UniBreakers work to improve health knowledge in rural Cambodia

Birthday celebrations!

COUNTRY: Cambodia
PROGRAM: UniBreak
PROJECT: Education
WRITTEN BY: Caitlin Boyd

It's hard to think we're over half way into our placements with around a week and a half to go. As I write I am on our lunch break, a time each day where we are exposed to a colourful assortment of Khmer meals, some, like crickets and snails, a little more interesting than others! In the classroom Maeve and I have been working alongside the teachers in preparation for the students' monthly unit test, with this week focusing on adjectives and nouns. Matt has dabbled in a little of everything, with soccer training, the construction of a pig enclosure and organic farming taking up the day.

Meanwhile on the other side of Siem Reap, some 50 minutes away, the rest of the team is planning their health and English teaching lessons. Although they are only a short distance from the city, health knowledge is relatively limited in this rural area, and the girls have found they are going back to basics in regards to hygiene and health. This week they have focused on first aid, the importance of water, teeth brushing and hand washing. Aileen has also been making house visits to villagers to assist with medical problems, and Maria and Chandini to the Provisional Hospital to observe the work they do there with physiotherapists, both interesting and educational experiences.

Over the weekend, five of us braved the long bus trip to Phnom Penh where we visited the eerie and shocking Killing Fields and S21 Building. The other three relaxed in Phnom Kulen, swimming below the serene waterfall there and relaxing at 'home' at Jasmine Lodge.

With the little time left we're trying to cram in as much as possible with both our teaching, health promotion and holidaying experiences too. Keep posted to see what else is yet to marvel us in this amazing corner of the world.