How just ONE Dentist can make a Difference...
Sakka Foundation member Eugene Ng recently caught up with Kimserang, our sponsored dentist in Phnom Penh.

Kimserang works in a place called Happy Tree.    Happy Tree provides dental services for the children in the surrounding communities that would normally NEVER have dental care.  Dental care is no luxury…..this group is focused on serious preventative medicine.  Proper dental care can significantly reduce disease in an individual and their community, significantly improving the quality and length of their lives.     The Happy Tree clinic is open from  8 am – 5 pm every day, serving the community – and one or two days a week are solely devoted to care for children with HIV virus.  

Kimserang’s job is help to fix dental problems and heal patients of their “teeth woes.”  There is also a dental assistant working with Kimserang to take care of check ups and filling cavities.  

One of the greatest parts of this story is that Kimserang comes from one of the neighborhood slum communities.  EYC (the group that provides free education to some of the poorest of children in Phnom Penh) gave Kimserang the opportunity of a scholarship to university.  Now Kimserang is giving back himself by serving this community.  Kimserang also previously worked as a volunteer for Dr Annie (who originally set up the Happy Tree clinic).  

Links have already been created and are growing between the projects that Sakka Foundation and Cam Kids (UK Charity) support.   Students from the school we fund volunteer at other projects, and then eventually can gain employment from these projects, giving back themselves.  It’s a positive cycle …provide a step up for a kid, they take the initiative and study hard, and ultimately find an income and a way to give back.  

Equipment for the Happy Tree has been generously donated by a Taiwanese donor and other expenses have been sponsored by a New Zealand donor.  Cam Kids (UK charity) helps to sponsor the salary of a dental nurse helping Kimserang.  

By working together, and by helping each other….Kimserang and his team are making a huge difference to hundreds of children.