Bon Luk
Once again, we had a large group of volunteers visiting Bon Luk. We left early in two 4x4s, one on which was kindly sponsored by our long time sponsor, Dave of Hua Hin Car Hire, and drove to Bon Luk.
We had one nurse and 6 volunteers with us.
Immediately on our arrival, our nurse Annie set up the clinic with Nim assisting with translation as well as medical journal and Paul helping with medical bag. We saw 23 patients with 2 needing follow up at the hospital. We will be coordinating hospital visits for these two patients.
Annie, Nim and Sue also delivered the general hygiene (hand washing, covering cough and sneeze) seminar which was received by the villagers with a lot of curiosity. Children were particularly amused by the friendly and interactive delivery. Village pastor has agreed to repeat the message during his weekly sermons.
Prabhjeet and Name conducted the village assessment speaking to the pastor and other villagers.
They found out that the number of children at the shelter has risen to 18 again and these children are all attending the school run by the rangers. We bought 50kg rice for these children. They have requested for rice, noodles, fish sauce, canned fish and cooking oil when we visit them in March again.
Jungle Aid also supports the children in this shelter by bringing 50kg rice to them on every visit.
Of the fish that were donated by CPF, only 70 or so have survived due to lack of water. The land where the fish ponds were has been reclaimed and currently the fish are at an indoor concrete tank. These have grown and are being consumed by the villagers.
We discussed raising fish in the river by making bamboo cages / platforms. Villagers have agreed to explore this possibility and we will be consulting with CPF regarding this.
The solar lamps that we brought to the village are being well used. They know how to use these and are using these at night. They have requested for these for all 120 houses in the village and we will be making a project proposal for this.
We also asked the villagers if there were any other training needs. They asked for motorcycle repairs training and English language classes. We asked them to ask the entire community to identify most relevant trainings required by the majority.
The hair cutting equipment that we had provided them when we trained two of the community members has lost its sharp edge. We brought it back for sharpening and will bring it back in March. The skills are being used well at the village with between 7 – 10 villagers coming for a free haircut every week. This has resulted in less lice and other hair hygiene issues at the village.
We observed that while the village looked clean, the cane baskets that were being used to collect garbage are no longer there. Villagers are collecting garbage in plastic bags next to each house and, since no one comes to collect the garbage anymore, are burning their waste. We will try and find out how to get someone to come collect the waste like it was being in the past.
We were pleased to observe minimal littering and that village is consistently maintaining general cleanliness despite the change in garbage management arrangements.
Andy documented the day in photos.
At the end of the visit, donations from the ladies of Bitch and Stitch and other regular donors were distributed by the volunteers and thankfully received by the villagers.
Villagers are always grateful for the useful things we bring them everytime we visit them.
It was a long day at village and by the time we left, it was past 3PM. All volunteers were loaded back in to the trucks 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…….