Carol Jenkins passed away at 11 pm on 22nd January, 2008, in Bangkok, Thailand, of cancer. She was surrounded by friends from the four corners of the world, a full moon shone above, and sweet music was played for her by her two sons Aaron and Ryan.
Carol was born in 1945 in the USA, but she lived her life as a citizen of the world. Carol worked tirelessly for the health and human rights of marginalized people throughout the world, using her research skills to collect data and document the lives of people in order to improve their situations with evidence of what would benefit them. She often asked, ‘Where’s the data?’
Carol's recent work and publications included a study of life opportunities for transgenders in Thailand, a study of rape of sex workers in Cambodia, and HIV assessments in the Middle East and North Africa. She pioneered the use of respondent driven sampling with sex workers, in Fiji, Cambodia and elsewhere. But her first and greatest love was for her work and her many friends in Papua New Guinea, from the remote Hagahai to the street-dwellers of Port Moresby.
Carol’s achievements were not limited to research. In 2004, she established the Travis Jenkins Memorial Award in memory of her husband. The Award is presented each year to a current or former injecting drug user who has made an outstanding contribution to reducing drug related harm.
Carol loved music, especially jazz, and played jazz guitar. Her home was a haven for musicians and colleagues from all over the world. Carol’s door was open day and night to people dropping in to discuss HIV, health, research, and music.
She is survived by her two sons Aaron and Ryan Jenkins, and two grandchildren.
Carol was a giant in her field and will be sorely missed.
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Carol and Travis were gracious hosts whenever I showed up at their home in Goroka during the 1980s for a shower and dinner (whenever I was working at Okiufa,a Gende settlement behind Goroka Teachers College, with no running water and no Thai food). After an evening of fun and usually other company as well, Travis with Ryan in tow would drop me back at the gate to Okiufa. My deepest condolences to Aaron and Ryan. Your mother was an inspiration to many, certainly to me.
Carol Jenkins had a heart so big and energy so boundless it was always hard to believe one mortal body could contain it.
Carol, yours was a life well lived, and lived enough for many lifetimes.
Farewell to Carol Jenkins!
Carol was friend, a comrade, a researcher and an activist for the rights of sex workers. She will be missed by all in APNSW
apnsw.org
Carol, has always been a great support for people working in this field and her work & memories will remain in our heart for ever.
It is unbearble loss for all of us
DR. SAFDAR KAMAL PASHA
HIV & AIDS OFFICER UNFPA CO,
PAKISTAN
I am saddened to hear the news of Carol's death, but gladdened that she died surrounded by family, hearing lovely music, being infused with Thai food and no doubt thinking fondly of and being thought of fondly by many score Papua New Guineans. Aaron and Ryan, I am very sorry to learn of your loss, although I share with many, I'm sure, a certain happiness at having known your mother and appreciated the many good works she did, and not just in Papua New Guinea. I'm sad that she'll not be around to read my book when it comes out, but you can take some measure of happiness at knowing that she is cited often and approvingly insofar as her approach to HIV and AIDS, like mine, cuts straight across the grain of mainstream understandings. Carol's life to me also meant the existence in Papua New Guinea of another model of female comportment that was, I'm sure, inspiring to many women. I thought that she was a crazy driver when first we bounced along the countryside outside Goroka in 1988, but I came to learn that that was "normal" there. Carol, Travis and I also shared several nights of Bombay Gin-soaked revelry in 1988 and again in 1992. She was a good scientist and a great ethnographer. Lawrence Hammar
Some of us met Carol and will miss her personally. Others did not have the chance, but we read her work, and admired her feisty advocacy for the human rights of sex workers and other excluded groups. We know that she had strong relationships with many of our international colleagues and was always spoken of with a great deal of respect. She will be missed by all of us.
On behalf of the members of the ICRSE Network we send Carol's family and friends our condolences.
Tribute to Carol from Doris
Jazz may be the best metaphor for Carol’s life: improvisation was at the heart of it! she never played the same piece the same way twice. She was skilled at bringing her life experiences to bear in her work and relationships. She was never shy about belting it out as it is, seeing no need for embellishments.
Her approach to research was also unique. Like jazz, her approach was at once rigorous, creative… and ‘democratic’. As is true for jazz, Carol placed equal value to the contributions of her research team and the communities she studied and served—in her work the composer, performers and audience were co-creators.
She embraced the ugly and beautiful, the crude and the refined with equal grace and acknowledgement. She had no patience for arrogance, cruelty, and hypocrisy. Or for red tape, incompetent administrators or corrupt officials. Or for the limitations illness and cancer imposed on her life. But she bore these all bravely.
She applied what she learned as best she could, acknowledging how difficult it is to put knowledge into practice. We were once joking about men’s philandering and she confided that, based on the evidence, she never was away from Trav for more than 3 weeks at a time! She acknowledged her own failings and shortcomings. Referring to Aaron and Ryan’s heavy smoking habits, she sighed to me one day: “it’s not what you say, it’s what you do that influences behavior”.
People like Carol who have the most to communicate, are too busy living their lives to write about it. I only wish we had given Carol the gift, in her case the luxury, of quiet, unstressed and interrupted time (a paid sabbatical) to write her books. Instead, as she confided “she lived to work and worked to live”—and in the last years, she meant it quite literally.
Her legacy includes two wonderful sons, both exceedingly talented and engaged in preserving beauty and diversity in our world. Death has taken Carol away but the relationship will continue.
Doris S Mugrditchian wrote
Jazz may be the best metaphor for Carol’s life: improvisation was at the heart of it! She never played the same piece the same way twice. She was skilled at bringing her life experiences to bear in her work and relationships. She was never shy about belting it out as it is, seeing no need for embellishments.
Her approach to research was also unique. Like jazz, her approach was at once rigorous, creative… and ‘democratic’. As is true for jazz, Carol placed equal value to the contributions of her research team and the communities she studied and served—in her work the composer, performers and audience were co-creators.
She embraced the ugly, the beautiful, the crude and the refined with equal grace and acknowledgement. She had no patience for arrogance, cruelty, and hypocrisy. Or for red tape, incompetent administrators or corrupt officials. Or for the limitations illness and cancer imposed on her life. But she bore these all bravely.
She applied what she learned as best she could, acknowledging how difficult it is to put knowledge into practice. We were once joking about men’s philandering and she confided that, based on the evidence, she never was away from Trav for more than 3 weeks at a time! She acknowledged her own failings and shortcomings. Referring to Aaron and Ryan’s heavy smoking habits, she sighed to me one day: “it’s not what you say, it’s what you do that influences behavior”.
People like Carol who have the most to communicate, are too busy living their lives to write about it. I only wish we had given Carol the gift, in her case the luxury, of quiet, unstressed and interrupted time (a paid sabbatical) to write her books. Instead, as she confided “she lived to work and worked to live”—and in the last years, she meant it quite literally.
Her legacy includes two wonderful sons, both exceedingly talented and engaged in preserving beauty and diversity in our world. Death has taken Carol away but the relationship will continue.
Doris S Mugrditchian, New Delhi, 26 January 2008
Having worked with her on and off for 15 years, I am going to miss her and her unique contribution to HIV/AIDS, to anthropology, and to
science. I have wonderful memories of meeting her first in Weewak in
1993 when I worked for WHO, and ever since at various conferences,
meetings and workshops. Some of my favourite times were sitting in her
hotel room telling yarns and arguing about research (we were always talking methodology and sex) while drinking a good Aussie red!
Visiting her (and Travis) in PNG, in Dhaka, in DC and the last time in Bangkok when Ryan was staying as well, were always great times. She was a great inspiration to all she worked with and a loyal and wonderful friend. May I also add the condolences of staff and students here at my Centre, some of whom met Carol at various conferences, others have read her work or worked with organisations that she helped. There will be many ways she will be remembered and her contribution honoured.
In deepest sympathy
Gary Dowsett
I only knew Carol briefly from my first meeting with her in Delhi in Dec 2006 and twice again in 2007 in KL Malaysia. But she casted an impression so strong that I feel I can trust her, and would want to work with her. She was supposed to have been in KL one week before she pass away to help us at PT Foundation and Malaysian AIDS Council implement a critical bio-behavioural surveilance study of the transgender, sex workers and men-who-have-sex-with-men communities. Now that she has left us, I truly hope the spark that she has set will light the path ahead for us here in Malaysia to benefit these communities. Carol, you are one heck of a lady!
Carol is my dearest friend and colleague. We have known and worked together since the mid-1980s. I have learned so much from her while really enjoyed her good humour and good spirit (espacially "NEVER GIVE UP when facing obstacles") while I was working at Chulalongkorn University, at the Thai Red Cross Center for AIDS Research and Education and the anonymous clinic, at the Prime Minister Office and with the National AIDS Committee and at UNAIDS.
Carol's work and motivation had greatly benefitted the AIDS work and saved many lives in Thailand, Asia/Pacific and the world especially those who are vulnerable and marginalized.
Carol is still in our hearts.
Werasit Sittitrai
i wasn't that close to Carol, till she gave up her last breath, holding her hand. Saying it's a privilege to be the last one on that last few meters left of our life. to reach that limit that only one will cross. Similar at a train leaving the station. At one point the train has to go.
She had this dissatisfaction regarding my own person, cause i hide my evidence....so she didn't have her data.
The Data finally came up to her on her bed few weeks before she went away, when getting mad at her two sons who could barely handle this situation affecting directly their own behavior. "They're Idiots!" she screamed... "aren't we all?" was my answer to her. then she looked at me and then finally show me her smile and the shiny eyes kids having when they discover something pleasant; in Carol's case : the DATA! haha :).
After the funeral we spent a long drunken night, keep cheering glasses in her memory. That night she was in the air. Literally, cause she just been cremated on that day.
I don't know why i have suddenly so much to say about someone that i finally didn't know that much, but knowing is one thing, understanding is the other one and Carol had this gift to understand within a flash when the proper information was set in front of her, anything as long as it explained the whole thing.
She was the perfect image of someone extremely interested as long as the interest itself was heading towards the within. Making myself clear: understanding why ego is source of so many questions and then problems. Torture that everyone (most of us) are confronted each day. Her ability to act and react in front of "the data" was, from my own point of view, due to the absence of egotistic matters with other people and no matter who they where coming from. She had her own ego like each of us, but she didn't judge others prefering ignore them or to swear upon them without really meaning it, but more concerned about human ignorance.
Carol, I'm glad we have met. Although we weren't as close as others was with you, i will keep your memory in my heart.
P.S: Hope anyone understand my frenglish ;)
From Madang, PNG.
Memories of Adrian's place (alas, he too is dead), afternoons drifting into night on the water, lashings of red wine, good food, conversations and discourses and arguments and always, always laughter.
Yu go pinis nau, tarangu, yu hap meri tru ia! Brain the size of a planet, heart even bigger.
To the boys - mi sori nogut tru.
Hello everyone,
I would like to say something in order to share the good things which Carol gave me.
According to the life of Trans people, especially Thai kathoei, not many people understand us, not many people think about us. So, it was fortunate for me that Carol invited me to join her project which focuses on the Health Policy and Human Rights of Thai kathoei.
In my life, some Thai female teachers talked to me about what is the best course for kathoei to follow. But, Carol, a farang female teacher, told me about the appropriate way to use female hormones. She also understood that it is quite difficult for kathoei to find a permanent partner. So, she talked to me about sexual practices which provide sexual excitement and also involve safe sex. This point seems funny, but it is essential for HIV/AIDS prevention.
When I needed someone to be an external examiner for my second masters degree thesis, Carol was happy to participate and cooperate with Mahidol University, Salaya campus, Nakronprathom. This is in the next province from Bangkok, quite a long way away, but she was always willing to travel this long distance for me. She also advised me on the new research methodology which I never used before.
And when I completed that degree, I graduated and brought my thesis to her. Carol gave me a big hug with a big smile, she was happy to see my success.
When she was very sick, she still thought of me, she wanted to donate some books from her collection which she thought might useful for me and the Thai Queer Resources Centre.
So, Carol, even you are now far away from me, you are still in my memory.
Thank you
Prempreeda Pramoj Na Ayutthaya
Dear Aaron and Ryan
It has taken me a long time to write, perhaps because I’ve been grieving alone. Each time I wanted to write I was overcome. I’ve known scores and scores of people who have now passed on, but your mum was a very special person in my heart, as she was in so many other people’s. I first met your mum when I spoke out at a conference in Melbourne in 1994. From then, she took an interest in my volunteer work as an HIV-positive activist. She followed me through my PhD, and was there at every poster presentation I ever gave over the next years; she often referred to my research on discrimination and the value of positive speakers. Over the next years, whenever our paths crossed, I always appreciated hanging out with Carol in her hotel room or in Bangkok. I appreciated the breadth of her knowledge, her diverse work in so many countries, and her commitment to quality research on sex workers and violence. In 2001 she asked me to join the review team in PNG and that’s when I got to realise just how daringly outspoken she was. I feel your mum was like a big sister to me, showing me that it’s okay to be as direct as I am. One of her gifts to me was greater belief in myself. She was beloved by so many for her hearty cackles, her high expectations, her brazenness, her brilliance and her dedication to her work.
When I was with your mum in September and November last year and I accompanied her to the doctor for test results, I realised how serious the cancer was. I know she kept working until she could do so no longer, partly because she had to pay for treatment but also she was driven to complete projects that she had invested so much in, believed in, and wanted to see come to fruition. Her astonishing decision to do the trip to Sudan in November epitomised her determination to continue, as long as she could, to push the important issues and make change happen.
It is strange for me to be taking on some of her work. I feel like a student who is about to start teaching but my teacher hasn’t yet marked my work. I am afraid, and yet I know that I can be bold, because your mum instilled that confidence in me.
I hope I have the opportunity to sit and talk with you both at some point in the not-too-distant future.
Susan Paxton
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