Never too young to volunteer!

Deborah was twelve when she first got involved with Cambodia…largely because of her mother. Her mother was involved with CTAP (Cambodia Tooth Angel Project) in 2008 (a not-for-profit organization that aims to deliver medical and dental care for the poor but especially for orphans, slum dwellers and the children in prison just because their mum or dad are in prison). Initially, Deborah’s involvement was limited to just helping out at home by cataloguing donated medicine. Soon however she found that she wanted to do more and told her mother. In response, her mother suggested that she and her two older sisters accompany her on her next trip with CTAP into the capital of Cambodia, Phnom Penh.

That was the first time Deborah had traveled into Cambodia. She had never been to a third world country before, so this trip of volunteering in Cambodia was full of great new experiences for her.

Even at the tender age of twelve then, she was given the opportunity to do a wide range of jobs with the team she came to Cambodia with: A doctor, a nurse, a medical assistant and three other volunteers. As part of the team, she would often go out to administer free health checks to orphanages, the slums and to rural communities. Health checks are necessary to identify and treat infections, scabies, lice and other illnesses as well as de-worming them. 

One of the main orphanages that the team visited was the Happy Tree Orphanage, home to approximately one hundred children between the ages of 6 months to 14 years.

They brought over a 100 teddy bears that someone in New Zealand had knitted and each of the children in the orphanage received their own teddy bear. It was amazing to see how much the gifts were appreciated by the children who were so taken with them that they wouldn’t put them down.

Deborah has since been back to Cambodia. The majority of her time on her second trip was working with an early childhood educator, Fiona, and her daughter, Allyse, along with two other volunteers from New Zealand. They brought learning resources and material (like counting bean bags and footballs) for the children and Allyse and Deborah would assist Fiona when she was teaching them, as well as playing games with them and reading to them. 

This experience has made Deborah realize what a privileged life she leads compared to some of the children she has seen. There are many children in orphanages all round Cambodia and often they are provided with very little.  They don’t have their own clothes, or toys or even pencils, so anything that they are given is really quite special to them.

CTAP (Cambodia Tooth Angel Project) has grown so much that they have now registered in Cambodia as One-2-One CAMBODIA. Not only are they involved in dental programs but also they have also expanded into providing medical support  and sponsorship to older orphans and children to further their studies with the end objective of helping them find a way of making a living.

On Deborah’s most recent trip to Cambodia a few weeks ago, One-2-One CAMBODIA took seventy orphans out to a restaurant for dinner. This was the very first time that they had ever been to a restaurant. They had never seen so much food in one go in their entire lives and it was amazing to see how much they ate and how much they enjoyed themselves.

Mobile Swift visit to Banteay Meanchey Community

From July 12^th to 16^th  2010, the Mobile Swift Team of One-2-One CAMBODIA in partnership with the Denmark Dental Health Without Borders, visited the Banteay Meanchey Province for providing dental and basic health care to the residents in the community.

This trip was made possible with the generous sponsorship of Camkids. It was a fantastic co-operative effort along with the help Dental Health without Borders, Dental Students from International University of Cambodia as well as dental students from Ireland and volunteers from England. A reflection of how global partnership within the community in Banteay Meanchay making a huge difference.

 

The place was very muddy. On the day that our team arrived it rained non stop. As a result, it was very difficult and we were faced with challenging working condition. The villagers however made us so welcome and worked very hard with us to set up. Our team gladly rolled up our sleeves and got working.

Dental work: In total the team treated 470 patients including 73 adults (female 49, Male 24). We also conducted routine checks on 84 children who ended up not requiring treatments and 313 children who did have treatments. We had 11 chairs. In total, we treated 231female, 189male. In the 4 days that we were there,  the team carried out 423 Extractions; 79Filling; 13Scaling; 04 fluorides and gave out 470 toothpaste and toothbrushes. After the treatment our team gave gifts like sticker, balloons, and color books were handed out to the children.

Medical work: De-worming 470patients, 55 nits and 30 nail clipping. The medical team was truly a partnership effort, led by One-2-One staff.  We involved the local women and spent time teaching them basic healthcare like  how to look after their children's hair, finger nails, deworming schedules etc . It was a relaxed but very fulfilling experience  - seeing the same mothers the next day and knowing how much they appreciated our support and understood the importance of being able to help/support their own families and friends through the basic skills they acquired made all our efforts worthwhile.

Sport/Game activities: Two English students (Sam and Dan) spent time with the local children playing soccer while they waited to see the dental team. They were also invited into the school, behind the community church, to teach the children English and also to play some fun games.

The week was focused on the needs of the local village and their people. We provided dental treatment dental education for all ages, basic health and hygiene education with hands-on experience of nail clipping, de-worming, nit treatment and hand washing. Being invited into the classrooms and playing and working with local children has given us opportunities to build relationships, trust and to reinforce the messages of hygiene and sport/exercise as being important to good health and prevention of illnesses.

Last day at work: At the end of the day our One-2-One staff organized a small party to thank the overseas team and Cambodian students for the hard work. We gave each of our visitors a certificate for their hard work with One-2-One. After the formalities were taken care of, the Cambodian students taught everyone some traditional Khmer dancing. It was a night of fun…a fitting conclusion to a successful mobile trip.