Salus Quaterly Newsletter Frontpage

WELCOME!

Mission statement: “Inspire and establish a network of committed volunteers a network in South-East Asia”

Preparation guidelines for volunteers

What to prepare for the volunteering trip? Healthcare and preparations tips before going to Cambodia are important, to ensure a safe and fulfilling journey. Visa issues, recommended vaccinations, climate conditions, and advice for potential volunteers. (Read more)

Upcoming project

Salus launches the new Safe breastfeeding project, a collaboration with Royal Angkor International Hospital. The community-based project aims to reduce mother-to-child transmission of HIV in Cambodia. (Read more)

Salus brings benefits to locals

The Salus Healthy Lifestyle Project has brought health education and basic hygiene to Cambodians. The locals are now enjoying a lower rate of disease and have improved their standard of living greatly. (Read more)

Celebrity Volunteer

Famous Korean Singer, Im Yoona, had just went to Phnom Penh with a group of Salus volunteers to educate the children. Below is her sharing of the whole experience. (Read more)

Salus salutes Best Volunteer 2009

Recognizing the outstanding effort of Alan Gan, a young Singaporean. (Read more)

About Us

Salus is a non-profit organization found by Nobel Peace winner, Dr Richard Matthew in 1991. The group focuses on the personal hygiene of citizens in the 3rd world country. Currently, Salus have 33 academies in 5 different countries. (Read more)

Preparation guidelines for volunteers

By Teo Jing Wen

CAMBODIA - Before one can become a volunteer in Cambodia, potential volunteers must first apply for a Business (E) visa which lasts for 13 weeks, and go for health vaccinations. The commonly required vaccinations are Diphtheria and Tetanus, Hepatitis A and B, Japanese Encephalitis and Typhoid. It is important to get vaccines as these diseases are easily contracted and fatal.

The Business (E) visa cost USD$1425, inclusive of airport pickup service, basic training, accommodation and transportation to the rural areas. With just US$100 per month, volunteers can get accommodation, food and basic necessities. As volunteers are only required to work for a minimum of four hours per day, they can spend the rest of the day on sightseeing etc. Entertainment and airfare expenditure are not included in the application fee.

From December to April, Cambodia experiences dry spell with temperatures soaring up to 40ºC. Volunteers are encouraged to drink lots of water to prevent dehydration and heatstroke. When teaching, volunteers are required to follow the dress code of short sleeve tops and knee length bottoms.

Volunteers are advised to have a portable first-aid kit to handle emergencies when travelling to rural areas. Such preparations can come in handy as medical aid are hard to come by in rural areas.

Personal gifts, games, storybooks, writing and teaching materials can be included in the packing list.

The volunteer placement organisation will take caution in arranging accommodations for the volunteers, but as street crimes are common in Cambodia, volunteers are advised to stay indoors at night. It is highly recommended to get insurance which covers the aspects of medical, accidents and crime.

For volunteers who require any medical assistance, quality medical facilities can be found in Phnom Penh, such as NAGA Clinic and the AEA International SOS. Despite medical assistance may be provided, volunteers are encouraged to bring along personal medication, as Cambodia faces a shortage of medical supplies. Volunteers are encouraged to remain in good conditions so that they can maximize their Cambodia trip.

Volunteers who wish to extend their stay in Cambodia are required to extend their visas at Phnom Penh Airport. Visa extension of six months to one year costs US$140 and US$260 respectively.

Upcoming project

By Ng Sei Li

[Breast feeding exercise at Royal Ankor International Hospital]

Salus is pleased to announce the launch of our Safe Breastfeeding Project. This is in collaboration with Royal Angkor International Hospital in Siem Reap.

The project serves to inform locals about exclusive and hygienic breastfeeding to HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) positive women in rural communities.

The project will target all HIV infected women, with the main focus on mothers and pregnant women. Our efforts aim to minimize mother-to-child transmission of HIV during breastfeeding process.

Fifty female volunteers will be selected to participate in an extensive two month course. This course consists of two parts:

1) Volunteers will have to attend daily lessons which educate them on HIV infection and childcare issues in rural Cambodia. Also, volunteers will be learning conversational Khmer language in order to communicate better with the locals.

2) Volunteers will undergo training on safe breastfeeding procedures and how to identify HIV symptoms. Upon the completion of the course, volunteers will be ready to impart their knowledge to HIV patients in Cambodia. The lessons and training are free and will be conducted by professional medical personnel from Royal Angkor International Hospital.

At the end of the course, the selected volunteers will act as breastfeeding advisors in the local communities.

A community-based project

As a community-based project, volunteers will move from one community to another. At each community, Salus will organize workshops in schools through the assistance of identified community leaders. The workshops will be conducted in Khmer language.

As breastfeeding advisors, volunteers will educate the participants on necessary preventive interventions during breastfeeding. These will help to decrease the risk of HIV infection in infants through breast milk.

Also, our volunteers will dedicate time for home visitations, providing personal attentions to the participants if needed.

The fight against AIDS

Cambodia is identified as the highest HIV prevalence Asia country by the World Health Organization (WHO). HIV causes Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) which eventually leads to death. This is common in Cambodia due to the lack of medical care.

In Cambodia, HIV is usually spread within the family. Almost half of new infections occur among married women. A third of all new children infections are due to mother-to-child transmission. [i]

Many of these HIV infected women tend to be discriminated by other people. Not only do they lack the crucial help needed against the virus, they are also clueless about the transmission process. Thus, children become vulnerable victims.

Currently, one in eight children [in Cambodia] dies before age five due to AIDS.[ii] Salus believes immediate attention is needed in this worrying situation.

As a result of the project, Salus hopes to decrease mother-to-children HIV transmission rate by 3 per cent.

The project is estimated to last for two years with an annual cost of US$5,000, fully funded by Salus Foundation.

Thus, let us work towards our mission. Let us work hand in hand to build and educate a nation of healthy Cambodian citizens.

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[i] Shantha Bloemen. (2008). UNICEF-supported programme cares for Cambodian children living with HIV. UNICEF. Retrieved from http://www.unicef.org/aids/cambodia_44760.html.

[ii] Agence France Presse. (2004). Media Campaign to Highlight HIV/AIDS Issues in Cambodia. Utopia-Asia. Retrieved from http://www.utopia-asia.com/aidscam.htm.

Salus brings benefits to locals

by Goh Xin Ying

[Chantrea, a Poum Steung school student]

CAMBODIA - It is amazing how a group of young men and women are able to better the lives of countless citizens in Cambodia. The Salus Healthy Lifestyle project has indeed taken off on a high note. Led by Dr. Elain Metthew, Vice-President of Salus and Head of the Volunteers Committee, volunteers have gathered from all over the world to help educate young children about the importance of leading a healthy lifestyle and maintaining basic hygiene in Cambodia. This has been achieved through mediums such as local schools, health centres and regular village visitations.

Salus activities have benefited the locals in several ways. By educating them about the value of maintaing a healthy lifestyle and basic sanitation, they can live longer lives and also reduce the risk of catching diseases. Eating the right balance of food provides them with nutrients and vitamins that are necessary for the body to grow and develop healthily.

Through regular exercising, they can develop a healthy body and strengthen their heart and muscles. Physical activity also helps to improve psychological health by lowering levels of anxiety, stress and depression, as well as building self-confidence and furthering social interaction among themselves.

At present, the locals lack basic healthcare knowledge such as proper hygiene, thus Salus was founded to fill in this gap. We teach rudimentary health education like healthy eating and keeping fit, proper hand washing and infection control practices for common diseases such as malaria. Targeting over 500 children a year, we hope to promote a healthy lifestyle and basic hygiene to the children.

"Overall, the lessons were fun and informative. It taught me a lot on how to live a healthy lifestyle and to be more aware of proper hygiene. Thank you Salus, for the lessons. I hope for more of such classes to help me learn more about keeping myself fit and healthy," said Chantrea, a student at the Poum Steung school in the Siem Reap Province of rural Cambodia, when asked to comment on the health education lessons.

Across the year, a wide range of healthy lifestyle and proper hygiene promotional activities have been held throughout Cambodia. Examples include health exhibitions and talks at local schools and communities, annual health fairs at cities such as Phnom Penh and Kampong Saom, travelling groups of volunteers who circulate the rural villages educating locals abouthealth issues, setting up of public forums to discuss health and hygiene topics and many more.

For the past year, we have been implementing a sanitation program that gathers overseas volunteers to travel to rural Cambodia, educating local villagers on the importance of correct sanitation and hygiene. Research has shown that almost 85 percent of the population has no access to adequate sanitation [1]. Videos were shown and talks were held to educate these locals on the importance of proper sanitation. Through this program, the cleanliness rate of the villages we have visited has gone up by 70 percent.

In the forthcoming years, Salus plans to expand its operations, building additional Salus branches in rural China and Vietnam to continue promoting health education to Asia.

We would like to thank all our volunteers for contributing their time and effort to our cause. We hope that you will continue to support Salus in our on-going efforts to bring a healthier world to those in need. All of us here and the people of Cambodia would like to say, "Ahkuhn chehran" (thank you very much).

[1] Humtechnet. (2009). "Floating toilets" sought as solution for Cambodia's sanitation needs. Humanitarian Technology Network. Retreived from http://humtechnet.com/node/876.

Famous Korean Singer Experiences with Salus

By Teo Wei Ling

[Im Yoona in Cambodia]

Im Yoona, a popular singer from Korea, has experience how it is like to be a volunteer in Kampot, Cambodia last month. The singer has come to Cambodia for a 6days voluntary work; helping out in Kampot orphanage. Below is a daily diary by Yoona

Day 1:

Once my flight landed on Phnom Penh International Airport, the staffs over there welcome us and we have a briefing over at their headquarters, a modest room in the office district of Phnom Penh. After the briefing, we went to get our necessary supplies.

Day 2:

Woke up and have breakfast at the hotel, I felt really peaceful since no one here knows me, which means a really quiet morning. We then drove all the way to our destination, Kampot, which is around 160 kilometres by road. We took around 3 hours to get to Kampot and another 1 hour up the hilly areas before we reach our destination, the Elephant Mountain. Went to check out our rooms before we meet up with the local volunteers there, spend some time bonding and understanding how are we going to proceed with our plans there, sounds like lots of fun to me.

Day 3:

Today is the day that we will meet the orphans there! And guess what? They actually prepare a performance to welcome us! How sweet of them! Proceed to play games and spend some time with them. As part of the program with Salus, I taught them on the practice of good personal hygiene, like covering of mouth/nose when sneezing or coughing, washing hands after touching of contaminated surfaces or matter. We went to the basin and trained them on the correct way to wash their hands using liquid soap and to wash them before and after eating too. We were unable to finish teaching as the kids spent quite some time playing with the water.

Day 4:

We continued our 'lessons' from yesterday by educating the kids on poor personal habits that they should not be doing such as digging nose/ear, putting fingers in mouth, rubbing of eyes and spitting. They should not share personal items like toothbrush and towels too. While educating them, we gave them a new set of towel, comb and toothbrush, hoping that they will practice what was taught to them. The only concept that seems difficult for them is the sharing of utensils and food and drinks. They have started sharing everything seems young, thus this idea seems to be more of a problem for them. We taught them some simple mathematics, Korean and English in the afternoon and they seem to really enjoy it!

Day 5:

Possibly the most tiring yet fun day, we taught the orphan on how to keep a healthy lifestyle by exercising near the field. We started with basic warm-up; followed by the correct way to run. We taught them badminton too. Playing badminton for the first time, the kids really enjoy the activities very much. We spend the whole day there. We had a small party at night and I gave out my presents to the orphans, a stationary box to each of them! I was so touched when they queue up to collect their presents, some even make sure everyone of their friend has one before they get theirs, seems to me they have found their family there. I cried a bit towards the end; guess I am going to miss these lovely kids. I hope they will grow up happily!

Day 6:

We left at around 7 in the morning, some of the kids were waiting to say goodbye to us. Reached the capital at around 11 plus and had our last meal there. I brought back with me lots of gift and memories. I can’t help but wonder when I will have another trip like this.

Salus salutes Best Volunteer 2009

By Rebecca Teo

[Children at school in Phnom Penh dancing to the jingles]

CAMBODIA - Alan Gan is Salus' best volunteer of 2009! The 23 year old hails from Singapore

and is currently an Arts and Social Science student studying at the National University of Singapore.

Alan has contributed more than 1500 hours of volunteer work with Salus. He traveled with Salus volunteers around Cambodia to different schools in cities such as Phnom Penh, Kandal and Siam Reap. The aim was to educate and raise awareness of health problems in the nation.

The young lad is involved in educating children about the practice of good hygiene, as well as informing teenagers in high schools about HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) and AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome).

Proficient in the Khmer language, Alan is a pioneer in using jingles in Khmer to educate children in the schools. He has created songs in the nation's first language, which incorporates healthy eating and proper hygiene practices for the children.

One of his popular jingles, "Healthy hands, healthy me and you" when translated into English, has been adopted nationwide in primary schools in Phnom Penh. Its wide spread popularity resulted in the jingle being posted online on Youtube.

With recent outbreak of diseases such as SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), coupled with the lack of proper sewage systems and the lack of education provided by the government, children in nations like Cambodia are most susceptible to its spread.

HIV and AIDS is also wide-spread in the nation. HIV-positive individuals often face discrimination due to a lack of understanding of the virus.

Alan gives talks about HIV and AIDS to Cambodian students in high schools.Despite his age, the 23 year old's professionalism and charisma displayed during his talks is beyond his years and well-known among fellow volunteers.

In his talks, he educates students to increase awareness on how HIV is transmitted, AIDS, as well as safe sex practices in general.

The undergraduate never fails to have one-on-one talks with the youths after each session, providing advice and additional information on the talks. However, Alan is not just about educating.

The joy he receives from the job is in the people he gets to meet and befriend. His down-to-earth personality and empathy has resulted in close bonds forged with many Cambodians whom he writes to even after his departure.

He spent all of his summer vacation in Cambodia, from the month of May to July, volunteering with a group of undergraduates from all over Singapore.

The reopening of a new school term did not deter Alan from the volunteer work he has come to love. While his peers returned to Singapore to continue their studies, Alan deferred his education for a semester in order to continue his selfless volunteering in Cambodia.

Alan is due home in December instead.

Alan explains his future involvement, "I will return to Cambodia one day, but for now, my wish is to tell everyone about my work at Salus; the best experience of my life".

Alan will receive the Best Volunteer Award 2009 at the annual Salus Dinner for Volunteers in January 2010.

About Salus:

By Alan Koh

[Dr. Richard Matthew with his sister, Dr. Elaine Matthew, in 2008]

In 1991, Nobel Peace winner, Dr Richard Matthew founded Salus, a non-profit organization which focuses on the personal hygiene of citizens in the 3rd world country.

Salus’s mission statement is “to build and educate a nation of healthy citizens”. Therefore, with this goal in mind, Salus emphasises on the importance of education over providing services. In addition, Salus welcomes volunteers from all over the world and provides training for volunteers who do not have prior knowledge of health education.

With 18 years of experience and effort, Salus expanded from 1 academy in Cambodia to the current state of 33 academies in 5 countries such as Vietnam, China, Burma, Laos and Cambodia. Salus has been given numerous awards from international bodies such as the United Nations since 1992, for raising health awareness in rural areas. Recently, Salus has been awarded the Global Health Awareness award from the World Health Organization (WHO) for educating the people about basic personal hygiene.

To accredit the effort of Salus, one should not forget about the founder, Dr Richard Matthew. The current President of Salus, was born in Switzerland in 1947 and completed his degree in medicine in 1970, specializing in Cardiothoracic at the General Hospital of Switzerland. In 1990, Dr Richard joined the United Nations in providing medical service to the chronically ill in Cambodia. At that point of time, he noticed that 80% of the diseases in rural areas can be prevented via proper hygiene maintenance. However, most people in rural areas are not familiar with the concept of hygiene maintenance.

By adhering to a firm belief that diseases can be prevented by maintaining good personal hygiene, Dr Richard Matthew returned to Cambodia in 1991 and set up the first Salus academy. At that time, the academy only had 3 volunteers and 1 doctor (to provide medical advise, update and emergency cases) on duty. Despite the lack of manpower, Salus worked hard in educating the public about health awareness. Currently, Salus has 4500 volunteers and 250 doctors around the world.

Nevertheless, Dr Richard is not fighting the battle alone. Dr Elaine Matthew, vice-president of Salus and also the younger sister of Dr Richard is joining him in the battlefield. Under the deep influence of Dr Richard, Dr Elaine quit her job in Salem Hospital in Switzerland to join her brother in 1992. Dr Elaine not only educates the locals on personal hygiene practices, she also provides lessons for new volunteers to ensure smooth communication between the locals and the volunteers. In addition, she is a counselor when the volunteers or locals need health advices or a listening ear.

Being both a volunteer and doctor, Dr Elaine understands the hardship and struggle of the volunteers. Hence, she always starts her lessons with the volunteers with a quote, "I do not pray for success, I ask for faithfulness". Nonetheless, despite her strict discipline, Dr Elaine is still the most inspiring mentor among the volunteers.

Contact Us

To make donations or to find our more about our volunteer program, visit us for more information at:

www.salus.org