Bang Saphan is 4 hours away and has our most vulnerable families that we work with.

The trip had several aims:
• Operate our field medical clinic to provide much needed medical care
• Equip the school children with more bikes; helmets and school bags so they can easily ride the 7km each way
• Pass on donations of clothes, rice and canned fish
• Donate 2 months supply of medicines to the qualified nurse/midwife living in the village including a ventouse to assist with baby delivery

The volunteers met in Hua Hin at 7am on Saturday morning, loaded the donated clothes, food and medical supplies into two trucks and headed out to the village.

Our volunteers included a Doctor, Paul, two nurses, Emma and Paula, medical assistant Caitlin, translators Leyna and Palavi, photographers Jan and Deepak, and volunteer Keith who was working on project assessment updates.

Heavy rains and roadworks on the way meant the trip to the meeting point with the villagers at the Bang Saphan village shelter took five hours this time. Villagers who had made the three-hour trek from the mountain village to the meeting point were worried that we may not come – but were very happy to see us when we arrived.

Medical clinic
Upon arrival we immediately set up the field medical clinic. Thirteen patients were seen in total. Thankfully there were no serious hospital referral cases this time but several patients were treated for conditions that will require follow-up. Patients included a boy with a perforated eardrum, a lady with mouth ulcers and a lady with a possible abdominal tumour.
Jungle aid medical clinic
Village assessment and donations
Once the medical clinic was underway, the assessment team began to collect information and deliver the donations kindly given by our donors and sponsors. We confirmed that the most important needs of the village at present are: food and nutrition – access to protein and rice; education – continuing support for rent of a house where children can stay which enables them to go to school, and providing notebooks pens and pencils; and easing access to clean water from the river. To contribute to these items we provided 300kg of rice and tinned fish, provided three backpacks filled with educational materials, sponsored the students’ accommodation costs so children can attend school and provided four additional bikes. The children already had three donated bikes – but since there are fifteen children who have to travel 7m to school it has meant that they have to do multiple trips each day. With seven bikes, each of which can carry two children, the journeys to school should be much easier, which will help to increase attendance so the children can do better. We also passed over the donated clothes, medical supplies and equipment including a ventouse. The midwife had asked for this device previously to help with baby delivery – the one she had been using was 10 years old and had broken.

After an amazing day with the incredible volunteers we headed home.

If you are interested in joining us on a trip in future you can sign-up on the Jungle Aid ‘Meetup’ website at http://www.meetup.com/Jungle-Aid-a-humanitarian-aid-charity/. Just choose a trip on a date that you can come with us. You will see that places are limited so it is better to sign-up earlier.

We have many volunteer roles available – some require technical skills but others require mainly passion and enthusiasm.

If you have skills in the following or know someone who does, Jungle Aid would be very keen for that person to get involved:
• Health: Doctor, Nurse, Dentist, Nutritionist
• Environment: Water engineer, Sanitation expert
• Technology: Website design and maintenance
• Events: Events manager (Bangkok based)

Without your support we cannot offer the help that is needed….Thank-you for supporting the work we do…….

Pin It on Pinterest