PURE! volunteer and supporting children

That's why a healthy lunch is required!

Last Friday, April 29, as many as seven employees of the Angkor Hospital for children visited our PURE! Dream Centre the entire day. This hospital provides free care annually to up to 120.000 children in Siem Reap and the surrounding area. The Angkor Hospital’s outreach program visits places like our PURE! Dream Centre to check the children’s health.

At 8 o'clock in the morning, they arrived with all kinds of materials and within no time the English classroom had a completely different purpose.  First, the children had to register themselves. Then, they were put on the scales and had their temperature measured. When this was done, it was time to see the doctor. Of course this was exciting and some children were even a little bit scared. The doctor listened to their heartbeat, checked their eyes and ears and asked them a lot of questions about their health. He wrote his findings down and handed out a prescription for medication if necessary. Severe cases would be referred to the hospital, because with 60 children on one day there is not much time for a thorough check. Luckily this was not necessary and most children appeared relatively healthy. All children received medication for parasites and a number of vitamins were prescribed.

It is shocking that the majority of the children at our PURE! Dream Centre is underweight. From all the children weighted, only 2% of them has a healthy weight. All the other children are underweight; 32% of them is severely underweight and another 19,5% is that far below the desired weight that is has serious consequences for their health. Hopefully our lunch program will change this situation soon! 

Because of this visit to centre, it was not very practical to continue the daily lessons. We were very happy that the mother of one of our volunteers had sent a cartoon for the children to watch. They really enjoyed it!