Work

Yes, we are doing some-sadly our week long holiday escape is already feeling far away. This week we have been busy exploring other organisations who may be able to help us in our work, or who we may be able to offer services to in the future.

Firstly we went to visit the All Ears Cambodia Clinic, (http://www.allearscambodia.org) founded by Glyn Vaughn. He and his highly trained Khmer staff offer audiology services to some of Cambodia's most deprived people. They have the technical expertise and equipment to make a comprehensive assessment of hearing difficulties as well as fit and make hearing aids. In addition to the clinic in Phnom Penh, Glyn and his team also carry out much needed outreach work in a number of Cambodian provines. If this was not quite impressive enough, All Ears staff have written and published the first audiology text books in Khmer - groundbreaking work when you consider that many texts relating to medical topics are in French or English and may be inaccessible to all but the most successfully bi or tri lingual Khmer students. The clinic has agreed to accept referrals of patients from the CSC (ear infections/disease are extremely prevalant in the cleft palate population and require treatment to prevent worsening infection and speech and language difficulties). In return for their support and help we aim to provide them with four sessions of training about speech and language in the hearing impaired population.

We have also been fortunate to visit CASC house which stands for the Cambodian Acid Survivor's Charity (http://www.cambodianacidsurvivorscharity.org). This is a sister project to the CSC, where many burns survivors have been treated for their physical injuries. CASC house aims to treat the survivors mroe holistically by assessing their mental and emotional well-being and by providing non-judgemental support. Training programmes have been initiated to provide survivors with new skills and hope for the future. Acid attacks are a common form of violence in Cambodia, and women are more often victims than men. These premeditated attacks are often linked to spousal jealousy over a husband's mistress and the social stigma surrounding the attacks can often make rehabilitation an even more difficult journey for patients. It's also not unknown for children to be caught up in the violence. The image of sleeping children being burned with the acid destined for its mother is an emotive one, and the charity needs support to help in its battle to bring about legal reform and raise awareness of the issue.

Last year's project helped some acid survivors by offering techniques to manage saliva and support communicaation. This year we have been offered space within CASC house to treat patients from the CSC. At the same time it may be possible to assess the need for speech and language therapy at the centre.