Medical relief trip in rural Cambodia

We are Zi Chuen and Delwyn, 2 medical students from Singapore going for a medical relief trip to rural Cambodia. The trip will be led and organised by International Medical Relief (IMR) and will take place in early August 2017. The upcoming trip will involve a team of medical professionals (doctors, nurses, dentists, etc.) and volunteers visiting the remote islands within the archipelago of the Thailand gulf (Koh Rong, Prek Suyh, Koh Tuk, etc.) to provide medical relief to these communities. Being entirely non-profit in nature, IMR relies on sponsorships and donations to continue their missions. We are therefore seeking your help in supporting the costs of the equipment and medications that we would be bringing to these people.

I had previously gone for medical mission trips to Cambodia, and saw first hand the struggles that besiege the rural people. Our clinic ran non-stop for 6 days, treating young and old alike. Adults were additionally given mosquito nets and every child received a “size-variable” shoe. While their medical problems are not complex, the isolated nature of their communities prevent the treatment of simple issues. Wounds that would be treated in an instant in a developed country are left untouched, infections that can be resolved with a simple course of antibiotics are allowed to fester. Obstetric care was practically non-existent. This trip therefore has 2 goals:

i) Acute health services: A free clinic would be set-up to diagnose and treat common conditions. The clinic includes a scaled-down laboratory, enabling blood and urine investigations to allow rapid testing for HIV/STDs, pregnancy-related complications, anaemia, malaria/other tropical diseases, etc. Furthermore, a wounds care station is set up to allow simple surgical procedures for the treatment of abscesses, lacerations, cysts, fractures, etc. A makeshift pharmacy for dispensing medications and an in-clinic ICU for acute resuscitation completes the clinic.

ii) Health education: This is critical for the people of these islands as many conditions can be prevented by simple lifestyle modifications - mosquito nets for malaria and dengue, safe-sex practices for HIV, hand hygiene for gastroenteritis, etc. Each clinic therefore runs classes focusing on disease prevention, women’s health, and nutrition throughout the day.

To get a better idea of what IMR does, I urge you to see their logs for their previous trips:

http://www.internationalmedicalrelief.org/medical-missions-blog-updates/cambodia-day-2/ (previous cambodia visit)

https://www.internationalmedicalrelief.org/medical-relief-news/ (other medical relief trips)

The video attached is from IMR's previous trip to Cambodia, the photos are from a similar trip conducted by IMR to Zambia.

We will log the running of the clinic throughout the medical trip and will post it here. We once again thank you for your help.