Volunteers Needed To Join Sight-Saving Efforts In Cambodia

Volunteers Needed To Join Sight-Saving Efforts In Cambodia. Hello everyone, I hope you are well. I will share an urgent press release from Khmer Sight Foundation in today’s post. Founded in 2015 by H.E. Sean Ngu and the late Dr Kim Frumar, Khmer Sight has continuously worked toward creating a brighter and more promising future for ophthalmologic care in Cambodia. Khmer Sight is looking for volunteers to join their next mission to Cambodia. Whether you are an ophthalmic specialist, an administrator or an ophthalmology student/intern, Khmer Sight would love to hear from you.

Volunteers Needed To Join Sight-Saving Efforts In Cambodia

Currently, over 180,000 Cambodians in Cambodia are blind, and 10,000 Cambodians suffer avoidable blindness each year. 79% is curable, and 11% is preventable. Three-quarters of blindness in Cambodia is due to cataracts, and the rest is due to uncorrected vision, glaucoma, corneal scarring and pterygium. Cambodia has one of the world’s lowest numbers of eye specialist doctors per capita. Ten per cent of the population lives below the poverty line; over 40% of Cambodians earn $2 daily. Most of the poor live in rural areas with no or limited eye care access.

The Khmer Sight Foundation, founded in 2015 by H.E. Sean Ngu and the late Dr Kim Frumar, has continuously worked toward creating a brighter and more promising future for ophthalmologic care in Cambodia. Since 2016, the organisation has also been led by Prof. Sunil Shah, a leading British Ophthalmic Surgeon from Birmingham, UK, who donates a significant portion of his time to returning to Cambodia to lead monthly missions which involve providing free eye surgery to those who are unable to access or afford proper care.

Khmer Sight’s vision is to train the next generation of eye care health professionals in Cambodia so that the country can become self-reliant in providing high-quality, safe and effective eye care. Khmer Sight aims to eliminate avoidable blindness in Cambodia and provide expert clinical training for all eye care health professionals recognised by overseas professional bodies.

Volunteers Needed

Khmer Sight is looking for volunteers to join their next mission to Cambodia. Whether you are an ophthalmic specialist, an administrator or an ophthalmology student/intern, Khmer Sight would love to hear from you.

Ophthalmologist Dr Priyanka Mandal (31), from the West Midlands, has joined three Khmer Sight missions to Cambodia and says the trips were ‘life-changing’.

“I love the work I do in the UK and was excited to travel to Cambodia to help make a practical difference to people with visual impairment. I had an amazing, eye-opening time. The trip broadened my perspective, and seeing so many people with such a severe sight impairment was a shock. You don’t see that in the UK.

“You go into medicine to help people, which was an efficient way of helping those who don’t have anyone else to go to. Without Khmer Sight and its volunteers, these people would not be able to access treatment. The KSF team in Phnom Penh were welcoming, and the patients were incredibly grateful. To see their faces light up when we restored or improved their vision was overwhelming.

“I also gained invaluable management and clinical experience while I was there. As a low-resource setting, we often had to think outside the box for problem-solving. The pathology was so severe and varied and a far cry from the clinical settings in the UK. My experience with Khmer Sight has improved my skillset and has made me a better doctor.”

I hope you enjoyed that.

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ABOUT KHMER SIGHT

Founded in 2015 by H.E. Sean Ngu and the late Dr Kim Frumar, Khmer Sight has continuously worked toward creating a brighter and more promising future for ophthalmologic care in Cambodia. Since 2016, the organisation has also been led by Prof. Sunil Shah, a leading British Ophthalmic Surgeon who donates a significant portion of his time to returning to Cambodia to lead monthly missions which involve providing free eye surgery to those who are unable to access or afford proper care.

http://khmersight.com/