Volunteer work - Cambodia and Cameron Highlands.

While we were studying our degree in IIUM, the students were exposed to volunteerism and we were involved in lots of community outreach programmed. We visited orang asli villages in rural Pahang and did medical check ups. It has been more difficult to volunteer since I have started working, the last time I did some volunteer work was helping with food packing and distribution with Mercy Mission a few years ago. I wanted to make sure I used the time I was in UTM KL to give back. During my MBA, I had the chance to volunteer as in Cambodia during my first year of study and Cameron Highlands during the second year .

Year 1: Kampung Jumnik, Phnom Penh, Cambodia.  I joined Permai Budi, on their annual trip to Kampung Jumnik, a Malay (Melayu Champa) village few hours drive from Phnom Penh. It was my first time joining them, they have been coming to this village since 2009 and transformed it. Physically, by building an actual school called the Fikry High School (named in honour of their biggest donor) and also changing the livelihood of the villagers. Fikry High School is pictured above, it recently received an additional block.  

There were three teams, the medical team which did medical check ups and dispensed medications for the villagers, the dental team which did dental treatment and procedure and the sunat team who performed the circumcision for the locals. We were joined by our brethren from Indonesia, which lead the circumcision team and they brought their own patented smart clamp called the Sunathrone, which we used. Since I missed my surgical days, I mostly joined them and did several circumcisions. 

We distributed staple food and cooking items to the locals and saw how the lived. The village was just beside the Mekong River and they were very poor. After doing our work, we got a chance to visit their capital city, Phnom Pehn.  

I took pictures with random monks again, they didn't speak English this time. We also met with Fikry Highschool alumni who went on to further their studies to tertiary level (not pictured). 

 

Me and fellow volunteers, other doctors and pharmacists who joined the trip. We visited the cornfields, it was very dry and dusty and we saw the great Cambodian sun set. It was a trip to remember, I'm glad we got to the chance to go abroad one last time just before the world stood still and the pandemic took over. 

Year 2: Pos Lemoi, Cameron Highlands, Pahang. 

More recently, I had another chance to do some volunteer work. This time with Prof Asan Ali, our economics professor to help with data collection for his research. We went to Pos Lemoi, a restricted Orang Asli settlement a few hours off road from Cameron Highlands. We needed a permit to enter and to get there, we had to go off road. 

Posing in front of the villagers house after we did our data collection. 

Some villagers lived deeper in the jungle and we had to make a 6 hour trek just to get to them. It was a wet day, and I brought along my trusty yellow umbrella. 

Everyone still happy, as we didnt know that the rain would not stop and we would hike until midnight!

We had to cross several rivers, and posed on one of the logs. 

On the way to one of the villages, our vehicle got stuck during a river crossing, since it rained so much the previous night, the river was deeper than usual, and there was mud. 

We managed to winch the vehicle out with the help of the local boys an settled for the night. We had a nice moonlit dinner. 

  The next morning we enjoyed our breakfast by the water. 

The whole team happy that we managed to complete what we set out to do, we posed just before we were about to head back home. 

It was a great experience for all of us. Some were tested physically, during the arduous trek and back. One person was injured, but we soldiered on and encouraged them to keep going. It was good to keep morale up but Prof Asan showed us how to be a good leader and make tough calls. We has been hiking in the dark for several hours by then, there was limited headlamps and some batteries were running out. It usually better to keep the group together but he had to decide to split up the group, he instructed the faster team to go ahead and get some help from the villagers, while the rest kept on hiking slowly according to their pace. 

I lead the team back, we walked back quickly with our guide (two orang asli boys). When we reached the village, we requested they help bring back the injured person by motorcycle. That portion of the trek was accessible by dirt bike, but it was near midnight and they had at least 2 hours trek ahead of us. We were so relieved everyone survived the hike and came back safely.   

On another occasion we were tested with quick thinking, for example during the river crossing pictured above, our 4x4 got stuck in the mud. I thought to myself, is it normal for the car to not be moving. I thought the driver was playing a prank on us, as he was always kidding and joking. As I sat there, there was a small puddle of water forming in the car. As I looked at my feet and watched the water rise, I thought to myself, is it normal to have water in the car like this? I remained calmed as everyone was trying to figure out how bad our situation actually was. We had to escape and climbed out of the front door passenger windows. I quickly thought to grab everyone's wallets and handphones for safekeeping. My partner (pictured above) who was in the car with me was occupied with getting the car unstuck. She managed to help winch the car out by hooking it to a tree on the other side of the river.   

My favourite part of the whole experience was again meeting new people. Apart from us the business students, the others had various backgrounds such as architecture, finance and economics. One recently got back from Milan and Turkey and we had a lot to talk about as we exchanged out travel stories.