Medical care
In Cambodia health care and prevention is of critical importance. The tropical climate and a shortage of clean sanitary facilities provide a breeding ground for all kind of diseases. In addition, poor education leads to the local population often being unaware about the consequences of unhealthy and unhygienic habits. Simultaneously, financial issues cause doctor’s visits being postponed to the very last minute, leading to children and elderly often, unnecessarily, getting worse. COLT strives to influence the health care situation in our community in several ways.
Medical clinic
COLT hosts a medical clinic on the premises of our community centre. The clinic is managed by doctors of Motomedix, an initiative of our partner Chibodia. Three times a week a doctor comes to the clinic to provide free consultations to all families from the community. Patients are provided free medication and are referred to a hospital if necessary. For the children that stay in our temporary and long-term care, COLT also pays any necessary medical costs. In special circumstances, COLT can provide specialist care like physiotherapy. In these cases COLT works closely together with our local partners.
Annual dentist visit
The continuous medical care is regularly supplemented with other health promoting activities. COLT works hard to maintain and improve a network of health care specialist that visit our centre regularly to provide eye control, general health check ups as well as and dental care. A successful example of this is the long-running partnership with Kids International Dental Services. KIDS is a group of dentists and volunteers that visit many NGOs in developing countries to provide free dental care to children.
Prevention is better
Many activities at our community centre are focused towards prevention rather than fixing. For the children in our residential care that can mean the simple grinding in of healthy habits like washing your hands of brushing your teeth. In addition, COLT stimulates and trains a self-help group in the community. This group works as a catalyst, with the ability to reach more people as they already have established relationships within the community. Apart from that, they can also raise the alarm in case of emergencies. COLT, in turn can connect with local authorities in order to look for solutions together. This can mean providing specific attention to a particular subject, providing workshops or materials to encourage healthy behaviour.