Saturday, 11th August 2012 : The 6th Day of Cambodia Relief Mission '12

On the 11th of August we made our way to the second province which was Kampung Chhnang. The journey took about an hour from Phnom Penh and at about 8 o'clock in the morning, we arrived at Kampung Chhnang Friendship Clinic. 

Upon arrival we were surprised to see that the villagers were already flooding the clinic and little children were ready with their parents for the circumcision. We immediately set up the mobile clinic and arranged the setting for the circumcision. 

The villagers are waiting for their turn for consultation with IMAC doctors.

Setting up the dispensary.

Weight and height measurement station at mobile clinic.

With the help from IMAC doctors and medical students, we managed to cater for 411 villagers who came to seek medical help at the mobile clinic and circumcised 52 boys on that day. 

CRM members and IMAC medical students performing circumcision.

Despite the lack of proper facility, everyone was trying their best.

We had to pump the water from the nearest well to get water supply.

Other activities included were colouring contest and health hygiene practicals like teeth brushing and hand washing. Later on that day, we visited the well that has been built in that kampung with the donation money that we had collected earlier prior to the departure to Cambodia.

Teaching the children on how to brush their teeth.

Ketua kampung and IMAC leaders testing the newly built well donated by CRM'12

Happy villagers.

At about 4 in the afternoon, we packed up and set off for Phnom Penh for our next agenda which was a charity iftar organised by Cambodian Muslim Association at Modern Centre 5 and gave our donation for the waqaf land to support the education for Cambodian Muslim. The scrumptious local food served was so delightful and after the iftar we made our way to the mosque for tarawikh and later returned to our hotel at about 9.30 in the evening.

           

Can still managed a smile after a tiring day :)

Sumptuous iftar that really made our day.

Although it was a very hectic day, there were a lot of new things that we learnt on that that. It was a very valuable experience for all of us and for most of us, it was our first time using water from the well that we had to pump the water out manually by ourselves for cleaning purposes. Despite the blazing sun, everyone was still motivated till the very end with the spirit of Ramadhan. Hopefully everything that we learnt in this relief mission will make us a better person in the future, insyaAllah.

Thursday, 9th of August 2012: The 4th day of Cambodia Relief Mission ‘12

We departed as early as 6.30 this morning, heading first to the nearby mosque to meet up with other 15 IMAC volunteers as today was really our first day of carrying out the ‘3 combo’ i.e mobile clinics, khitan and health education/games simultaneously. Alhamdulillah, we were really grateful for the extra helping hands from the IMAC.

After almost an hour finalising and arranging things, 2 vans-full with volunteers and medicines left the mosque to head down to Krahom kor village. The journey which took about one and a half hour  brought us deep into a small village and as we went deeper, the road was no longer tarred and unpaved while the air was filled with dust whenever our vans and other motorcyclists passed by. The houses at the roadside were also very basic-yet looked peaceful while some were already a bit shattered. We knew that IMAC had chosen the right village.

We arrived at the village’s main mosque called Sultan Ashaibani Mosque at 9am and were welcomed by the villagers, eagerly waiting for us and we could also see some boys already wearing their ‘kain pelikat’ , getting ready for khitan. 

More and more villagers came from all walks of life

About 40 boys prepared for khitan. 1 somehow managed to escape at the end!Huhu

We quickly set up the place according to the 3 groups that we had been initially assigned to which were the mobile clinic, khitan and health education/games teams.  For khitan, we were given a room but with no electricity-no working fan and no lights. Still we managed to open 4 tables and there were mainly a total of 2 IMAM and IMAC volunteers for each table while others organized themselves into preparing the surgical equipments, ready-to-go local anaesthetic injections, preparing medicines and a lollipop to be given away to each boy.

                           THE bed.                         

Packaging painkillers & antibiotics

IMAM & IMAC volunteers working hand in hand as Tok (and Mak) Mudin ;)

As for mobile clinic, we opened 3 stations i.e registration & taking blood pressure, consultation with doctors and drugs dispensation counters.  Alhamdulillah as many as 235 villagers came for it. 

Chim lo’o: blood normal

Capet: doctor

Aw-kuhn: thank u :)

These were some of the basic Khmer words that we used to communicate with the Cambodians-along with other possible body languages we could think of just to get the message across.hehe

Paracetamol & multivitamin were the ‘hot stuffs’ at the drugs dispensation counter 

 

By noon, we had a short break to perform our Zohor prayer and a local family was very nice to allow the girls to perform the prayer at their own house. We also used the opportunity to go to a nearby village to buy some medicines as we ran out of them.

Getting to know the locals during our afternoon break

Some were intrigued by the iphone games.hehe

The other team had also managed to educate and cheer up the kids by teaching them how to brush their teeth and demonstrate proper hand wash.

Time for some games! :)

And colouring contest too

Not forgetting, some donations to the mosque and to the villagers

We hope that the visit had benefited all who came and what was given, taught and shared would go a long way. We were also honoured to have such a warm welcomed by the villagers and we sincerely apologized for any shortcomings. Wallahualam.