From 25-27 March 2016, Hospitals Beyond Boundaries brought a new group of volunteers to its 5th health screening trip to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Just as the previous trips had been unique in their own way, this time around, we had the privilege of having the Capital TV media crew and their sponsor, Cosmoderm, on board with us for a chance to appear in their reality TV show, “Misi Ihsan”.
Since the beginning, HBB takes pride in its group of volunteers that comprises of people from various professional backgrounds – medical personnel, event organisers and administration staff. Although its mission is to encourage volunteerism mainly among the youths, HBB succeeded in gathering twenty volunteers from 22 up to 38 years old. The diversified team left for Cambodia on the morning of 25 March 2016 and once landed in Phnom Penh, they headed straight from the airport to HBB clinic to get their training on how to use simple medical equipment to be used during the health screening. The Capital TV media crew wasted no time in filming the sequence of events that took place as the trip went by.
After a good half day rest, the group started out early and arrived at HBB Clinic at 7.50 AM to find several locals already waiting to have their free health screening. The program was arranged into five stations 1) The Registration counter, 2) Body mass index (BMI) measurement counter 3) vital signs , 4) Consultations, where medical doctors were waiting to give treatment on the visitors’ health issues and 5) Dispensary, where the visitors received their allotted medications if indicated by the attending doctor and children received their deworming syrup. With the help of the new ultrasound machine, we managed to detect a 28-week pregnancy in a lady who came with persistent abdominal pain, made an urgent referral to a tertiary hospital for a lady who had an incomplete miscarriage recently, and another referral to Urology for presence of renal stones.
At the end of consultation, aside from medications, visitors would receive a follow-up appointment to reassess their condition if necessary. Since only a small crowd of 47 people turned up for the event as the majority of the villagers were attending an important event taking place at the village mosque, the health screening campaign ended at 11 am with the presentation of COSMODERM skin care products by the CEO, Pn. Mawarni to all the volunteers.
After lunch, the group set out to a small area along the riverbanks of the Tonle Sap to visit some unfortunate boathouse residents. After being chased away from their original land to give way to the construction of a grand riverside hotel, several families were forced to live in boathouses by the river banks, lacking clean water and food supplies. To help ease their burden, the group handed out food packages, deworming syrup and Cosmoderm products to 19 selected families which included single mothers and old folks.
The sad environment in which the families were hindered to live in was an eye opener. The small community was a representation of the many sufferings that are happening around the world today, even in our home land, and inspired HBB to create more awareness on volunteerism among youths. After giving out the last hamper, the team reluctantly bade farewell to the families and prepared to have their last dinner as a team on a boat cruise along the Mekong River as per HBB tradition.
On the last day, the volunteers head out early for a historical visit to the Killing Fields as the last agenda for this trip before flying home. In conclusion, the trip was a success what with the teamwork displayed by the team the entire time. The group was initially gathered as strangers from different backgrounds but by the end of the trip, new friendship bonds were forged and were bound by experience shared together. Bright ideas and valuable feedbacks received from each volunteer proved to HBB that Malaysian youths were not as narrow minded as portrayed by the media but that they are strong willed and fuelled with burning passion to help the needy. Thanks to the collaboration with Capital TV and Cosmoderm, HBB hopes to reach out to more youths to be involved in volunteerism and grow alongside HBB in achieving its mission in making a difference for the humankind beyond boundaries.