Wings of Hope Education Center
Location: Turkana County, Kenya
Global Partner: Luena Foundation
Local Partner: Turkana Community Foundation, Lodwar Kenya
Project Description: Construct school toilets with modern septic tank
Project Year 2024
Turkana tribe’s ancestral lands are located West of Turkana Lake in northwest Kenya. For centuries the Turkanas have led a nomadic life, moving from place to place in search of fodder and water for their livestock. Even though education is free in Kenya, it is a challenge to establish schools to serve the children of the nomadic Turkana. Most government schools are not readily accessible to the children of nomadic families. To address this challenge, the Turkana Community Foundation (TFC) was established and registered as a community-based organization in 2015 with one of its missions to make education available to the local children.
The Turkana Community Foundation established a one-room classroom called “Wings Of Hope Education Center” in Kanamkemer. Kanamkemer ward of Turkana County is ranked among the poorest counties in Kenya. Kanam ward has approximately 50,000 people, with the majority being young children. Most residents live a nomadic lifestyle, and children routinely drop out of school to search for pasture for their livestock.
The Wings of Hope Education Center initially provided only preschool education in a one-room school. The students sat on the floor. This early education, like a pre-K, was so successful that with the financial support of The Luena Foundation and Sumar Lakhani Foundation, an additional classroom was constructed to provide Grade 1 education. Both enrollment and attendance went up substantially when the primary Grade 1 was offered in the newly built classroom equipped with desks gifted by our partner The Luena Foundation and lunches provided by Mary Meals.
Click Here to Read the Full Report
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Bulidling Homes for Flood Victims
Location: Dadu, Sindh Pakistan
US Partner: Relief and Rehab Asia Inc.
Global Partner: The Pravalli Welfare Trust, Pakistan
Project Description: Build Flood resistant homes of flood vistims
Project Year 2024
What happened?
The floods in Pakistan in 2022 submerged one-third of the country, affecting millions of people. Sindh in the south, received 450 percent more rain than normal. With flood basins saturated with water, the natural drainage system was overwhelmed and a vast area of farmland and human settlements was devastated. Local and International agencies rushed in to provide temporary shelter, food, water and healthcare.
Flood victims
Those displaced families whose homes remained standing later started returning to their villages. However, in remote parts of the Sindh Province, homes are traditionally made of mud and straw. According to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), some 20.36 million people have been affected by the floods, with over 1.9 million houses damaged or destroyed. Many dwellings were completely washed out and the residents had nowhere to go even 2 years after the floods. Housing for these flood victims will require funding and procurement of shelter and construction materials on an unprecedented scale. The Sumar Lakhani Foundation in partnership with the Pravelli Welfare Fund of Pakistan have initiated the building of one room and a kitchen for the homeless families in Dadu in Sindh. Preference is given to widows with small children still living in tents and temporary shelters made of wood and grass, followed by disabled men who cannot earn. These homes are being built on a solid foundation with brick/block walls to be able to withstand another major flood.
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Epilepsy Center
Nagabu Chikwawa District, Malawi
Local Partner: Chifundo Epilepsy Foundation Malawi
International Partner: Luena Foundation
Project Year: 2024
This project in Malawi was in partnership with the Chifundo Epilepsy Foundation and the Luena Foundation. The funds were used to complete the five-room building to treat patients, a school room and a safe house. The nearest secondary school is 18km away. The community has made 40,000 bricks, sold half of them and used the funds to purchase cement and other supplies to start the construction of the community Center. The community members provided all labor to date. This grant was used for windows, doors, plastering, and completion of the floor.
Chifundo reports on the opening and expected impact on the Nagabu Chihwawa Community
July 2024
We greatly appreciate Luena Foundation and Sumar Lakhani Foundation for your commitment and generosity towards transforming our rural community. We had no secondary school, Epilepsy clinic and safe room. People Including children women and elderly had to walk 18 kilometers to access these, but now it is a different story. With greater and much Donation from Luena Foundation and Sumar Lakhani Foundation, we built this in two months just like dreaming. The school is now ready to open on the next term, on 16 September, 2024 targeting 100 kids. And we look forward to having further opportunities for desks or chairs which we further appeal for your ongoing support. Children can't wait on 16 September to start attending their classes.
An Epilepsy Clinic is now in use as hundreds of children battling Epilepsy are accessing their free medication which have been provided by Luena Foundation near them and once gaining their milestone of seizures free, they will attend the school on the same campus.
Yours faithfully,
Chifundo Petro.
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Solar Lights and water pump
Location: Hingoroja Sind Province
US Partner: Relief and Rehab Asia Inc.
Global Partner: The Pravalli Welfare Trust, Pakistan
Project Description: Install Solar Lights and a community water well
Project Year 2024
Hingoroja is located in the Sindh province of Pakistan. It is a low-lying region at the same elevation as the sea level with an average temperature of 93F. It receives less than 0.7 in rain a year. This area is inhabited by the Hingorja or Hingorjo (Sindhi: هنگورجو) a Sindhi Muslim tribe. They are one of several communities of pastoral nomads found in the Banni region of Kutch. There is no nationally built electrical power grid in this region because the tribes are geographically isolated. With so little rainfall each year, access to a reliable source of water supply can be challenging. One asset of this region is the fact that there are clear skies for about 95% of the days each year.
Deep Water Well Pumped by Solar Panels
The Sumar Lakhani Foundation partnered with US-based RRAI and the Pravelli Welfare Trust of Pakistan to install solar lights in ten homes in Hingoroja, Sind Province. Additionally, the Pravelli Welfare Trust installed solar panels to operate a submersible deep well pump to provide a steady source of water to the Hingorjo community and their livestock.
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Cleft Palate Surgeries
Location: Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia
Partner: Smile Train
Project Description: Provide Ten Cleft Surgeries
Project Year: 2024
Field Report by Ruth Monalisa
The outreach program in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara Province operated on 22 children to repair cleft palate. These surgeries were performed at St. Carolos Borromeus Hospital in Kupang. Many more children are in need of this life changing surgery. However, many challenges due to the remoteness of the islands of Indonesia as well as limited resources limits the number of patients that can be treated.
Susannah Shafer, CEO of Smile Train wrote
“We recently heard from a hospital in Indonesia where over 20 children received new smiles! Your donations made that incredible work possible, but there are still 446 children in Indonesia alone who are waiting to receive their life-changing treatment.. To help address these children waiting for their turn to have life-changing cleft treatment, we are turning to generous donors like you - members of our Premier Circle.”
Our grant will provide ten cleft surgeries in Kupang, Indonesia.
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Solar pumps Tharparker
Location: Tharparker Desert SE Pakistan
US Partner: Relief and Rehab Asia Inc.
Global Partner: The Pravalli Welfare Trust, Pakistan
Project Description: Install Solar Wells in the Thar Desert, Part II
Project Year 2024
While the soil in the Tharparker desert is fertile, the lack of reliable water supply poses a huge challenge for the roughly 1.5 million residents. Traditionally, the villagers rely on digging water wells for access to water. However, the water table is receding rapidly and the villagers need to dig much deeper wells. In some villages, the wells are so deep that it takes a whole team of women to lift just a bucket of water.
Manually operated Deep well
The Sumar Lakhani Foundation in partnership with RRAI and the Pravelli Foundation completed a few solar pumps in 2023. There are over two thousand villages spread all over the Tharparker desert. To meet the needs of additional villagers more solar pumps were installed to supply drinking water as well as water for domestic animals and farms.
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Bright Future School
Masoka, Tanzania
Local Partner: Attorney Timothy Massawe
International Partner: Luena Fondation
Project Description: Complete School Building and construct Toilets
Project Year: 2024
Need for Toilets
Please find the attached files for Masoka Public School. It is a government school with over 800 pupils. The school does not have toilet facilities and the ones they are using are too old and risk for the kids because they are pit latrine. Imagine the risk of the rain. In Tanzania some of the old toilets have collapsed,we recently witnessed the collapse of the Kirima toilets due to heavy rain. The government has discouraged the pit latrines in schools for that reason.
The school needs new toilets. We came up with the plan of building 8 toilets, urinal trough for the boys, and a changing or sanitary room for girls. The cost of building this toilet as you can see from the cost breakdown is 24,592,240.
The school together with the community have committed to raise 4500,000 equivalent to $ 2,000. We are looking for $8,000 to build the toilets now.
Pre-Existing School Toilets
History of Bright Future School
Bright Future School is a bridge for low-income families and unprivileged children from a very poor background by offering a good quality education in a safe and conducive learning environment. Bright Future School has started from Nursery up to Primary level with a limited number of students per class in order to give them proper education. With the new and clean environment, both the pupils and teachers are given proper environment to work comfortably and efficiently. Our school helps the families in a very poor background by offering scholarship. Teachers get proper continual training to update their skills in order to improve the understanding of the students in general.
With the accessibility of the different activities and school materials, students have discovered their talents and potential learn effectively. The school offers different activities to expand their knowledge through the use of technology like watching educational movies and science experiments which the public schools cannot offer. Extra-curricular activities are available for the students to develop their interests and skills. Children get the proper nutrition as the school provides the balance diet for the children as the school grows vegetable and fruits around the school compound.
Need for more Classrooms
Since its establishment in January 2022, the number of students from different backgrounds has increased hence the need to add more classrooms. The two classrooms under construction will serve approximately 60.
The school began in January 2022 with 24 students in 2 classrooms. There are now 70 students of which majority are from the underprivileged families who are being sponsored by the school thanks to generous sponsors. There are additional students who have applied to Bright Future for 2024 but there is currently insufficient space to accommodate them. If completed, the 2 new classrooms under construction would satisfy growing demand by serving approximately 60 new students by 2024 (for a total of 130 students).
Should the additional classrooms not be completed in due course, the existing 2 classrooms will be overcrowded and next year the school will be unable to move students to their required level of grade two and three. This would be a lost opportunity to serve the majority of students in need, especially those from underprivileged families. Thus, Bright Future urgently needs funding to complete the 2 classrooms.
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Health Clinic Hubs
Northern Uganda
Local Partner: One Day Health
Project Year 2023
Our OneDay Health management, nurses and board express our heartfelt thanks to the Lakhani foundation for your amazing commitment to our work here Uganda. Your support in 2022 went towards launching 3 health centers in our West Lango hub, which opened in late 2021. West lango is a moderately populated area, between our base of Gulu and the hubs of Lira and Soroti. We launched these three health centers in Atana, Chakali and Te Ogali with your resources. This report will highlight the work and achievements of these three facilities.
The West Lango hub
ODH Overall Impact
OneDay Health provides the only available comprehensive, high quality primary healthcare in 38 remote rural Ugandan communities. We save lives through accurate treatment of dangerous conditions like malaria, and provide financial freedom through saving
communities money on transport costs and buying medication. Our key impact measures and achievements over the last 5 years are summarized here.
Atana OneDay
Atana was the second health center launched in the West Lango hub, and is the closest to the hub center, around 15 kilometers away from the town of Aduku. The health center is
based in a medium sized center, with a densely populated surrounding community of around 8200 people based on our online hut count. Santo Christ has been a committed and
energetic nurse there since it first opened, and has treated 2203 patient to date. Atana has treated 110 patients for childhood diarrhea, which is high compared with other ODH health centers. Numbers of monthly patients seen Atana have fluctuated greatly as you can see on the graphic below. The first few months of 2023 have seen an encouraging increase in
patient turnup, with 274 patients treated in March during a swell of malaria in the area, with 164 patients treated for the disease that month.
Community Meeting at the opening of Atana ODH
Chakali OneDay
We launched Chakali in late August 2022, with nurse Nancy Hope managing the facility and
treating the community for 7 months, treating 1043 patients in that time. She serves a mixed remote community community of around 5000 fishermen and farmers, as the facility lies
close to the Victoria Nile. Although there is a health center 6 km away on a marram road,
the large area to the south of the facility is underserved, with some villages up to 15km away from the nearest health facility – which is now Chakali. In recent months she has educated
the community about the benefits of family planning, after no patients accessed family planning for the first two months. She has now provided short term family planning to 21
women and we are excited to see this important service grow. Nancy faces many challenges of misinformation about disease and healthcare. Some patients who have a fever but test negative for malaria don’t understand how the test could be negative, as malaria is the only disease they know. At times then it can be hard to convince people to accept treatment for the conditions that are really causing their fever, such as urine infections and typhoid.
Nancy Hope poses for the camera with the facility outpatient book!
Te Ogali
Omara Bonny Okello has operated Te Ogali OneDay Health Center since February 2022 when it was opened ,soon after Atana. Although the catchment area is smaller than many other facilities, the surrounding fertile area is densely populated with around 7500 people. Since opening the health center has treated 1974 outpatients, and like Atana has seen an increase in patient numbers this year, partly related to a huge spike of malaria in the area. One area where nurse Omara has made a huge impact is in pneumonia treatment, especially in
children. He has treated 192 people for pneumonia, a condition more deadly that malaria, which is the most of any health center in the hub. At first we thought this might be due to over prescription, but hub manager Simon confirmed that Omara’s treatment practices were excellent. We aren’t sure why there is so much pneumonia here, but we have hypothesized
that it may be related to the higher density population where there more potential to share germs, and living conditions more cramped than other areas with many children often
sharing one hut.
Nurse Bonny takes the medical history from a mother
We are excited to see what the future holds for Atana, Chakali and Te Ogali. Again we express our deep gratitude not only for your large donations, but also for your enthusiasm you have expressed for the work of OneDay Health in the few conversations that we have had. I hope that this brief report helps you to get a better picture of the fruits of your donations here in Uganda. Feel free to follow up with any questions or comments that you might have and I look forward to talking with you again soon.
Dr. Nicolas Laing
Co-Founder and Country Director of OneDay Health
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Bolifamba School Hygiene and Sanitation Facilities
Cameroon
May 2023
Local Partner: Action for Change
Project Proposal for Funding to Luena Foundation & Sumar Lakhani Foundation
Project title: Quality education, hygiene and Sanitation project
Location of Project: St Veronique nursery and primary school Bolifamba
Requesting organization: Action for change (AFC)
- E-mail Address: actionchange07gmail.com
- Tel: (+237) 675936947/653306947
- Website: www.actionchangeafc.org Brief history of the organization:
Action for change (AFC) is a non-profit, non-political, non-governmental but a development driven organization which started in 2012 as an informal voluntary group. It was later constituted and registered on November 19, 2015 with Registration No: 039/D14/5/871. The goal of AFC is to empower and sustainably improve the living conditions and the environment of children, women, vulnerable youths and disadvantaged rural and indigenous forest communities in marginalized southwest English speaking region of Cameroon with focus on holistic education, community development, water, hygiene and sanitation, environmental protection and the promotion of livelihood initiative for poverty alleviation and economic autonomy for the less privilege. Our policy of participatory approach drives our actions. We strive to maintain fairness, equity and no discrimination on the basis of sex, tribe, origin, race or religion.
Some of our recent achievements include: Widow’s vegetable garden project for better health, hygiene and sanitation project in Mombo primary school, enhancing education, hygiene and sanitation project in Soppo primary school, library project in Bolifamba secondary school, maize farming project in Bulu village community, vulnerable girls baking project in Bomaka village community, Health Education project in inter-comprehensive high school, Muea primary school project, Kombo community primary school hygiene and sanitation projects, Ndongo primary school project and Dibanda community primary school project, Ebamuke nursery and primary school project, Renovation of a toilet facility and extension of safe drinking water project at Millennium educational foundation nursery & primary school. Currently we are establishing 500 birth certificate to 500 IDPs children in six primary schools in Buea and Tiko community. This project is sponsored by Luena foundation and Global pearl.
Our partners include The Luena Foundation (USA), World Connect (USA), One World Foundation
(Bulgaria), Purley Overseas Trust (POST) in UK, Share Institute (USA), The Pollination Project (USA), Peartree Development Fund (UK), Rome 1% Development Fund (Italy), Harbinson Charitable Trust (UK), Trust 2000 (UK), Kitchen Table Charities Trust (UK), The Mercury Phoenix Trust (UK), Andrews Foundation(USA), Earth rising foundation (USA), All Sky foundation (USA), One World Fund (Ireland),
Students for Children (Netherland), Kootje Foundation (Netherland), Port Authority Douala (PAD) and EPENJA Development fund. We also collaborate with local administrative authorities, other NGOs and Community Based Organizations and have a cordial relationship with indigenous groups we seek to serve as well as with other stakeholders in development
The initiators of the project:
The local community are the initiators of the project through the management of the school (Parent
Teacher Association and the school administration). We receive their appeal letter for assistance on the
18th of November 2022. Among the numerous problems face by St Veronique nursery & primary school Bolifamba, the need for a toilet facility, safe drinking water, wash hand facilities and access to text books and other basic school materials remains a top priority in the school for the benefit of poor, needy and internally displace children attending the school.
The present situation that the project seeks to improve:
Quality education, hygiene and Sanitation project is located in St Veronique nursery and primary school in Bolifamba village community. Bolifamba community is a typical slum community in the south west region of Cameroon, with above 95% of households living below the UN poverty line. The community has a growing population of over 7000 inhabitants who are poor peasant farmers with very low income. Women and children constitute a greater majority of the population. Bolifamba village community is considered as one of the poorest communities in Buea sub-division and a host community for thousands of internally displaced persons, who have fled from other parts of the region affected by war or insecurity. Their living conditions are very deplorable as families have to manage a single room for survival. Those mostly affected are women and children who have fled into the village for the safety and education of their children. In most communities in the south west just like Bolifamba rebels are in support of community schools against government schools. This is the main reason why in most schools children come with assorted dresses without wearing uniforms.
St. Veronique nursery & primary school is one the primary schools in the community, which is being attended by very poor and needy children, aged 4-12 years, many of whom are orphans, girls and internally displaced children whose parents/guidance cannot afford fees in other schools in the community. Indeed, the establishment of the school has facilitated school attendance for school going age children who had no access before, especially the less privileged children. A total of 286 pupils attend St Veronique nursery & primary school Bolifamba, of which we have 172 girls and 114 boys based on the head teacher. The school is managed by the poor peasant community (Parent Teacher Association & the school administration), who are doing their best to ensure these children have access to education by struggling to raise funds to pay six (6) teachers employed to teach in the school.
The poor peasant community and the management of the school is unable to raise enough funds to construct a toilet facility and provide safe drinking water at the school for poor, needy and internally displaced children attending the school. Presently the school has no toilet facility and kids are advised to empty their bowels at home.
The absence of a toilet facility and safe drinking water in school has caused many children to defecate in nearby farms, corridors and pavements. Some defecate on their body, especially the very young, thus making the school environment nasty and unconducive for learning. Children sometimes abandon lessons in search of the precious liquid, water some 1.5km away from the school. This is affecting the teaching learning process in school negatively. Children end up drinking contaminated water used by domestic animals around the school campus.
Going to nearby farms to defecate also exposes the pupils to the risk of being bitten by a snake. The poor hygiene and sanitation and lack of potable water in school have often resulted in water related diseases like diarrhea and cholera. From our need assessment, there is the possibility of extending safe drinking water to this school as a water scheme already exists which is situated about 1.5km from the school.
Equally, 90% of children (mostly orphans, girls and internally displaced children) attending St Veronique nursery and primary school don’t have basic school items. It is common to see kids in class with just a single exercise book serving three different subjects with no pen, no text book, no pencil or eraser. Some come to school without an exercise book or a pen to write with, due to poverty. This has made teaching and learning difficult to both pupils and teachers at St Veronique nursery and primary school.
It is against this premise that Action for change intends to seek a long-lasting solution to the above problems by constructing a gender sensitive pit latrine of four compartments, extend safe drinking water, provide drinking cups, buckets and provide text books and other didactic materials at St. Veronique nursery and primary school. The drinkable cups and buckets will help to avoid scrambling around the tap to drink directly from it and hence ensure the long term sustainability of the tap heads. Along with the construction of the latrines and supply of safe drinking water to the school, classes on personal hygiene will be carried out to spread awareness on water-related diseases.
Justification of the project:
The project is needed as it will enhance education in St. Veronique nursery and primary school through the provision of different text books and didactic materials in school Also, the project is necessary because it will enhance hygiene and sanitation at St. Veronique nursery and primary school, thus reducing the rate at which poor, needy and internally displaced children attending St. Veronique nursery and primary school contract water related diseases like cholera and diarrhea due to poor hygiene and sanitation. With the availability of safe drinking water in school, children will now concentrate on their lessons instead of abandoning classes in search of the precious liquid (water) some kilometers away from school. More so, the project is necessary because children will now defecate in a constructed latrine than in pavement or corridors.
The Aim and Objectives of the Project:
The aim of the project is to enhance education through the provision of different text books and other didactic materials, eliminating all forms of preventable diseases and deaths resulting from poor hygiene and sanitation and drinking of contaminated water through the construction of a gender sensitive toilet and extension of safe drinking water at St. Veronique nursery and primary school. The specific objectives of the project are:
• To construct a gender sensitive sanitary pit latrine;
• To extend safe drinkable water to the school;
• To reduce the incidence of cholera outbreak in the school community due to poor hygiene and sanitation;
• To eliminate bad ordour and ensure a conducive learning environment in the school.
• To provide access to textbooks and other basic vital school materials;
• To donate basic school items to vulnerable and needy children attending St. Veronique nursery and primary school;
• To enhance the teaching learning process in St. Veronique nursery and primary school.
Expected Outcome of the Project:
The following outcomes are expected to be achieved at the end of the project:
• Pupils will learn in free polluted atmosphere;
• Incidence of pupils going to defecate in streams and nearby farms prevented;
• Bad and unpleasant smell emanating from school campus stopped;
• Interruption of lessons in search of drinkable water stopped;
• The possibility of cholera outbreak and other water related diseases reduced;
• To provide access to textbooks and other important basic school materials to 286 pupils and their six teachers;
• Basic school materials donated to less privileged children attending St. Veronique primary school;
• General academic performance improves.
Beneficiaries of the project:
The direct beneficiaries of the project are 286 poor and needy children attending St. Veronique nursery and primary school and their six (06) teachers. Indirectly the project will benefit over 2000 people most of whom are parents/guardians of these poor and needy children attending St. Veronique nursery and primary school. Also, the project will benefit the future generation of the school.
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Dental Mission to Serve the Syrian Refugee Children in Lebanon
October 2022
The University at Buffalo Miles for Smiles program is a bi-annual mission aimed at delivering free dental care and education to Syrian refugees. Under the leadership of Dr. Othman Shibly, Miles for Smiles is training volunteers and teachers at refugee camps in Lebanon to perform basic education and oral health care.
Since the Syrian crisis began in 2011 Miles for Smiles has provided treatment for thousands of Refugees through the medical mission in Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon.
Dr. Dilshad Sumar- Lakhani, a board member for Miles for Smiles Organization went on a humanitarian mission to Beirut, Lebanon. This is her second trip to Beirut. The humanitarian mission took place Oct. 6-14. 20 volunteers from across the United States, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Syria participated in this program. We provided care to more than a 1000 children in low-income families at three schools in Lebanon, as well as children at three Syrian refugee camps in the country.
These beautiful children stood in line to get their dental work without any complaints. It was heartwarming to see these children who lived in tents and had just the basic necessity in life were laughing and cooperative. This made our work easier.
Here are some photos of our team, how we worked in the school and some housing of the refugees.
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Delivering Dentalcare in the Mountains of Hunza
May 2022
A group of Dentists under the umbrella of the Agakhan Health Services chaired by Dr. Amir Lallani went to Gilgit and Hunza to take care of the dental needs of the children in the schools in the remote area.
The participating dentists were Dr. Faisal Hashwani, originally from Pakistan but practicing at the AHS in Tanzania. Dr. Yasmin Shamji who donated the dental clinic in Gilgit and myself.
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The Dental team from Canada, Tanzania, and USA landed in Islamabad A commuter plane took us through the Pamir mountains into Gilgit. We were lucky that the weather was good and that the planes flew otherwise we would have had to make a 12-hour car ride to Gilgit.
We went to schools and children from kindergarten to 12th grade received preventive dental work and extractions if needed. They also received Oral Hygiene Instructions.
At the Jutial Dental Clinic which was donated by Dr. Shamji, we met Dr. Waqar and Dr. Nina. Announcements were made in the respective Jamatkhanas and members of the community and their friends and neighbors came to the clinic for their children’s preventive work.
Delivering dental care on the Tonle Sap River and Lake in Cambodia
It all begins with an idea.
August 2022
Tonlé Sap is a 'Great River of Freshwater' or 'Great Lakes' and is a blend of the lake and river systems in Tonle Sap and Mekong areas of Cambodia as Southeast Asia's largest freshwater lake and an important point of biodiversity.
Cambodians live along the river and on the lake, they have floating villages. Access to the town of Siem Reap along the river is either a long ride by tuk tuk or a donkey cart. On the lake, Cambodians travel on canoes to the land and then on land by different means of travel.
Health care is delivered to the inhabitants by an NGO- The Lake Clinic (TLC). People needing medical services travel by boat to TLC hub which is a boat located on the river and another boat located on the Lake. Patients come to the hub for medical treatment mostly in their canoes.
Tonle Sap Lake
Rivers Flowing into Tonle Sap Lake
In August, I had an opportunity to take care of the dental needs of the school children in the schools along the Tonle Sap river and the schools on the floating village.
This is how it worked
The staff of TLC in Siem Reap loads up the van with all supplies including kitchen supplies and we drove to the banks of the river where we loaded up the supplies on a canoe and headed to our House Boat Hub
Loading and Unloading the Van for the trip to the River
House Boat for the Staff
The next step is to put our dental supplies on our canoe and tread the water of the river to the designated school where we put up shop in one of the classrooms.
There were two Cambodian dentists Dr. Nassa and Dr. Sambho on our team and me. We treated students who came into our makeshift clinic from different classrooms and we applied SDF on ALL carious teeth and Fluoride Varnish. We also extracted root tips and abscessed teeth.
This kind of work continued for 2 other schools. We headed back in the evening to our TLC hub, had dinner, and set up our sleeping quarters under the mosquito nets on our boat and lights out at 8 pm.
Demonstrating the Application of SDF and Treating Children on the Boat
We worked for 3 days and spent 2 nights in our Stationary Houseboat and then headed back to Siem Reap. Downloaded our equipment and the staff went home and I went to my hotel.
Week 2, the adventure was on the lake. The lake is about 2 hours driving distance from Siem Reap. We had the same setup on the Lake. Our own houseboat which served as our Hub. At the Hub, the patients come for their medical treatment from their floating homes..
We set up the school desks for our treatment. One by one the patients came in for the application of SDF and Fluoride varnish. We did some extractions as well.
In total with 2 dentists and 2 assistants, we saw 345 patients in 4 days.
Dr. Thourida Hun a physician came with us to the school and floating villages. She was such a sport that she learned how to diagnose dental decay and abscesses and applied SDF on carious teeth. She was a great help to the dental team.
Lunch and Dinner for the Staff on the boat House
Children Going to School in Canoes
