Project Lokun
Thursday, November 01, 2007
Our feature article for the first online issue of Pulse, the medfac magazine, coincidentally happens to be a first as well. Project Lokun is a pioneering medical humanitarian effort to help people living by the Tonle Sap lake in Pursat, Cambodia. It is organized entirely by medical people, ranging from m2s to HOs and established doctors. They have helped many but they hope more can be done. We take this opportunity to highlight the efforts of some of our very own medical students and hope to support and encourage more to join in doing meaningful volunteer work, be it here or overseas.Kevin Kok, an M3 pulse writer, reflects on his experiences and shares his worlds of thoughts:
" "Why help the poor in Cambodia when there are so many needy people in Singapore?"
My friend posed me the question when I was selling him postcards to raise funds for the trip. I was taken aback as I had never thought of it before and was surprised by such a question. I tried to convince him about the dire conditions in Cambodia and how we could help them. Nevertheless, the question remained, and to a certain extent I did agree with him. I told him that I would keep it in my mind during the trip, and hopefully I would be able to find some answers there.
And so, with purposeful hearts and a load full of eagerness, 18 medical students and 8 doctors embarked on our inaugural trip to Cambodia. Our mission: To provide sustainable healthcare to the poor villagers.
The first sight that greets you at Kampong Luon is that of filth and poverty. The stench that fills the air would wake you up from any coma. Children can be seen running about barefooted, clothed in disgustingly smelly and tattered attire, their every movement tracked by swarms of flies. Yet, amidst all their poverty, their greeting smiles warmed our hearts, melted any ice we had and bridged the air of alienism.
We were subsequently ushered into sampans, and ferried to the local floating church, where we conducted our clinics. En route, the murky algae filled waters of the Tongle Sap persuaded me to pray ceaselessly that our sampan would not capsize.
I was fascinated by the complexity of their Kampong. They had floating houses-cum-shops that sold daily necessities, cooked food, barbers and even a diesel kiosk. The Kampong was also well dissected into major and minor waterways, clearly demonstrating some form of urban planning. Thankfully, we had our trustworthy boatman who knew the Kampong inside-out, as a lack of street signs would definitely leave us stranded in the biggest lake in South-East Asia. Another sight to behold was that of the many sampans tugging floating homes towards the shore. Subsequently, I found out that they migrate in response to the changes in seasonal water levels.
I was fascinated by the complexity of their Kampong. They had floating houses-cum-shops that sold daily necessities, cooked food, barbers and even a diesel kiosk. The Kampong was also well dissected into major and minor waterways, clearly demonstrating some form of urban planning. Thankfully, we had our trustworthy boatman who knew the Kampong inside-out, as a lack of street signs would definitely leave us stranded in the biggest lake in South-East Asia. Another sight to behold was that of the many sampans tugging floating homes towards the shore. Subsequently, I found out that they migrate in response to the changes in seasonal water levels.
We were warmly welcomed by the local school children upon arrival at the church with melodious songs and great applause. This injected a steroid of enthusiasm into the running of the clinics. Throughout our two weeks of clinics, we provided consultation and symptomatic treatment to nearly 500 people in the region of Pursat and the nearby Chnok Thru village.
In addition to running clinics, we also educated the villages on topics such as hygiene and sanitation, dental care, sex education and dietary lifestyle. We were much encouraged by their receptiveness and intelligence, especially the school children. To ensure continuity, we conducted an intensive health facilitator course for a selected few who will continue to educate the villagers in our absence.
I fondly remember an occasion when we were putting up a health education skit for a group of adolescents. At the end of the day, they volunteered to re-enact the skit, adding more humor and realism to our original script. Most importantly, they kept reminding one another of the hygiene practices we taught them. Through this incident, it dawned on me that we had the power to tangibly influence the lives of the youths and inculcate good health practices and values to them. With their youthful exuberance, they would spread our message.
In many community projects, participants would leave feeling a sense of achievement having built a school or dug a well. Unfortunately, we left the villages feeling more helpless and dejected. We felt extremely inadequate in dealing with the chronic problems that plague the poor in Cambodia. We were left baffled by the dire state of the government hospitals, the inappropriately priced medications for the poor and the countless obstacles we encountered from their government just so that we could provide aid.
In future trips, we intend to find avenues to provide sustainable clean water, develop a system of referrals for chronic illnesses that can be sustained in our absence and to expand on our health education and primary prevention resources. We believe that the key to the sustainability and success of our project would be primary prevention and a good referral system for chronic illnesses.
Through this trip, I discovered a new desire in me- a desire to solve the chronic crises of the health care system in Cambodia. This would probably be an ambitious and impossible task for many; but to me, not even attempting to do so would be more devastating than failure in itself.
Our project has taken one small step in helping the Cambodians. However, many more leaps are required to improve the lives of the needy in Cambodia. Many of us would be returning to Cambodia this December for Project Lokun Two. The long-term success of this project though, will depend on continued support from our community. We desperately require new blood, passionate people who can inject fresh ideas, and most importantly, leaders to spearhead the project in the near future.
And finally, in response to the conundrum: I know that there will always be needy people, locally and abroad, who require our help. But after this trip, I have come to realize that the most precious gift is that of sacrifice. A sacrifice of sweat, tears and love. The surrender of one's self for the cause.
And I have found my cause: to devote myself to the needy in Cambodia.
Have you?
