Cambodian Mission A Success!
Thousands
of Cambodian children and adults had medical, dental and optical exams during
Operation Blessing’s mission in March. A small team of 18 medical
and support volunteers worked tirelessly in providing 7,131 medical services
in locations within Phnom Penh and its surrounding area. Find out more about
this one-of-a-kind mobile medical mission!
Miles of beautiful flat land
filled with rice paddies and banana trees surrounded Operation Blessing’s
outdoor medical clinic. It was the second week of the mission and the team
had arrived in their most unusual work place yet. They had left their temporary
“home” at 6:30 in the morning to drive two hours into a very
rural area. Only seeing a few houses mostly hidden by the trees, they set
up chairs, tables and equipment underneath the shade. Soon mothers with
little ones hanging on to their hips began appearing. Before the long day
was done, the medical stations had moved several times in order to stay
in the cover of the shade and hundreds of men, women as well as children
had seen a medical professional for the first time!
Many Cambodians are without access to medical care or can’t afford
it. During the first week of the mission, volunteers set up in five of
Phnom Penh’s poorest orphanages. There are two different types of
orphans. The first are children whose parents abandoned them or died.
The second are those whose parents can’t afford to feed them. These
children sleep at home but attend the orphanage’s school and receive
three meals every day. More than 430 orphans as well as the orphanage
staff received medical care! The team treated a lot of parasite and skin
infections. After the orphans had been treated each day the gates opened
to the waiting public.
After returning from the day’s site, a few team members had to
repack supplies for the next day. Mission leader, Dwight Lohrenz relayed
that they were often helped by volunteers from a partnering ministry making
it " a real team effort." Even with such a successful mission
behind him, Dwight reflected, “We didn’t even scratch the
surface. Every day people were turned away.”
There are countless people around the world who are in critical need
of basic health care right now. Operation Blessing wants to end their
cycle of suffering, but we can’t do it without your help.
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