I've put all of my pictures up on facebook, if you don't have facebook, here are the links to all of my albums...enjoy!
http://udayton.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2058549&l=3b7e4&id=21901679
http://udayton.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2058557&l=0c6a5&id=21901679
http://udayton.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2058560&l=1cc9e&id=21901679
http://udayton.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2058564&l=e51a3&id=21901679
http://udayton.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2058568&l=5069d&id=21901679
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Dengue
http://economist.com/world/asia/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9487109
Here is a link to an article about the Dengue Fever outbreak in Southeast Asia. Two girls in our group were affected by it, one girl actually had to be medically evacuated to Thailand. She was okay though, and was able to come back for the end of our program. (What a trooper!)The other girl only suffered a mild case, and did not have to be hospitalized. Sadly Dengue is a more serious problem in Cambodia because of the lack of adequate health care.
There is one man that does provide hope, and I want each of you to visit his site as well....it is amazing! He is a Swiss doctor that has opened hospitals in Cambodia that are free for children, and he fights a lot of adversity against his methods, despite Cambodia being poor, he believe sthat all children should have access to the same standard of healthcare as if they were in the US or Europe. His hopsitals have also been selected as the most cost efficient in the world, less than 20% of all the budget goes to administrative costs, opposite of organizations such as the world health organication or UNICEF, where close to 80% of the budget can go to administrative costs alone...something to think about the next time you pick an organization to donate too! So while other organizations sit around and talk about sustainable healthcare, and waiting to treat until there are vaccines, this guy is out there treating and saving childrens' lives today.
Check it all out at: www.beatocello.com
Here is a link to an article about the Dengue Fever outbreak in Southeast Asia. Two girls in our group were affected by it, one girl actually had to be medically evacuated to Thailand. She was okay though, and was able to come back for the end of our program. (What a trooper!)The other girl only suffered a mild case, and did not have to be hospitalized. Sadly Dengue is a more serious problem in Cambodia because of the lack of adequate health care.
There is one man that does provide hope, and I want each of you to visit his site as well....it is amazing! He is a Swiss doctor that has opened hospitals in Cambodia that are free for children, and he fights a lot of adversity against his methods, despite Cambodia being poor, he believe sthat all children should have access to the same standard of healthcare as if they were in the US or Europe. His hopsitals have also been selected as the most cost efficient in the world, less than 20% of all the budget goes to administrative costs, opposite of organizations such as the world health organication or UNICEF, where close to 80% of the budget can go to administrative costs alone...something to think about the next time you pick an organization to donate too! So while other organizations sit around and talk about sustainable healthcare, and waiting to treat until there are vaccines, this guy is out there treating and saving childrens' lives today.
Check it all out at: www.beatocello.com
Friday, June 29, 2007
So Many Stories!
Where to begin...
Today was the first day that a site visit actually made me cry...usually things don't phase me or I don't feel an overwhelming need to do something RIGHT AWAY, but today was different. There is a massive garbage dump site outside the city, where families and orphans actually live on the garbage, to collect cans and recyclables, which they sell to a middle man, that gets sold to Vietnam, because Cambodia has no recycling plant here. We visited two organizations that work with kids & families from the dump. The first was a school actually on the site, that was free for kids. Their funding was cut in April, so all the teachers have been working there without pay since then (which first of all, is amazing of them). The woman has even allowed other children that are just poor in general to come to the school, and not just children from the dump site.
Basically it just slapped my "privilege" in my face. As I got out of the van with my hygenic mask to avoid breathing in god knows what, and bitching about the smell and nasty muck im walking in, here are kids running barefoot through it, flies everywhere and on them, sitting in a dumpy old make-shift building, learning math and khmer. Behind me was a bulletin board of pictures of the programs they run, and one is first aid. The pictures were terrible...so many kids get hurt, or even killed (yes there were pictures of that), by being run over by the garbage trucks. If any organization or group of people desperately cannot afford to have their funding cut, it is this one. The whole thing was heartbreaking and painful, sometimes life just isn't fair.
Thankfully, we visited another organization on our way out, which was absolutely amazing. A HUGE school/orphange, free for children that have lived on the dump for at least one year. There is a hotel on the grounds, a resturant, and a gift shop, that the students all learn to operate. Chefs from switzerland even come in to help with the cooking skills. The kids stay from 6 am to 6 pm, but then go back to their home on the dump. It's $124 per student (not sure if thats for one session or a month), but to operate the electricity for the facilities for just ONE month, it is $7,000!! I can't imagine how much fundraising they have to do...but it was a really great balance to a very rough start to the morning. It is good to know that at least someone has a great operation going to help them.
Overall I'm becoming more and more impressed with this program as well. No other way would I have been able to get to know everything I am about the social work side of this country...so thanks to all that helped get me here!
And I'll end on one silly story...I have a shirt that says "I love Mom" on it...okay well apparently this shirt causes a lot of comotion. We went to the waterfront for dinner, and the streets are PACKED. and this moto driver sees it and goes, yoouu, loovvee, wo, wo, WOMEN? "Haha, YOU LOVE WOMEN!" he starts screaming in the middle of the street! Oh my goodness I was so embaressed! Then these little girls that were selling books, postcards, etc, came up and again tried to read my shirt, and some other moto driver standing next to them (all just trying to practice their english), but it soon became some sort of impromptu show or something...haha, very akward, but then I started talking to the girls, they laughed when I tried to speak Khmer, and they practiced their English phrases and Australian accents on me, which entailed "Whats up Baby?!", haha, I'm sure some tourist taught them that.
Anyways, who would of thought a shirt could be so entertaining?!
Today was the first day that a site visit actually made me cry...usually things don't phase me or I don't feel an overwhelming need to do something RIGHT AWAY, but today was different. There is a massive garbage dump site outside the city, where families and orphans actually live on the garbage, to collect cans and recyclables, which they sell to a middle man, that gets sold to Vietnam, because Cambodia has no recycling plant here. We visited two organizations that work with kids & families from the dump. The first was a school actually on the site, that was free for kids. Their funding was cut in April, so all the teachers have been working there without pay since then (which first of all, is amazing of them). The woman has even allowed other children that are just poor in general to come to the school, and not just children from the dump site.
Basically it just slapped my "privilege" in my face. As I got out of the van with my hygenic mask to avoid breathing in god knows what, and bitching about the smell and nasty muck im walking in, here are kids running barefoot through it, flies everywhere and on them, sitting in a dumpy old make-shift building, learning math and khmer. Behind me was a bulletin board of pictures of the programs they run, and one is first aid. The pictures were terrible...so many kids get hurt, or even killed (yes there were pictures of that), by being run over by the garbage trucks. If any organization or group of people desperately cannot afford to have their funding cut, it is this one. The whole thing was heartbreaking and painful, sometimes life just isn't fair.
Thankfully, we visited another organization on our way out, which was absolutely amazing. A HUGE school/orphange, free for children that have lived on the dump for at least one year. There is a hotel on the grounds, a resturant, and a gift shop, that the students all learn to operate. Chefs from switzerland even come in to help with the cooking skills. The kids stay from 6 am to 6 pm, but then go back to their home on the dump. It's $124 per student (not sure if thats for one session or a month), but to operate the electricity for the facilities for just ONE month, it is $7,000!! I can't imagine how much fundraising they have to do...but it was a really great balance to a very rough start to the morning. It is good to know that at least someone has a great operation going to help them.
Overall I'm becoming more and more impressed with this program as well. No other way would I have been able to get to know everything I am about the social work side of this country...so thanks to all that helped get me here!
And I'll end on one silly story...I have a shirt that says "I love Mom" on it...okay well apparently this shirt causes a lot of comotion. We went to the waterfront for dinner, and the streets are PACKED. and this moto driver sees it and goes, yoouu, loovvee, wo, wo, WOMEN? "Haha, YOU LOVE WOMEN!" he starts screaming in the middle of the street! Oh my goodness I was so embaressed! Then these little girls that were selling books, postcards, etc, came up and again tried to read my shirt, and some other moto driver standing next to them (all just trying to practice their english), but it soon became some sort of impromptu show or something...haha, very akward, but then I started talking to the girls, they laughed when I tried to speak Khmer, and they practiced their English phrases and Australian accents on me, which entailed "Whats up Baby?!", haha, I'm sure some tourist taught them that.
Anyways, who would of thought a shirt could be so entertaining?!
Week 2
@ the garbage dump.
Our GYC group, with the Cambodian participants, at the end of our 4-day workshop.
Sitting in the pre-trial chambers @ the Khmer Rouge Tribunal...I fit the part right?!
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Adventures
Crossing a very unsteady bridge...
A little girl peaking out to see all the "white kids"
Phally showing the kids the video camera
Me practicing the shadow puppets
Shadow puppet show
Practicing my Buddha
Just one of MANY beautiful buildings on the grounds of the Royal Palace
Me picking the Queens nose
The watefront
Monks!
The National Museum
Elephant rides at the park!
Just some of the many mass graves at the Killing Fields.
17 stories of shelves holding the remains of victims from the Killing Fields.
Me Next to a UN truck (what a nerd!)
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
First Week!
Our group is here in Cambodia now! After LONG LONG LONG layovers and flights, I've made it alive and am slowly surviving the heat here! Non stop sweat though!
So far we have made it to visit Youth Resource Development Program, that offers capacity building and different courses to youth, KHMERARA, an organization that works with sex workers, people with HIV/AIDS, women and children, LICADHO, a national human rights organization, that actually the person we were supposed to meet with couldn't be there because she was busting her employees out of jail that had been arrested that morning for protesting, Youth for Peace (where my week long internship will be with) that works on skill building and peace education with high school/college aged students, tomorrow we go visit the ambassador and the UN office of human rights!
Our bathroom, with the showerhead hanging right in the middle...interesting!
A lizard on the wall...I'm the only one that gets really freaked out by these, I can't sit in a chair by myself if one is on the wall next to me, I'm afraid its going to jump off at me...there are MUCH larger ones though than that pictured here.
Outdoor seating space at the Boddhi Tree Guesthouse.
A "tuk tuk" that we use to get around town...cheaper if you have a group to go in it, by yourself, the moto's are cheaper, but I haven't been brave enough to ride one yet. (Jon, like the shirt?!)
Once I figure out to upload video, I will, but these computers are SO slow not sure if I can, but I have a great one of the traffic here, and of some kids that sang for us!
Hope everyone got a chance to see the article in The Mirror!
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
S-21 Site
S-21 was a detention center/prison during the Khmer Rouge period (striking similar to concentration camps and Nazi Germany)
Links to the Genocide Museum we will be visiting/staying across the street from (Here's where we're staying at while in Phnom Penh: http://www.boddhitree.com/index.html). FYI: These sites contain graphic pictures.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuol_Sleng_Genocide_Museum
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mybigtrip/sets/671304/
http://www.pbase.com/kissfoto/s21
http://www.chgs.umn.edu/Visual___Artistic_Resources/Cambodian_Genocide/Prisoners_at_S-21_Prison/prisoners_at_s-21_prison.html
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