Ipoh nurse now calls Beirut home
Pok’s plan was to volunteer at a Palestinian refugee camp for six months
PETALING JAYA: Mariam Pok’s plan was to volunteer at a Palestinian refugee camp in Beirut for six months.
She had not bargained on love and finding her life’s calling there.
Trained as a nurse, she arrived in Beirut in 1987 as part of a group of volunteers. They were immediately struck by the beauty of the place.
“We were shocked. Beirut is beautiful. That was the first thing the volunteers said when we arrived,” the 66-year-old Malaysian recounted in an interview here where she was back for a holiday.
However, the Burj al Barajneh refugee camp she worked at was a different story.
“The camps made people feel depressed. It was so cramped that cars and motorcycles couldn’t get in,” she said.
The bullet hole-riddled buildings painted a bleak picture of the Palestinians’ plight but Pok remembered the kindness of the people.
“They were warm and nice. I cannot say everyone was perfect because they were afraid of us at first,” she said.
One person who made a significant impression on her was her translator Thair Moatasstm, whom she later married.
“He helped me a lot in my work, taking me around to see my patients even when the aid agencies withdrew medical volunteers as the conflict deteriorated,” she said.
They got married and have a son. For years, they worked with the London-based organisation Medical Aid for Palestinians.
She spent the last 31 years tirelessly working to help dispossessed Palestinians in refugee camps.
It was simple curiosity that first drew her to Beirut.
She had been working in Ipoh hometown when she heard news reports of the IsraeliLebanese conflict and the Palestinian struggle.
“At that time, I jokingly told my colleague that I wanted to go and see whether the news reports were true,” she recalled.
Having trained as a community nurse, she was keen for a change and to be treating patients outside a medical centre.
Although many would consider her act of service courageous, Pok said her family initially had doubts of her entering the nursing profession when she was younger.
“My family wasn’t sure I could be a nurse because I was timid and shy, afraid to even dissect animals.”
Pok said that helping the Palestinians was one of the best things she has done in her life.
“I feel it was worthwhile. Even though I currently live in Beirut, I feel Malaysia is now even more precious to me. No place is as important to a person as home,” she said.