HEALTHEX

PROJECT TA OM

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aBOUT THE PROJECT 

Project Ta-Om is a health expedition project run by HealthEx International in partnership with the Cambodian NGO BFT (Build Your Future Today).  The goal of the project is to provide knowledge, skill sets and manpower in the areas of healthcare and health education.

The team carried this out by visiting the rural areas, some as far as 80 km away from the main city of Siem Reap. Additionally, the team also recently expanded their services to Bot Trong, a nearby village that required assistance. There, the team set up a mobile clinic that saw 80 people in the span of one day. This year, the project will be in its 7th year running and the long term goal is to add value and provide assistance to the community in a sustainable manner.

Project Ta Om was started in 2009 as an educational initiative and expanded to include healthcare services in collaboration with HealthEx in 2013. Since then, 6 more projects were organized in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019. Each of these projects look to build upon the previous year’s work and to provide continuity and sustainability, with the overall aim of developing Ta Om village’s healthcare. 

what we do

Acute medical care​​​​​​
  • Provision of acute medical care was done by setting up mobile clinics, conducting house-to-house health screening, and giving personalized health education to villagers.
  • In previous year, the mobile clinic managed to reach out to over 1300 villagers over a span of 6 days. This year, we also aim to visit the villagers that we red-flagged previously and provide them with a plan on how to manage their chronic illnesses. We were also able to provide some chronic medications specifically for high blood pressure and diabetes this year.
  • We have also expanded our reach to two new villages this year in Kromnom and Tapor
    We will continue to screen the villagers for any new illnesses that may have arisen over the last year.
  • The clinic also aims to provide lifestyle advice for chronic illnesses or public health-related diseases.This is achieved via dedicated Health Education stations where our team members tailor health advice per diagnosis made at consultation.

Physiotherapy
  • A large number of the villagers work as farmers and hence have many musculoskeletal related disorders.
  • This year we had a physiotherapist student to run her own segment of the mobile clinic prescribing various stretches and rehab techniques for the patients experiencing MSK pain

Dental Care
  • Pearlie white has kindly sponsored us with toothbrushes and toothpastes over the past few years and with the help of our dental students we are able to bring across the importance of dental hygiene and good brushing techniques to the villagers

Childhood education
  • We also have classroom based education sessions in both the villages and in Siem Reap itself

SIV Generosity School
  • We worked together with Siv’s Generosity School who provides free English lessons for the children in Siem Reap and gave 2 nights of English lessons for the children there

Bottrong and TaOm
  • We provided health education focusing on dental care, nutrition and health hygiene for the children in a classroom based setting
  • We also played games with them which showed them the importance of hygiene
  • Our sponsors Singapore university of social sciences SUSS and Progress Gold provided us with gifts for the children this year.

Delivery of public health and feminine hygiene
Education has the potential to provide the longest-lasting impact. As such, Project Ta Om is placing more emphasis on public health education for both villages, focusing on the different outcomes according to their needs.
Focus is on providing medical advice, chronic medical conditions and family planning.
  • To achieve these outcomes, we will be giving health education booklets to each household, as well as providing personalized health advice after every consultation.
We also focused on female hygiene this year as part of a new initiative as a lot of the villagers complained about vaginal discharge previously and were not taking care of their female hygiene in the proper manner. We also included sexual health in our education.
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About the team 

The 2019 team consisted of 17 students and 3 doctors who kindly took time out of their busy schedule to join us
  • Dr Christopher Chong
  • Dr Yew Woon Si
  • Dr Gong Cheng Sean
The 17 students consisted of students studying medicine, physiotherapy and radiotherapy from across freshmen to final year students.

Sponsors

We would like to thank our sponsors for their generous donation and support for our 2019 project:
  • SUSS
  • Progress Gold
  • Wyeth Nutrition
  • Mead Johnson Nutrition
  • R K Pharma
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Programme details 

Estimated Programme Dates
The project will run between the dates of end June to August 
Programme Sample
This was the programme for Project Ta-Om in 2019. Activities can be subjected to change to suit the needs of the locals.
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Project Location 
The project will be carried out in the villages of Ta Om and Bot Trong, both about 1.5 - 2 hours out from Siem Reap.
Accommodations
The team will be living at the Golden Mango Inn, Siem Reap. It is a 1.5 hour drive away from the villages.
Facilities ​
  • Wifi
  • Laundry
  • Breakfast
  • Swimming pool

About our partner ngo - build your future today

Overview 
Build Your Future Today (BFT)
is a local non-governmental organization (NGO) recognized by the Ministry of the Interior and Local Authorities in Siem Reap, unaffiliated with any religious or political party. BFT works with villages in the Siem Reap region to provide education for the children and a future for them and their families.
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BFT's Vision
BFT's main aim is to empower the Cambodian people with the right intellectual and economic tools to attain self-sufficiency.
BFT believes that education is key to developing economic stability and personal well-being along with peace for the individual family, and hence the whole of Cambodian society. BFT is highly committed to providing the opportunity for people, especially children who have been living through hardship and poverty, with effective solutions to improve their lives.

BFT's activities
BFT has completed the following works among many more:
  • 22 houses have been renovated and the families now live in better conditions.
  • 8 schools have been built or refurbished offering education to the children of Cambodia.
  • 14 Community Training Centers have been built or refurbished teaching skills to young adults.
  • 26 Villages are regularly visited by our Mobile Library offering the chance to read to children.
  • 119 Wells have been dug providing clean water all year round

For more information click below:
Build Your Future Today

pHOTO GALLERY 


pROJECT VIDEO


reflections

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It has definitely been an eye-opening experience for me to witness the difficulties that people face in accessing healthcare when I have been so accustomed to the healthcare system in both Singapore and the UK. Even with rapid advancement in medicine in recent years, the equipment and facilities that the health centre in Ta Om had were very basic and it made me think about how they still have such a long way to go in overcoming the consequences of poverty. It will not be an easy process, but I believe with the continuous work of BFT and other volunteer groups such as ours, small steps can be made to fulfill the larger goal of overcoming poverty and improving the healthcare system in Cambodia.

 by yeo zhixin
​Project ta om 2018

This experience has only inspired in me a desire to want to go back for future mission trips and serve the community beyond myself more. I could tell that the villagers welcomed us deeply and were willing to commute miles to visit us. The children had an insatiable thirst for knowledge despite their limited access to education. I distinctly remember engaging a young eleven-year-old girl by setting Maths problem sums for her for fun (also as a means of communication, since Maths is a universal language as well). I scribbled down on a paper 54+7, and she ended up (oddly) with an answer in the hundreds. I remember my heart sinking a little, knowing that back in Singapore, any eleven-year-old would have had the right answer in seconds. It was then that I felt the disenabling nature of poverty, but at the same time witnessed the indomitability of the human spirit – following that problem sum I continued to set her more sums which she doggedly worked at, without boredom and without defeat.

by grace tern
Project ta om 2018

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Funding

Please refer to our Donate page for more information.

social media

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/projecttaom
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/projecttaom
Crowdfunding: https://chuffed.org/project/project-taombottrong-2019 

pROJECT bottrong 2020

Despite not being able to go to Cambodia this summer due to COVID , Project Bottrong still wanted to serve others. We decided to help two groups that were disproportionately affected by COVID - the migrant workers in Singapore (outbreak due to overcrowded living conditions) and the Cambodian villagers (hygiene supplies and food shortage during the pandemic).

We collaborated with SDI Academy to come up with physical and mental heath education resources for an app (Linger.AI). This was to rolled out to 50 000 migrant workers in collaboration with Singhealth.   Linger.AI is an app that provides online modules including a wide range of skillsets and topics for migrant workers to learn and master in their free time in the midst of COVID-19. In total, we created 34 modules including topics such asstress, mindfulness, exercises, nutrition and hygiene to improve the health literacy of migrant workers.

We fundraised through IG live concerts, IG workouts, bake sale, lecture series and collaborations with other online shops. We raised SGD $10 147 for the app’s development and welfare food packages for migrant workers in self isolation.

With the SGD $4003 fundraised for the Cambodians, hundreds of families from 6 different villages in Siem Reap and Banteaymeanchey received emergency food supplies, liquid and bars of soap, hand washing gels, face masks and household water filters, amongst other things. We also fundraised SGD $1200 for Siv, a beneficiary who runs free English classes for students in his community.

In total, we raised a total of SGD $15 350 for our migrant worker and Cambodians friends. 



PHOTO GALLERY

Social media

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Reflections

" Even though the trip to Cambodia was cancelled, I was glad that all of us could do our part and help with COVID-19 efforts in both Singapore and Cambodia. We were able to make use of our summer to improve the well being of the migrant workers and also raise funds remotely for the villagers in Cambodia. 

Through this project, I also learnt a lot more about the plight of the migrant workers in Singapore, the difficulties
Cambodian villagers were facing and the importance of mental health. I was very thankful that so many people from all walks of life were willing to donate their time, effort and money, learning and sharing our causes." 

-​Joey
​Team Leader 2020

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  • Home
  • Committee
  • Projects
    • Project Ta-Om
    • Project Khon Kaen
    • Project Sre Rebong
    • Project Phetchabun
    • Project Cebu
    • Project Sri Lanka
  • Volunteer
  • Donate
  • FAQ
  • Contact Us