Today we had a very big team of enthusiastic volunteers meeting early at 6.45am at Market Village. This included the 7 students from Webster University which has been fantastic to have their support with translators and photographers.
The volunteers were split between 4 trucks, also loaded with 500kg of rice for Bang Saphan. One team headed to Ba Mak led by our Area Manager Delphine and our Area Manager Prabhjeet led the other team to Bang Saphan.
After a 3 hour drive, Delphine was able to assess the village of Ba mak for new information and complete the data on the costs of the much needed water tanks. There are 3 more needed which costs around 78,000b for the tanks and to install them. This will then enable over 500 people to have access to water.
We had our 2 doctors Coco and Gerard, Coco managing to also translate by himself while treating patients. Our medical team also included our nurse Emma and osteopath Sam all of whom managed to see around 30 patients. This trip we also had a lady from Omroom, in Bangkok, Mutsumi, who was able to offer Reiki to patients suffering from severe migraines and depression.
With the support from Jungle Aid we can see patients that have no access to health care. Many mothers with 5 children or more requested contraception, enabling them to make the choice to delay having more children. Normally the
local clinic that have a limited range of medicine, rarely have contraception available. Our translators are invaluable to be able to gather information about the village and also the patient’s symptoms. This month we had Yui and Samson translating but we will be looking for more people to translate as we are able to achieve much more if we have the support of more translators.
As they walked through the village, the assessment team got the chance to see more of the villagers’ means of income such as weaving cotton, and baskets. All beautifully captured by May our photographer for the day.
Delphine together with Andrew took a close look at the public toilet situation, and discussed how it could be improved. Indeed, the 10 public toilets need to support the growing population while only 70 to 80 % of the village houses have private toilets.
We were pleased to witness a new Childcare center, allowing mums to leave their kids while they go to work. The villagers expressed their concerns over the water from the river as it is really dirty making water in a really short supply at the moment.
After a successful medical clinic and assessment of the village, we gave out the clothes, shoes and toys that had been donated from friends from Hua Hin and Bangkok. The children loved the cuddly toys.
All volunteers were loaded back in to the truck for the dusty journey home.
After an amazing day with incredible volunteers and incredible people we work with we headed home.
Thank you for supporting the work we do…….
