We are a charity called Connect with Cambodia, and each year a team of people go over to Cambodia to run pop up medical clinics. We go to some of the poorest areas in the city of Phnom Penh, as well as out in very rural and remote areas all around Cambodia.
Each year the team is made up of nurses and doctors from around Australia. We are a team dedicated to improving the quality of life for Cambodians who are living in severe poverty. We aim to provide health education and promotion, as well as practical help to improve the welfare and well being for Cambodian families.
Our goal is to raise $30,000 so we can run extensive medical clinics, participate in delousing days, provide education on women’s hygiene and dental care, and provide water filters and mosquito nets to prevent water and mosquito borne diseases. We often visit a few orphanages, providing toiletries, as well as providing health checks to the orphans.
We are all self funded in our flights and accommodation, and we rely on donations for everything we do. Every cent and every donation we are given goes directly to the medications and medical supplies needed for the medical clinics, which go directly to the Cambodian people.
Many rural Cambodian people work in rice fields, and the suns reflection off the water, causes damage to their eyes. Each year we collect spectacles and sunglasses, which we will take over and distribute to those who have poor vision, and to help prevent pterygiums.
Currently most of the children we see already have some teeth rotten right to the gum. Many of these teeth are the children’s adult teeth. Pain and infection often results. Not to mention, when these children are adults, they will be missing many teeth.
For this reason, providing dental hygiene supplies and education to children on how to clean their teeth is very important to Connect with Cambodia. Each year we collect toothbrushes and toothpaste, which we distribute to every child in the villages we visit.
Each trip we easily see over 3000 people in 10-11 clinics, treating wounds, burns, broken bones, ear infections, coughs and colds, aches and pains, gastrointestinal upsets, and many more. We support the ongoing medication for a few children who require antiepileptic medications, and a child with chronic asthma, and each year we often pay for a number of Cambodians to have desparately needed surgery, such as a little girl we met in 2016 who had a hole in her heart. So even when we are not in Cambodia, we are continuing to support these Cambodians with medical conditions that are not going to be fixed in our short trip.
Only with the ongoing support and donations from the generous people of Australia can we continue to provide this vital work. Every donation is a blessing, and from all of us at Connect with Cambodia, we say Thank You.