There is a saying: Life begins after 40, but it did not mean for Kyaw Kyaw Htwe. He was 39 when he died suddenly on 26 January 2013, and his family and colleagues felt that life was unfair to take him back so early.
When I joined at The Union Office in Myanmar in 2007, Kyaw Kyaw Htwe was leading the Mandalay (People Living with HIV/AIDS) PLWHA network, which had just been established and still in its early stages. He organised peers to work at The Union's Integrated HIV Care (IHC) clinics, before HIV clinics were managed by hospital staff. This sharing of the workload was crucial to solving the human resource shortage in HIV/AIDS care. As a good leader, he also tried very hard to get more funding, and we worked together to write proposals for the PLWHA network.
Kyaw Kyaw Htwe arranged annual trips for the network so that all members were refreshed and could contribute their best efforts to their work. As social and psychological support, he worked with The Union to put on festivals for HIV-infected children during Christmas and the Myanmar New Year.
Because he was well trained and technically sound, he was invited to facilitate in many of the PLWHA trainings organised by the National AIDS Programme and the World Health Organization (WHO). A high point for him was when he played an important role in an "Expert Patients Training" organised by The Union Office in Myanmar in 2011. This training empowered peers to counsel patients with concerns with HIV treatment and care, when doctors did not have enough time to talk to them or the patients were afraid to ask doctors their questions.
Kyaw Kyaw Htwe was interested in research, especially Behaviour Change Communication (BCC) for HIV/AIDS. Last year, he conducted two such studies in Mandalay with The Union. These were qualitative studies that asked men who have sex with men to respond to designed questionnaires. Only a few weeks before he died, he said: "We need to do more in BCC research and apply the information to HIV prevention, which is currently weak in Myanmar".
A man of many talents, he was very keen on computer science and could have worked professionally in the IT field. He lent us a hand with IT issues whenever we asked for his help. He also helped developed the information, education and communication (IEC) materials for our programmes, and he was a good photographer, who documented many of the activities of The Union Office in Myanmar.
Kyaw Kyaw Htwe was also a social guy and very humorous. He made us laugh whenever we chatted or worked together.
In short, he did a lot for Mandalay PLWHA community and The Union, which will keep him alive in our memories. As long as we are fighting against HIV/AIDS, he will always be with us.
Dr Sai Ko Ko Zaw
Manager, TB Unit
The Union Office in Myanmar
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