After three days of exhausting dental treatment at PIO school Stung Meanchey, the Dental team celebrate with the kids.
KIDS KIDS INTERNATIONAL DENTAL SERVICES
Saturday, 3 April 2010
Friday, 2 April 2010
Thursday, 1 April 2010
Just World International
A major and Important player in Cambodia.
At PIO, Just World funds and supports two schools, Stung Mean Chey at a municipal garbage dump and Borey Keila in an urban slum in Phnom Penh. These outreach centers target extremely poor families and children who otherwise have almost no resources. Public schools in Cambodia are inaccessible to the poorest families as students not only have to provide their uniforms and school materials but also pay each teacher they receive lessons from everyday.JustWorld partner PIO serves more than 800 children a day through a variety of programs that goes beyond formal and nonformal education to include vocational training. Through these programs, PIO provides some of the most vulnerable women and children in Cambodia with hope for the future. Through JustWorld and the generous support of Ciaran and Bernie Herr, PIO has launched a beauty salon vocational training program for teenage girls from the urban slums in Phnom Penh. This project teaches beautician skills, as well as business management and English, empowering impoverished teenage girls with valuable job training. In the past two years, fifteen young women have graduated from the program, many successfully obtaining employment at nearby salons upon graduation. The beauty school’s funding ends in 2009, and JustWorld aspires to attract new funding to maintain the program until it can be self-sustaining through the professional services of the students. Helping Just World will help the kids at PIO continue their education and push forward to a better life for themselves and future generations. Check out their site today.
Tuesday, 30 March 2010
The PIO School gets a facelift.
Courtesy of JOTUN PAINTS and Volunteers from the Canadian International School, Singapore
A hard days work was put in applying the paints donated to PIO by Jotun Paints of Singapore. The work started early preparing the walls and getting rid of the old paint and when the volunteers had figured out how to get into these industrial size paint cans the work began in earnest. Most of the paint was going on the walls but the voluteers and the children helping them were changing color also, white, Green and Yellow the colors of the PIO school. The redecoration was rapidly taking shape with the hard work of the vounteers and the kids from the school helping alongside.
The look of of pride in the kids eyes was something to behold, this is our school and they were sweating to get the job done.
Phymean Noun, Executive Director of PIO can be seen here with Ingrid Remijn-Giesselink the wife of the man who had arranged the generous donation of paints and materials from JOTUN.
Phymean and the pupils of PIO's thanks go out to JOTUN and all the people who made this possible, '' it means so much to the children to have a nice, clean and colorful place to go to school and I am sure that it will help them study''.
This was another true vision of the spirit of international cooperation, Norway, Canada, Cambodia, England, America and others all working together for the future of the kids at PIO. This could be best seen in the children who didn't need much language to spontaneously begin playing games together, their spirit of cooperation knows no language or cultural boudaries, they are just kids, and kids are the same the world over.
Everyone, including Phymean was putting their muscle to the task and wanting to get the new look for the school finished so classes could start once again.
'' The children are so eager to learn and deserve a decent place to start and continue this process which will hopefully lead them to a better future than working on a garbage dump. Education is the way forward for the future of these kids and of Cambodia''.
TO HAVE IS TO EARN TO LEARN IS TO KNOW
A Egg to keep the Doctor Away.
In UK the old saying,''an Apple a day keeps the Doctor away'', has been adopted here in Cambodia for the children of the PIO school, but using eggs and a daily multivitamin suppliment tablet.
An egg is one of the most nutritious food items in our diet. It is rich in minerals, proteins, and vitamins, all of which are easily absorbed by the body.
Vitamin Content of Eggs: Eggs are rich in vitamin B, especially vitamin b12, vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin E and vitamin K. It should be noted that very few food items that contain vitamin D, egg being one of them.
Protein Content of Eggs: An egg is composed of about 11% proteins. Further it contains all the amino acids necessary for body metabolism. This makes eggs an essential part of the diet of those who wish to increase weight and build muscles. Most of the proteins are concentrated in the white part of the egg, known as albumin (albumen) or egg white.
Egg White and Egg Yolk: There are two essential parts of an egg; the albumen or the white part and the yolk or the yellow part. The yolk is suspended in the albumin and contains about 80% of the calories and almost all fats present in the egg. It contains vitamin A, D, E and K and minerals such as iron, calcium, and phosphorus. The egg albumen mostly contains water and proteins.
Health Benefits of Eggs: The nutritional value of eggs makes it good for immunity, strong vision, treatment of macular degeneration, cataract treatment, skin care, nervous system, strong bones, and blood formation. Recent research has also shown that consuming eggs does not lead to increase in serum cholesterol levels.
Eggs are also a good source of essential minerals such as calcium, iron,phosphorus, zinc and iodine. When it comes to calories, a medium sized egg has about 75-76 kcal.
The teachers at the school tell me they have noticed a significant increase in physical and mental performance since the introduction of this program.
Protein Content of Eggs: An egg is composed of about 11% proteins. Further it contains all the amino acids necessary for body metabolism. This makes eggs an essential part of the diet of those who wish to increase weight and build muscles. Most of the proteins are concentrated in the white part of the egg, known as albumin (albumen) or egg white.
Egg White and Egg Yolk: There are two essential parts of an egg; the albumen or the white part and the yolk or the yellow part. The yolk is suspended in the albumin and contains about 80% of the calories and almost all fats present in the egg. It contains vitamin A, D, E and K and minerals such as iron, calcium, and phosphorus. The egg albumen mostly contains water and proteins.
Health Benefits of Eggs: The nutritional value of eggs makes it good for immunity, strong vision, treatment of macular degeneration, cataract treatment, skin care, nervous system, strong bones, and blood formation. Recent research has also shown that consuming eggs does not lead to increase in serum cholesterol levels.
Eggs are also a good source of essential minerals such as calcium, iron,phosphorus, zinc and iodine. When it comes to calories, a medium sized egg has about 75-76 kcal.
The teachers at the school tell me they have noticed a significant increase in physical and mental performance since the introduction of this program.
If anyone considers that they may be able to help continue or expand this program I am sure People Improvement Organization would really love to here from you. They are a good agency and I would recommend them. Remember a small amount goes a long way in Cambodia but a bigger amount goes even further.
Thanks to Mr. Gary Van Haneghan for his support for the next six months.
Dr.Bob visits Cambodia | Collective Lens
Dr.Bob visits Cambodia
All is not lost when people such as these give their time and resources so readily to help children that are most at need. Two agencies. and individuals, that fit together admirably to try to meet some of the needs of children of less than fortunate circumstance are People Improvement Organization (PIO) and Kids International Dental Services.(KIDS)
Dr Renner explains the reasons for the existence of his team are to ”provide pro-bono dental care to impoverished children in developing countries. There are children in the world who will never have dental care that we take for granted unless we provide it. Most of these children have never seen a tooth brush”. We have treated the children at (PIO) over the last few years and will continue to do so as long as our services are required. We have recently started visits to the Philipines also. This is dentistry at it most basic, conducted in ”Mash” like circustances with very few home comforts but the kids get the treatment they so badly need and the young professional on the team benefit also by gaining experience and confidence.Dr.Bob (Dr. Robert P. Renner),is a retired Prosthodontist, a professor Emeritus at The University of New York at Stony Brook and he leads a team of volunteer dental professionals and people from all walks of life that want to assist in providing the services. It certainly an international team and during my short visit as a witness to their work I met members from Japan, the USA and the Netherlands.” We provide dental care to children in orphanages where they come after being abandoned by parents, family members. They are forgotten children of sex slavery, dead parents of AIDS, gang violence, street accidents. We have seen and treated over 1000 children during our stay in Cambodia”.
The People Improvement Agency (PIO) set up by Phymean Noun, to help educate children on the dump site at Stung Meanchey,Phnom Penh, in Cambodia is just one of the places that gives us a platform to do our work, the children attending the PIO school and the Orphanage it runs close by get dental treatment and free toothbrush.
” Most days we treat between 100 to 200 children. On the bright side, the cost of providing basic care to these children is less than $3 per child for treatment that would cost over $30 per child if performed at the health unit. So far we are personally committed to providing regular care to these children. We try to encourage young local dentists to partner with us and understand our American spirit of volunteerism. For a dental program in a developing country to be successful one must partner with a local agency and involve the local dentists/government”.
” Educating the children themselves and helping them learn the importance of daily dental care will in the long term reduce the number of dental problems in the future and will hopefully be passed on to the next generation”.
(DONATIONS) or if you would like to offer your service as a volunteer why not visit out site at KIDS ”.
Monday, 29 March 2010
The Dangers of Street Photography
One of the inherent dangers in street photography is that you are dealing with and taking photos of complete strangers. You are unaware of the mood or disposition and may soon find yourself in a difficult, if not potentially dangerous, situation. I was out on one of my afternoon strolls around Phnom Penh near Sar Ka Dah market when I came across these guys working in one of the street engineering shops. I immediately raised the camera and took a pic. One of the guys did not appear very happy about this as can be seen by his expression in the first image. I took a few more shots, lowered the camera and smiled, saying '' taught rup'' (khmer for can I take your picture) immediately the mood changed and the same guy who had looked a potential threat started playing for the camera. I continued to take a few more frames (fortunately my camera shoots 8 per second) until the last frame shown here where the guy is happy and smiling. What could have been a confrontation had now become quite friendly, diffused I think by using a few simple Khmer words and smiling. Would I have done it any other way, maybe asked first, no as that first shot is the defining shot of the whole sequence and without it the others would have had little meaning. I learned in the Army, shoot first and ask questions later. Don't miss the opportunity.
I think part of being a ''good'' street photographer is being able to judge the mood of the people you are taking pictures of, and often the mood and demeanor of those around them. Knowing when to back off is essential, and also at times being willing to continue taking pictures despite the potential risk, sometimes the risks are worth it, sometimes not.
(click on the images for larger pictures)..
Sunday, 28 March 2010
Blindness in Cambodia
It's estimated that over 120,000 people are blind in Cambodia, half of those from cataracts.
Cataracts mainly affect the elderly, causing eventual blindness due to clouding of the clear lens that enables the eye to focus, it is a long term degenerative process but it can be treated.
“In a normal eye, light passes through the transparent lens to the retina,” he said. “The lens must be clear for the retina to receive a sharp image. If the lens is cloudy from a cataract, the image you see will be blurred.” Dr.Nuch Sarita
Sadly also, there are lot of people coming in their mid-20s who are blind from vitamin A deficiency, who could be refered to as being Pol Pot's children, because they had a diet of rice gruel, totally deficient in fresh fruit and vegetables, meat, and their eyes were destroyed.
“The only effective treatment for cataracts is surgery, which is recommended when cataracts begin to affect the quality of life or interfere with the ability to perform normal daily activities,” he said. “Cataract surgery is successful in about 95 percent of all cases, with improved vision.” Nuch Sarita
Surgery is available in Cambodia but, if done privately is expensive and therefore unavailable to the mainly poor and empoverished people of Cambodia. They mainly rely on a number of NGO's and also The Seva Foundation working in Siem Reap,that offer the treatment free to those who need it. Not all who need the treatment will get it unfortunately as only a small number of NGO's and limited resource prevent this at the moment.
''much has been achieved in recent years. Prior to 1995, there were no doctors in Cambodia that had any training in the treatment of eye disorders and diseases; so if you were blind, you remained so. Since then, the government has set up the National Sub Committee for Prevention of Blindness (now known as the National Eye Health Program), supported by a number of local and international non-government organisations''. ''there is a patient subsidy system in place to ensure the poorest of the poor have access to quality eye care services. Over time, as trust in the public eye health system grows, more people will use the services and enable a tiered pricing system, whereby wealthier paying patients subsidise the treatment of poorer patients''.FHF Foundation
Seva Foundation http://blog.seva.ca/?cat=4
or http://www.seva.org/site/PageServer
Cambodia's National Eye Care Programme and VISION 2020: The Right to Sight
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1705982/
http://www.who.int/ncd/vision2020_actionplan/documents/CambodiaNationalEyeCareProgramme.PDF
http://bjo.bmj.com/content/81/7/578.full
http://www.thefredhollowsfoundation.com/Assets/Files/Poster.pdf
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