongue-tie that would affect his breastfeeding latch... making the entire duration of our stay about 31 hours.
I have taken the time and effort to record all this down so that whenever life's challenges threaten to get me down I can remind myself, "Ignore the 97% failure probability, focus on the 3% success probability".
Also that the human condition is miraculous and it is such a privilege to experience it.
To our son Kiaen Aaryan, thank you for coming into our lives and choosing us as your parents.
Even though Papa and I are both zombies trying to settle into a night time feeding routine with you, I look forward to spending not only all future Mother's Days, but every day, with you and your Akka...
And last but not least, to my husband Kishore...without whom none of this would be possible - we did it sayang, I love you ❤️
Photo credit: Stayhome session with Samantha Yong Photography (http://samanthayong.com/)
when is mothers day in 2019 在 Mẹ Nấm Facebook 的最佳貼文
Dù có những đồng bào làm tôi thấy ngao ngán vì tâm thế của họ, nhưng tôi vẫn làm việc của tôi theo con đường của tôi và tìm kiếm những người bạn mới thực sự muốn thấy tự do và dân chủ cho Việt Nam.
Năm nay tôi là người đầu tiên mở màn cho chiến dịch của Hội Tưởng Niệm các Nạn nhân Cộng sản tại Hoa Kỳ.
Và tôi sẽ không bao giờ im lặng theo cách của mình!
Nguyên văn bài phát biểu :
Kính thưa quý vị,
Hôm nay chúng ta gặp nhau trong một không gian vô cùng đặc biệt vì ảnh hưởng của đại dịch COVID-19.
Tuy nhiên tôi tin rằng hoàn cảnh không thể khiến chúng ta quên đi cuộc đấu tranh của người dân, những nạn nhân ở các nước bị áp bức, giam cầm bởi chế độ cộng sản.
Nếu những ngày này, cả nước Mỹ đang vang lên lời kêu gọi phẫn nộ lẫn thống thiết “Tôi không thể thở” - "I can't breath" thì tại những nước độc tài cộng sản, trong đó có Việt Nam, dân tộc chúng tôi đã không thể thở "We can't breath" trong gần nửa thế kỷ qua.
Tôi đã từng xuất hiện cùng quý vị trong hội thảo năm ngoái như là một nhân chứng sống, một người hoạt động đấu tranh cho nhân quyền, môi trường và tự do dân chủ, một mẹ có hai con nhỏ đã bị nhà cầm quyền cộng sản Việt Nam kết án 10 năm tù chỉ vì thực hiện quyền bày tỏ quan điểm của mình.
Năm ngoái khi tôi có thể tự do phát biểu ở nước Mỹ thì hàng chục người tù chính trị khác tại Việt Nam ở các trại giam phía Bắc như Nghệ An, Thanh Hoá, Hà Tĩnh đang tuyệt thực để phản đối tình trạng ngược đãi tù nhân.
Năm nay, tình trạng này lại tiếp tục tiếp diễn khi Huynh Duc Thanh Binh, một sinh viên yêu nước khác bị đánh đập cùng với những người khác ở Trại giam Xuân Lộc (Đồng Nai).
Từ cuối năm 2019 đến nay đã có thêm nhiều người bị bắt giữ vì thực hiện quyền bày tỏ quan điểm của mình. Họ là nhà báo Phạm Chí Dũng, Youtuber Nguyễn Văn Nghiêm, nhà hoạt động Trần Đức Thạch, nhà báo Phạm Văn Thành, blogger Nguyễn Tường Thuỵ…Theo thống kê chưa chính thức có hơn 239 TNLT đang bị giam giữ từ tháng 1/2020 đến nay và còn rất nhiều trường hợp đang bị giam giữ và chưa đưa ra xét xử.
Bất kỳ một nhà hoạt động Việt Nam nào cũng phải trải qua các hình thức bị sách nhiễu, bị đánh đập và bị giam cầm rồi bị đưa ra xử kín, người dân không được tham dự, hoàn toàn không có sự minh bạch, không có công lý.Vì vậy tôi nghĩ rằng, công việc của tôi vẫn chưa thể dừng lại ngay cả khi tôi đang sống lưu vong.
Những đau khổ, mất mát mà nạn nhân cộng sản phải chịu đựng thì viết cả cuốn sách dày cũng không đủ. Tôi may mắn vì có sự ủng hộ của cộng đồng quốc tế nên có thể chia sẻ cùng quý vị câu chuyện của mình. Nhưng còn những người mẹ khác như Đoàn Thị Hồng – một người xuống đường biểu tình phản đối chính phủ ra dự luật Đặc khu cho Trung Quốc thuê đất 99 năm thì không. Cô ấy phải xa cô con gái chưa đầy 3 tuổi của mình và bị giam cầm đến nay chưa được đem ra xét xử.
Cuộc sống trong trại giam, là những chuỗi ngày khó khăn, bị ngược đãi tinh thần, bị chia cắt với thế giới bên ngoài, bị gây khó khăn trong những chuyến thăm gặp của gia đình... là những điều mà những tù nhân chính trị tại Việt Nam phải đối diện.
Vì vậy tôi mong rằng quý vị hãy tiếp tục quan tâm, lên tiếng và tranh đấu cho họ.
Xin hãy biến sự quan tâm của quý vị thành hành động để hỗ trợ chúng tôi. Hãy tin rằng một tiếng nói, một bài viết, một thỉnh nguyện thư chung, một yêu cầu của quý vị để giải quyết tình trạng hiện tại là một khích lệ lớn lao cho nhân quyền Việt Nam.
Tôi xin gửi lời cám ơn đến VOC vì hàng năm đã có những buổi hội thảo cần thiết để chúng ta có thể tiếp tục lên tiếng cho những nạn nhân ở các nước bị áp bức, giam cầm bởi chế độ cộng sản.
Kính thưa quý vị,
Tôi biết mỗi giờ, mỗi ngày trôi qua có rất nhiều trường hợp vi phạm nhân quyền xảy ra trên toàn thế giới và Việt Nam là một quốc gia được quý vị quan tâm.
Tôi muốn quý vị biết rằng, tiếng nói của quý vị đã bảo vệ được an toàn tối thiểu cho những người bị giam cầm và nhà cầm quyền cộng sản Việt Nam ít nhiều phải e dè khi đối diện với những báo cáo và các chất vấn của quý vị.
Tôi cũng muốn quý vị biết rằng nỗ lực tranh đấu cho tự do đối với những người đã bị giam cầm còn có một ảnh hưởng tích cực lên những người đang hoạt động và chưa bị bắt. Nó đã trao cho họ niềm tin rằng thế giới luôn theo dõi và quan tâm đến họ và họ sẽ không bị bỏ rơi nếu bị giam cầm.
Xin chân thành cám ơn quý vị đã dành thời gian lắng nghe.
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English version:
Ladies and gentlemen,
Today we meet in a very special forum because of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, I don’t believe this circumstance can make us forget about the struggles of the people, the victims in states of oppression, and those imprisoned by the communist regimes..
If these days, the America speak up with an angry and anguished appeal "I can't breath" - then in the communist dictators, including Vietnam, our people would be in the situation "We can't breath" for nearly half a century.
I attended with you at the 2019 conference as a surviving witness, an activist who fights for human rights, environmental issues and democracy, a single mother of two small kids who was sentenced to 10 years in prison by the Vietnamese communist government for merely exercising the right to express my views.
Last year while I was able to speak freely in the United States, dozens of other political prisoners in Vietnam in northern detention centers like Nghe An, Thanh Hoa and Ha Tinh were going on hunger strike to protest against the abuse of prisoners.
This year, that situation continues when detainee Huynh Duc Thanh Binh, another patriotic student, was beaten along with others at Xuan Loc Detention Center (Dong Nai).
Since the end of 2019, there were more people arrested for exercising their right to free expression. They are freelance journalist Pham Chi Dung, Youtuber Nguyen Van Nghiem, activist Tran Duc Thach, journalist Pham Van Thanh, blogger Nguyen Tuong Thuy ... According to unofficial report, there are more than 239 political prisoners have been unlawfully detained in Vietnam since January 2020, and there are still plenty of cases of detainment without trial.
Any Vietnamese activists would endure and face the hardship of being harassed, beaten, imprisoned and brought to a closed trial, where family & the public of the detainees are not allowed to attend. So I think that my work as an activist, even in exile, is not yet done.
Recounting all hardship and loss suffered by victims of the communism would require us to publish endless volumes of books. I myself am lucky enough to have the support of the international community that I am able to share my own story with you. But other mothers, such as Ms. Doan Thi Hong, who took to the street to protest against the Vietnam Special Economic Zone Lease Project. She was forcefully separated from her 3-year-old daughter and imprisoned without trial until now
Life in prison is an countless chain of difficult days, suffering from physical and mental abuse, being separated from the outside world, facing difficulties against every family visit . These are some of the predicament that political prisoners in Vietnam have to endure every day
So I do hope you all continue to pay your attention, speak up and fight for them.
Please turn your thoughts and compassion into action to support us. Please consider that a voice, an article, a joint petition, or an action alert from you is an encouragement to improve human rights in Vietnam.
I would like to thank the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation for having the seminars every year so that we can continue to stand up for the victims in states of oppresion, and those imprisoned by the communist regimes.
Ladies and gentlemen,
I know that there are many human rights violations happening around the world as every day goes by, and Vietnam is a country in your focus .
I would ask you to focus on your voice of concern that created a platform to protect Vietnamese detainees who are in need the most and would send a strong message to the communist authorities that they must be cautious of your reports and demands.
In addition, I would like to emphasize that your efforts to fight for freedom for those who have been imprisoned also has a positive effects on those who are active and not yet arrested. It has given them the necessary assurance that the world is always watching and being concerned for them and that they will not be abandoned if imprisoned. I hope you continue to pay attention, speak up and fight for political prisoners in Vietnam and around the world.
Thank you so much!
VOC June/2020
when is mothers day in 2019 在 Natasha Juan Facebook 的最佳貼文
How cute! ❤️
Hi,
Here is the updated info (updated on March 26, 2019)
The ticket counter opens at 10.30 am and it is opened until all the tickets are sold out on the daily basis, no booking, no reservation and no online reservation.
Service Hours:
2 sessions per day
1st session starts at 12.30 pm, playtime is 1 to 2 pm.
2nd session starts at 3.30 pm, playtime is 4 to 5 pm.
Closed on the last Sunday of each month.
Please note that we do not serve food here and no food from outside is allowed in our area.
Ticket is 500 Baht. One ticket is per one person and per one session. Since we have limited number of seats, all the seats and every seat are to be reserved for the customers with the tickets only.
For your understanding, The photo taking here is without extra charge because Huskies, by their nature, are not the obedient type. They do as they please. They do not take command if they do not want to. Especially, when it is time to go back for the feeding the dogs can hardly do anything because they start to get anxious and look forward to going back. I have been with my dogs for over15 years now. They are my children . You come to see their normal lives as they are scheduled to come down on the playground 5 times a day but only 2 times with the visitors. If you expected my children to do as you please or to take command please do not buy the tickets as they could disappoint you.
CHILDREN UNDER 15 YEARS OLD ARE NOT ALLOWED FOR THE ENTRANCE AT ALL. (The age must be verified by passport.This is for your own children's safty.)
CHILDREN UNDER 18 YEARS OLD(15-18 years old) ARE NOT ALLOWED TO INTERACT WITH THE DOGS WITHOUT THE PRESENCE OF BOTH FATHERS AND MOTHERS. (The age must be verified by passport.)
The best way to travel to Truelove @ Neverland is to take the BTS ( Sky Train). Please get off at Ari Station and go to exit 1 or 3 ,walk a little bit further along the traffic flow (not up against the traffic flow) upto Soi Paholyotin 7 then turn left into the Soi and you will see the Took Took station, just take one of them to my place (most of the Took Took drivers at this station know my place very well). The Took Took will cost you only 50 baht per trip.
■■■ Soi Arisumphun 2 is a dead end lane, cars cannot make a U-TURN and there is no parking space, taking the BTS (Sky Train) is highly recommended since we have no parking space here. (Please do not bring your car)
Thanks for your understanding and sorry for your inconveniences.
Regards,
Choty