Medical Services For Cambodia's Future Leaders

Cambodia’s problems are overwhelming, so how to decide who should get what? I see that amid the problems, our students are some of the highest achieving poor kids on the planet with a very real chance at a good future. One obstacle is that our students suffer from consistent attacks on their health. So, the need to offer health care for our students seemed like an investment that someone should be making, and so we are. For those of you who donate or are considering donating, close your eyes and imagine a sick child, then imagine the same child feeling well and playing with the other kids, ready to take on life. This is the gift you have given.

Aziza School has a female Khmer doctor, Chenda, coming every week, and Lakeside School has a foreign doctor, Inian, coming each week. We have a part time medical coordinator, Sreang, who is a dental student (and former Aziza student), who’s sole responsibility is to follow up with sick students and all health related issues. Additionally, all the teachers and project manager are focused on improving the health of our students and implementing our programs, with the intention of making an impact. We’ve had numerous local and foreign medical students and professionals coming to volunteer, and look forward to more ‘Barefoot Doctor’ training from Annie this November. Our medical expenses have been averaging about $350 per month, partly from some special cases where we have intervened.

All of our students have benefitted from our dental program. In June, we started a partnership with a great organization, Cambodian World Family. In our first week we took 90 kids there, and I witnessed the horror of what lay inside their mouths. Most kids had at 1-2 permanent teeth that were seriously decayed. After a cleaning, they had fillings, and from there many needed to go to the extraction chair. Even though a tooth may have decay that made it black and reduced to less than half it’s original size, getting it out can be a strenuous pull to get the roots to let go. My nausea from just watching this would make my mouth watery the dentist twisted the tooth back and forth with the dental pliers, eventually getting it to release its long roots. We would comfort them as best we could through this trauma, and follow up to make sure they didn’t have problems afterward, which surprisingly few did.

In those first 2 months we took over 160 students to the dentist, and are still taking them regularly. Their excessive problems are a phenomenon of the urban poor, and it is a challenge we are up to and will fight to improve their smiles. While it seems like an uphill battle with all the sugar they consume, the benefits are clear, with teeth filling in around those that are extracted, relief of pain, and a far greater commitment to brushing as we educate our students and supply them with tooth brushes.

We’ve also done lots of medical testing, check-ups, tetanus shots, de-worming (every 6 months), and lice shampooing. Perhaps the most far reaching and sustainable component of our health programs is the education we do for our teachers and students. We’ve had countless hours of health related trainings in our Sunday afternoon youth program, thanks to Steve, Shanti, Graham and Pat. Chenda, the doctor, is also a teacher 2 days a week, and we will be constantly working to make ‘barefoot doctors’ of our staff and some students, which will serve as the front line for medical needs.