Rural Nurse Programme

 

The CamKids / One-2-One’s Rural Nurses team is a female team of four, comprising two Dental Nurses, Sophorn and Vun and two Dental Assistants, Tharvy and Seng Hay. Their motto is, “No Children Cry” and they work hard to establish good rapport with the children.

The team work a two-week rotating cycle with two weeks in rural Cambodia and the other two weeks in and around Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital city. This includes the SEAL project that is also funded by Camkids and which will make major impact on the oral health of Cambodia children. 

The team, funded by Camkids, travels with two dental chairs and the MOBILE dental equipment. They are working with Cambodia’s poorest and most vulnerable children and their communities. Providing emergency relief work and oral health education, the team is also equipped to treat simple health problems such as lice and scabies that have detrimental impact on the communities’ quality of life. At times this special team is joined by other One-2-One Dental Staff, depending on the size of the underserved population they are reaching out to. 

The photos shows the Camkids Rural team joined by the One-2-One Team working really well together. 

On a recent trip, the Rural Nurses team treated six-year-old Danet who is a grade two student from Rusey Keo Commune in Phnom Penh. Danet comes from a family of five, and her parents, like most Cambodians, are farmers and her family leads a subsistence life, which means there isn’t money available for dental or medical treatment. For Danet it was the first time she had been treated by a dental professional. 

After her treatment the Rural Nurse team taught her good oral hygiene practices to make sure she takes care of her teeth. Danet was thankful for her free treatment and she enjoyed practicing the new teeth brushing technique the Rural Nurses taught her. Although shy, Danat was happy to share a song, her favourite pastime! It is moments like this that motivates the team to work in such difficult conditions.