CamKids Summer 2012 Newsletter

In the West we often take for granted our opportunities to play and get involved in sport. Sport has universal appeal and anywhere you throw a ball, you will soon find children playing with it. Cambodians love sport, but the opportunities for many children are extremely limited, especially the opportunity to take part in some sort of organized competition.

The benefits of sport are of course well documented and wide reaching, ranging from physical development and the endorphins produced through exercise, to life skills of dealing with success and failure, teamwork and communication.

Sport fits neatly into our MEND (Medical, Education, Nutrition, Development) Initiative, under the Development banner and most of this Newsletter is dedicated to showing how many children are benefitting from "Sport & Fitness With CamKids".

To access the Newsletter, please click Here or Contact Us and we will send you a copy by e-mail. If you sign up to our Newsletter below, you will receive future copies by e-mail every 6 months (your details will not be used for commercial or any other purpose).

Thank you once again to all of our donors and supporters, without whom none of this would have been possible. If you would like to find out how to support our work, please Contact Us.

The CamKids Trustees

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Thames Path Challenge - Places still available

Places are still available for the Thames Path Challenge on 29/30th September, which starts close to Putney Bridge and follows the unique Thames Path National Trail. Take on the epic endurance walk against the clock on the 100km route to Henley and attempt to complete the challenge within 24hrs – or take on the 50km option with a target time of under 12hrs.

Be part of the challenge which will see hundreds of walkers attempt the course and fundraise for CamKids and other charities. Sign up in teams of friends, colleagues or join as an individual and meet fellow trekkers along the way. It will be a weekend to remember!

Challenge Details:

• The ultimate 100km challenge - target time under 24hrs!
• 50km daylight challenge - target of 12hrs!
• Assemble your own team - tackle the course together
• Join as an individual - and we'll support you all the way!
• Replenishment checkpoints along the way
• Hot food stops @ 50km, 75km, and 100km
• Fully supported with pace walkers, medics, physios
• Participant area with training and fundraising resource
• 50km walk - £50 registration fee + £200 minimum sponsorship
• 100km walk - £75 to register + £300 minimum sponsorship

Full details of the challenge can be found HERE or email us for more information.

If you would like to take up the challenge and raise money for CamKids, please follow THIS LINK. Collecting your sponsorship money is easy, by setting up your own JustGiving Page HERE.

Krousar Thmey Centres for Deaf and Blind Children

Children the world over are gorgeous - and none more so than the deaf and blind children of Krousar Thmey. There are 16 Krousar Thmey Centers throughout Cambodia. The One-2-One / CamKids mobile dental team visits these underserved centres to provide much needed dental treatment to the children, most of whom have never seen a dentist. For some, even brushing their teeth is a new experience.

On our most recent visit to the Krousar Thmey School in Battambang Province, our team was most warmly welcomed by the staff and children. Shyness soon gave way to curiosity and excited chatter as they flashed huge smiles, crowded around, and were eager to help in what ever way they could.

Over the course of 5 days, the dental team, composed of overseas dental volunteers and local dental professionals, checked many and treated 196 Krousar Thmey children, completing over 300 fillings and pulling out over 100 rotten painful teeth! They also placed many fissure sealants and fluoride varnish, to help protect the teeth against further decay. Although the conditions were challenging, with temperatures well over 30 degrees, with so many children needing help, our team stepped up to the task, without complaint. The children were fantastic - sometimes waiting a long time for treatment, and very brave in the face of having several teeth treated at a single visit. Our team kept the children happy with big smiles and small rewards at the end - receiving a new toothbrush and a small tube of toothpaste in Cambodia is a big deal! The children were hugely grateful to our team, and most were happy to come back for a second and even a third visit.

It is not easy being a blind or a deaf child in Cambodia. Many are abandoned by their parents. The volunteers were constantly blown away by the children's courage, their resilience, and their gratefulness for the simple things most people in the western world take completely for granted. Despite some of the difficulties in communicating (how do you prepare someone who can't see or hear for an injection?), every day the children won the hearts of the volunteers through their acceptance, friendliness and courage. They even helped our volunteers learn some sign language and songs. Teaching children how to brush their teeth with their very first toothbrush was a rewarding experience - broad foamy smiles on their faces, laughter from their friends at their efforts, and seeing the obvious pride and gratefulness they all had at being given their very first toothbrush.

The deaf and blind children of Krousar Thmey School in Battambang City did not have any material things that they could give the dental team to thank them for their help, but they gave what they could, by putting on a special "Thank you" concert. Those who could sing, sang; those who could perform magic tricks wowed the audience with their magical prowess; and those with acrobatic skills said thanks by performing acrobatic tricks - leaving the dental team feeling like, in the end, they were the ones who had the most to be thankful for.

For more information or to support this project, please Email Us.

SEAL Cambodia Launch

The Seal Cambodia project was formally launched on 6 July 2012 at a special event in Phnom Penh by Professor Raman Bedi (Chairman, Global Child Dental Fund and King’s College London), the project’s national coordinator Dr Callum Durward (Director, One-2-One Cambodia) and The Cambodian Children’s Charity – CamKids. The three year project will provide preventive care to 60,000 young children and will involve a large consortium of dental providers throughout the country. Professor Bedi said “We are excited about the programme which has brought together the Cambodian dental profession, international and local NGO’s, and the Ministries of Health and Education. Working together this project will transform the dental health of these children.”

With the approval and support of the Ministry of Health (MOH) and the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport (MOEYS), local dental groups are working with the Global Child Dental Fund (GCDFund) and The Cambodian Children’s Charity – CamKids to introduce the SEAL CAMBODIA project. These local groups include the Oral Health Office of the MOH, the Faculties of Dentistry, the Dental Nurses School, two local NGOs (One-2-One Cambodia and Cambodia World Family), the Cambodian Dental Association, and the School Health Department of the MOEYS.

Over the past 3 years, the MOEYS together with the MOH, with support from Colgate, have conducted a dental preventive program in 115 Phnom Penh primary schools. The program has consisted of dental health education and tooth brushing in schools. The outcome has been positive, however the level of dental decay in children is still extremely high. The present project will add fissure sealants to the existing school preventive program. The sealants will be applied to 6-7 year old children by dentists, dental nurses and dental students on-site at primary schools. A dental company (GC Asia) has donated enough material to be able to seal the teeth of 60,000 children over 3 years. The GCDFund and The Cambodian Children’s Charity – CamKids, have also provided the necessary financial support. Initially the program will be carried out in Phnom Penh and Kampong Cham. This type of program (which has been carried out in other countries) will be hugely beneficial to Cambodian children, and will prevent the extraction of many thousands of permanent teeth.

To launch the SEAL CAMBODIA project, a workshop (sponsored by GC Asia) was held at the Goldiana Hotel on Saturday 8 July. In attendance were representatives from the organizations supporting the Seal Cambodia project (including the Executive Director of the Global Child Dental Fund – Professor Raman Bedi), distinguished overseas lecturers from Thailand, Australia, Singapore, Indonesia and the UK, international delegates, as well as local dentists working for the MOH, MOEYS, the Dental Nurses School (in Kampong Cham), the two dental schools, hospitals and health centres, and local NGOs. On Monday 10 July a demonstration of the SEAL CAMBODIA project was held at Norodom Primary School.