PT Foundation ( ms, Yayasan PT) is a community-based, voluntary non-profit making organization providing HIV/AIDS education, prevention, care and support programmes, sexual health and empowerment programmes for vulnerable communities in Malaysia. PT Foundation is the largest community-based HIV/AIDS organization in Malaysia and has benefited more than 100,000 people. PT Foundation was also one of the seven founding members of the Malaysian AIDS Council (MAC).

History

Pink Triangle Sdn Bhd was founded in 1987 to provide a telephone counseling service for HIV/AIDS and sexuality issues. It was founded to cater for

gay men Gay men are male homosexuals. Some bisexual and homoromantic men may also dually identify as gay, and a number of young gay men also identify as queer. Historically, gay men have been referred to by a number of different terms, including ' ...

in Malaysia. The foundation started in a small room in an apartment on the 13th floor of City Tower in Jalan Alor, Kuala Lumpur before moving to Jalan Inai and finally to its current location at Jalan Ipoh Kecil. In 2000, PT Foundation was registered under the Register of Companies and took over the assets of Pink Triangle Sdn Bhd and was formally recognized as a Foundation in Malaysia.as noted from their website at http://ptfmalaysia.org/v2/about-us/ The foundation has evolved to provide support and care services to four other vulnerable communities: ''

Maknyah ''Mak Nyah'' (), alternatively spelled ''maknyah'', is a Malay vernacular term for trans women in Malaysia. It arose in the late 1980s in order to distinguish trans women from other minorities. The name is preferred by Malaysian trans women as o ...

'' (a Malay term for a male-to-female transgender people),

commercial sex workers Prostitution is the business or practice of engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, non-penet ...

, drug users and people living with

HIV The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of '' Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the immu ...

. PT Foundation is the first NGO in Malaysia to offer HIV/AIDS testing, counseling, prevention, support, referral and care services. Being a member of the MSM community, Raymond Tai, the chief operating officer of PT Foundation firmly believes that the battle to eliminate stigma and discrimination of HIV/AIDS involved a shift in how soon Malaysia could move from a conservative and judgemental society to one that embraced diversity, irrespective of one's race, religion and sexual orientation.

Services

PT Foundation provides telephone and face-to-face counseling, anonymous

and

STI STI may refer to: In science and technology Biology and psychology * Sexually transmitted infection * Signal transduction inhibitor, a drug type * Soft tissue injury * Symptom targeted intervention, for treating depression Electronics and comp ...

screening, outreach programmes, and support for key affected populations mainly drug users, sex workers, transsexuals, men who have sex with men (MSM), and people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHIV).

Community Health Care Centre (CHCC)

CHCC is a centre located in Sentul, Kuala Lumpur. The centre is managed as a social enterprise, where beneficiaries of the programme e.g. the MSM community have to pay fees for HIV and other sexually-transmitted diseases tests and counselling services. The centre is accredited as an Impact Driven Enterprise by the Finance Ministry.

Awards and Accolades

References

External links