Rouge and says he was fortunate to escape it. Now he is determined to
give something back. That's why he'll be traveling with other doctors
to Cambodia in next year as part of a medical mission to provide
health care to some of the country's neediest.
"I came from Cambodia," he told VOA Khmer. "I saw it and lived it. Now
our lives here have gotten better, and if we don't help the poor, it's
like we are heartless."
Chan, a family medicine practitioner who is the vice president of the
Cambodian Health Professionals Association of America, will travel
with a team of doctors and volunteers to Koh Kong province from Jan.
30 to Feb. 4. They will provide free medicine and medical and dental
care. They will also meet with Cambodian doctors, nurses, students and
volunteers to share their experience.
"I want to help them because they need help, just like I did, 20 or 30
years ago, during the Khmer Rouge," he said.
This will be the association's second mission to Cambodia. Last year,
the Long Beach, Calif., organization saw around 5,000 people, much
more than they were prepared for.
This year, they have more volunteers, said Tang Song, who is a doctor
and the president of the association. "In the next mission, we hope to
add more doctors and physicians that have specializations in optometry
or even surgery," he said. "And we need more volunteers in dental
care, because it's highly needed in Cambodia."
"Some people had never seen a doctor once, even though they were in
their fifties," said Visal Nga, a specialist in internal medicine who
will travel again to Cambodia this year. "Problems like heartburn,
back pain, we can give them medicine, but some people have chronic
diseases like diabetes that really need to be taken care of."
Last year, the group had expected to see some 500 patients a day.
Instead, they saw 1,000. This year, they hope they will be prepared.
The doctors say that even though they will be in Koh Kong, anyone from
Cambodia is welcome.
Long Beach, California
Cheang Sophinarath, VOA Khmer
California Doctors Prepare for Mercy Mission to Cambodia
23 November 2011
