So it has been a different but exciting week this week.
On Monday we went to Khmer Soviet Friendship hospital for Day 3 of the Smile Cambodia mission. Our first job was to get a document translated into Khmer about how to care for children after cleft lip and palate operations and how to feed them. We thought this was very important as sometimes cleft repairs can get infected and break down if they aren’t looked after properly, leading to poor speech and feeding outcomes and the need for further surgery. We also were able to have a quick look at some surgery going on for a cleft lip in the operating theatres. They managed to get over 50 operations done during the mission over 3 days, so as you can imagine it was very busy! Another way we helped was by playing with children waiting to go in for operations and provide a speech development video in Khmer for their parents to watch. Although this isn’t an ideal time to give out information to parents, some of the families have travelled a long way to Phnom Penh for the mission and we would not be able to reach them otherwise.
On Tuesday we visited Samnang at CSC again and while we waited for the twins to arrive, Kristin and I talked Samnang through the planned activities and the rationale behind them. The twins didn’t turn up in the end but it is just one of those things! Their mother was ill and couldn’t bring them in but hopefully we will continue therapy with them next week. While we had some spare time, we thought it would be a good idea to do some training with Samnang about different speech activities and help him to plan a presentation he will hopefully give to an MDT meeting about ADHD.
We didn’t go to Military hospital on Wednesday as Dr Nous Sarom was working with the Smile Cambodia mission so we used this as our admin day instead of Monday. In the evening we went to the closing ceremony for the Smile Cambodia mission and the son of the Prime Minister made a speech. This is the closest we have come to meeting a Cambodian celebrity! All volunteers received certificates thanking them for their support with the mission. It was really nice to see some of the volunteers we met on Saturday and Monday and thank them again for their help with translating for us.
Friday was a very busy day at National Paediatric Hospital and One-2-One. We took another UK Speech and Language Therapist with us, Sam, who normally works in schools but wanted to find out more about cleft. We saw around 15 children from 8.30 until 12 and the time flew past! As well as the cleft cases we saw one child with possible hearing difficulties or language delay and another child with possible learning difficulties and referred them to either All Ears Audiology service, CCAMH (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services) or both. I think we both really enjoy Fridays because it is so fast-paced and also involves on-the-job training for Chanthy our speech adviser, so there is lots to think about! In the afternoon, we went with Chanthy to One-2-One, an NGO which trains medical professionals from Cambodia to work in the communities and slums. Here we are planning to do some training on four Friday afternoons, all about the importance of Speech and Language Therapy in cleft lip and palate and other related conditions.
The first of our four sessions was about introducing Speech and Language Therapy and why it is important and providing information about the anatomy of speech and particularly the types of speech difficulties people with cleft lip and palate have. It was very rewarding and everyone really got involved in our silly activities! We hope that raising awareness of speech, language, communication and swallowing difficulties among Khmer health professionals such as doctors and nurses, will raise the profile of Speech and Language Therapy in Cambodia.
So that was Week 7 and it has been a whirlwind! We hope you have enjoyed reading about our work with the City-Cambodia Project so far.
You can also follow our adventures and learn more about cleft lip and palate on the Cleft Lip and Palate Association’s (CLAPA) web site.
Your cleft team,
Lauren and Kristin