After being unable to reach this village for three months (authorities stop access to national park for rainy season, 1st August to 31st October every year, due to flooding), we could finally get to Bon Luk again. Since we had not been able to access the village for a long time, there were some urgent issues to be addressed on this visit. Besides the long overdue medical clinic, we had to do village assessment in terms of education, health and hygiene, see progress on fish pond and any other immediate needs of the villagers.

Jungle Aid volunteers Bon Luk

Once again, we had a large team of 14 enthusiastic volunteers in 2 4x4s; both donated. One, regular, by Dave and other by Hazel. As always is the case with Bon Luk, we met at 6AM and left promptly after briefing and introductions. We made a brief stop at Home for Students where our sponsors were impressed by the progress being made on drainage project. We were pleased by the news that no one needed medical attention at H4S and all were in good health. We picked up our doctor on the way to the village and got there shortly after noon. We had two medical- and one osteopath-teams ready to see patients as soon as we got to the village. Medical teams were headed by Dr Coco and Emma while our osteopath Sam was seeing patients with muscle and joint pains.

Jungle Aid osteopath with patient

Medical teams were assisted by Chloe and Ismail (journal) while Lek and Thu helped with translation. Poonam and Joanna had a great time with village kids taking hand prints of the kids and witnessing painting talent of the kids. These prints will be shared in our Christmas newsletter. In the mean time, the assessment team, Prabhjeet (project manager), Delphine (health and hygiene) and Bob (translator and our generous sponsor for event venue) was checking the status of pig pen, fish pond and education needs.

Jungle Aid in remote village

We saw fish in the pond. We also saw these fish being shared with villagers. Unfortunately, the male pig had died in the previous month but our assessment team suggested the villager in-charge of this project the way to get the pen going again without any further investment. We will review the progress on this on our next visit. We were informed that all children of the village are attending school. We asked for the list of students who will be graduating from primary school next year and will need assistance with going to grade 7 in the town. This list will be given to us on our next visit in January.

We also saw that the villagers are sorting and collecting their trash in trash baskets and sacks placed throughout the village. The village appeared to be very clean compared to our previous visits. Our medical teams saw 25 patients. Donations were distributed within minutes. After taking photos with kids and villagers, we were ready to leave when we received our surprise invitation to next month’s Christmas party at the village church.

After an amazing day with incredible volunteers and incredible people we work with, we headed home.

Thank you for supporting the work we do…….

Jungle Aid remote medical clinic

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