Supporters of Ponheary's work...help needed
 

Hi all...I don't know if you are aware, but the school in Koh Ker has had an outbreak of malaria and dengue fever. Ponheary is trying to help them as much as she can, but the money that's collected through the foundation can't be used for medicine, only for school supplies.

If any of you are interested in helping out...write to her or Lori and I'm sure they would be extremely grateful!

How do we write to Ponheary or Lori?

Lori's e-mail is [email protected]
Ponheary's is [email protected]

I know they've just had one boy die, and another one is suffering not only from malaria and dengue, but has TB as well!

The problem is not only the money for medicine, but Koh Ker is 3 hours from Siem reap, so it's expensive to even get there and back!

I'd try Lori first...

Thanks heymo!

I'll try Lori first.

I've emailed Lori to find out where people can contribute.

We went to Koh Ker School in December. At the time, one of the teachers had Malaria. The kids seems to be suffering from "general malaise" and malnutrition.

When they went back a few weeks later to bring more supplies, they discovered that most of the kids were ill with very high fevers and malaria. As far as I know, they found donations at the time to help cover medicine and doctor's costs. There was a lot of hope that once the kids got well, the focus on learning could start.
I'm very sad to hear they've either not gotten better, or there's been a reoccurance of everyone getting sick.

If anyone wants to see photos of the school, they are on my website:
http://www.wired2theworld.com/Cam2007SiemReapDay4.html

I'll let you know when I hear from Lori.

We are taking loads of chewable acetaminophen and chewable Vitamin C with us in March, as requested by Lori. Please post here if there is anything else (relatively light) that we can bring. I will email Lori right before our departure.
Liz

I will be interested to hear what you find out from Lori Kristina. I will not email her yet but wait to see what you find out. I had a look at your photos which were great & the best thing was I recognised some of the kids from when we were there in Oct 2006! One interesting thing is that it looks like you were able to drive all the way to the school. We had to walk from the main road as their had been some heavy rain in the previous weeks and there was no way we could drive. You should have seen Ponheary's face when we got there and the road was gone and she thought we wouldn't be able to get to the school. But we loaded up our backpacks and each carried extra bags of school supplies. It took about an hour to walk to the school and it was hot & humid! So we were quite a sight when we got there! It was all so very sorth it though.
J

Please do post here what we can do. That way we won't all email Lori at once!

Another request to please post any further information from Lori. So many of us have been deeply moved by our experiences with Ponheary and Lori in SR.

I have just finished packing 150 pounds of supplies to take to an orphanage for HIV+ kids in Ethiopia later this week. I'm sure my 1 week volunteering there will be an amazing experience...but a piece of my heart is still in Siem Reap and I just wish I had more to give!

Here's part of the last e-mail I got from Ponheary...

I just got the call from the doctor about one kid got the serious Dengue fever and has to be sent to emergency help.
That one has three problem malaria,Typhoid Fever,Dengue and problem with the intestine (I don't know the word for that fever).
So we have to pay the transportation for both way that cost one way 100USD and I don't how much the way back.
This is the emergency problem and last the kids died because no way to help because the family has no money to do it on time.

We are going to Koh Ker on Feb. 26 & I will be at Knar Primary on Feb. 28, if there's anyone in the L.A. area that wants me to bring a check to Ponheary, let me know. We depart LAX Feb. 16, so it would have to be this week.

I hope that they are taking precautions with the acetomenophine with the kids, as it's very easy to OD children with Tylenol. It doesn't take much to cause liver failure in small, malnourished children.

I have an email address on Trip Advisor & post under the same name, you could email me there w/ your phone number.

BTW, how does one get typhoid? From dirty water, correct?

I emailed Ponheary to let her know we will be in Koh Ker on Feb. 26, in case she'd like us to take supplies.

The kids need multivitamins, not vitamin C, they are malnourished... they need vitamins that include iron & calcium for growing bones & blood production & the other necessary vitamins... bread & noodles have no vitamins... it just fills an empty stomach... so if Ponheary needs us to take supplies, I am going in a van w/ porter, in addition to my driver & guide Te.

Typhoid is a food and water-bourne illness, spread the same way as Hep A.

AskOksana...I'm sure Ponheary will be thrilled with the supplies you're bringing! I may try to send you a check myself this week...can you send me the pertinent info to my e-mail address and I'll get it to you today or tomorrow. I don't live in the L.A. area but I'm sure I can get it to you in time.

After being there in January I can understand what motivated Lori to do what she's doing, and I am working on things here in Detroit to get as much help to those kids as I can! every little bit helps...

I emailed you Heymo...

I'm leaving this Saturday at night, also I don't know if you should send a personal check or a cashier's or how to make it out... UPS will get it here by Friday...

We go to Khao Lak before Siem Reap

<i>The kids need multivitamins, not vitamin C, they are malnourished...</i>

Lori specifically asked us to bring Vitamin C, so that is why we chose to do so. She did not mention multivitamins.

Greetings Fodors Friends.

Ponheary and I are often floored by the kindness and generosity of the travelers on Fodors.

I just posted an update regarding situation at Koh Ker on the PLF website.
http://tinyurl.com/hg2sj

To circumvent any discussion about what kinds of vitamins these kids might need, that issue is under careful consideration of someone in the medical field who understands all too well the nutritional problems of these kids. The chewable vitamin C is a difficult thing to find in Siem Reap and it greatly aids those who are recovering from Malaria in doing some simple immune system building. Vitamin C is not all the children are taking, but we leave that up to the medical staff..

Please do not start taking all manner of drugs and vitamins to kids there. As AskOksana touched on, these things should be administered by a health care professional. We are only suggesting to the people who ask, that they might bring US the things that are easily brought across borders and that we know the doctor is using, so we don't have to buy them here.

One last piece of guidance. It's not necessary go to all the trouble to send money straight to Ponheary. Donations can be made to the Foundation in Texas, properly accounted for and wired forward.

One last plea...I need to get connected to someone in Doctors without Borders. Anyone with any connections in Cambodia, please let me know.

Again, thanks to all.
Lori &amp; Ponheary
[email protected]

Lori,
Did you find a connection to Doctors Without Borders?

crosschk, no not yet. Many leads going no where.....

Lori, I'm looking for a Doctors without Borders connection... I'll let you know.

Lori - I don't know if it's much help but I found an article on the MSF.ca website which names the head of mission for Cambodia - his name is Philippe Berneau - and this might be his email address

[email protected]

Thanks for these leads. I am following up on these this morning.

Feel like I want to say one last thing about this. The situation at Koh Ker is no different today than it is any other day. There is no &quot;malaria outbreak&quot; per se. This goes on up there every day. The people in that province suffer greatly from living in the elements with very little medical care or education.

The number of children we found who were ill is nothing new. It's always like that for them.

So, it is no more or less dangerous to go to Koh Ker than it ever was, and really it's not dangerous at all, just need to take the proper precautions like smart travelers always have. Spray some DEET, cover yourself up, no black clothes, the usual drill.

Don't be afraid to go to Koh Ker.

Hi Lori-

Thanks for reminding us that this kind of &quot;health crisis&quot; is in fact what these families experience every day.

Do the children/families in the effected areas have bed nets?
Are any NGO's active in distributing nets, as they are in places in Africa?

Hi Lorna

Yes many have nets. There are NGOs whose sole purpose it is to distribute them. But nets are for sleeping under. Malaria mosquitos bite at dawn and dusk. No one is under a net at dawn (they're already up). Maybe by dusk, they would be under it, at least maybe the kids. And nets don't help at all with Dengue. In the middle of the afternoon when the dengue bugs are out, so is everyone.

I'm not saying the nets don't work, they do address the problem, but they in no way solve it completely. There would have to be a strict adherence to being under them at key times and when everyone is out scrambling around for a bowl of rice that's hard. &quot;Key times&quot; at Koh Ker would be from the minute the sun comes up till it goes down. How do you do that? These are just my thoughts....

Once, we went to a village a couple of weeks behind another NGO who had distributed sleeping nets and the villagers were using them to seine for fish. Cambodians are nothing if not practical.

What's really needed here is education (again, and always). The villagers need to understand what's causing these illnesses so they might choose to put the kids under the nets at dusk, for instance, and then there's the issue of basic hygiene. Many issues could be avoided if people were simply washing their hands.

The villagers need to know malaria is not caused by jungle spirits, for example and that there are effective and inexpensive medical treatments for these illnesses. This is the task at hand for the good doctor and he is making big strides, gaining the trust of the villagers as they see their kids getting well under his care.

Every time I see a problem in Cambodia, my mind seeks the solution and it always traces back to EDUCATION.

Lori, the PLF is doing wonderful work. I'll be sending you a check.

Lori-

Thanks for taking the time to post here and for pointing out that while there are a lot of sick kids at Koh Ker, this is an ongoing issue.
Our instinct is to say, “how can we fix this&quot; and move on. I don’t think there is a clear cut answer. Education and prevention will help.

I'd like to point out that we went to Koh Ker in December with no ill effects. Yes, I wore long pants, socks, and slathered on the mosquito repellant. I did not get one bite. It's safe. Go. Take precautions, but go.

<b> What can we do?</b>
If you look at the PLF website, www.theplf.org, you can see that the foundation has determined the costs for ongoing medical treatment and prevention is estimated at $400 per month.

I am going to donate $35 per month to the medical fund for Koh Ker (the website is set up to allow for automatic monthly donations). That's $420 a year.

If another 11 people could do the same, we could cover the medical expenses in full for a year.

Because it was my group's donation which started the formal adoption of this school, I feel a sense of connection and a desire to &quot;do something&quot;. I will ask my friends if they can help, but because they donated so generously only a few months ago, I don't know how many will do so now.

There have been quite a few of you here who have been touched by Ponheary, Lori and the kids in Cambodia. Some of you have been to Koh Ker, some will be going.
I've seen both the &quot;success&quot; schools in Siem Reap and this school out in the jungle. The difference is night and day. The potential is there to give those kids the same opportunity as the ones in Siem Reap, but first, they have to get and stay healthy. I'm hoping that we can help with that.

I'm in for $35 per month/$420 per year. (Thanks for doing the math on that Kristina).

Just a few more Fodorites to sign on and we can pay for the full year of treament for these kids.

I just made my donation.

Something to note if you do this:
Put the amount at $420 for the donation.
Fill out all the info, and on the last page before you submit, you will be given the opportunity to select that you want it to be done in 12 installments.

cruisinred-Yay!! Thanks so much for helping! :-)

Count us in!
I just signed up for $35/month for Koh Ker.

Ah, geez...I'm in.
$ 35 a month is a manicure pedicure---I can give it up--and I challenge anyone to say that they do not over spend $35 a month somewhere...I am proud of the fact that this group is so repsonsive to the needs of others.

Lori--you have our love--hugs to Ponheary.

We also just sent an additional (one time) donation.

Thanks to everyone -from Ponheary to Lori to all the contributors- for taking part in this worthwhile cause. It's only one needy little corner in a big world, but what a difference ti will make to those who live in that corner.

Lcuy you said it well. Someone asked me not too long ago if it wasn't overwhelming to think about all the kids who need help and realize we can't help all of them.

I have never thought of it that way.

I think instead that we can't be something to everyone but we can be everything to someone. Good not to focus on what you can't do, but what you can.

Thanks everyone for doing what you CAN do. It means everything to these 2,000 kids Ponheary has her arms around.

Lori,

I want to clarify what I was saying... about Tylenol. The US FDA just said that 'cold remedies' do not work on infants. There have also been many deaths amongst children &amp; infants from ACCIDENTAL overdoses because Tylenol liquid come in VERY different dosages depending upon if it's for infants or children. In one you give a dose but in the other that same dose is like 100x the strength... so many parents bought one pediatric Tylenol &amp; gave the correct dose &amp; the next time bought an infant Tylenol, gave the same dose &amp; killed their child. I don't have kids, I don't know which is which, but I wanted to make certain that the doctors/nurses &amp; teachers who may be giving out Tylenol are aware that the children's formulas are different from one another.

Also, studies have found that vitamin C has a minimal effect on the immune system, that the RDA of vitamin C is not the mega-dose that some Americans are still taking... and that vitamins work synergistically--- you need B vitamins to metabolize C &amp; you need E vitamin to metabolize B &amp; you need D &amp; magnesium to metabolize calcium &amp; D to metabolize A.

If the kids are eating ramen noodles, they are getting energy but no vitamins, which is why I suggested multivitamins for CHILDREN, which usually have iron &amp; calcium in them. The kids may be anemic too... especially if they are not eating red meat or dark green veggies.

Unlike European doctors, many US doctors do not study nutrition in medical school, so they may not recommend vitamins, as it's not something that is taught in medical schools.

Bringing malnourished children multivitamins will not hurt them. In certain areas of Africa one dose of vitamin A helps prevent a form of blindness.

We will be going to Koh Ker on Feb. 26, if you want to put supplies into our van, please let Ponheary know as she &amp; our guide Tek are in contact with one another... We depart from Raffles @ 7:30 AM on Feb. 26.

thanks AskOksana for the offer to transport and the information. I feel the administration of any drugs, vitamins or whatever is best left to the medical staff on the ground, who are aware of more of the variables than you or I could ever hope to be. Yes, they are aware of the potential dangers of acetomenaphin

Yes the kids eat rice. Yes they eat Ramen noodles. They also eat morning glory vines, frogs, eels from the rice fields, fish, insects, whatever vegetables they can grow and pretty much anything else that can be ingested. They also suck on palm sugar so their teeth are prematurely rotten too.

I do understand about the nutritional value of a balanced diet. It's one of the many things many children in Cambodia don't have access to. So they (and we) do the best they (and we) can. Sometimes having a full belly is a wonderful thing.

I hope you enjoy your trip!

Lori,

With all the donations you are getting, if you need me to transport supplies in the van to the doctor at Koh Ker let Ponheary know... as she has all the information on where to meet us on Feb. 26.

I explained to Ponheary that unlike pharmacies in Asia, France &amp; Polynesia, where you can just walk in &amp; buy antibiotics &amp; other Rx, in the US we need a doctor to write an Rx.

Tourists can certainly bring vitamins to give to your MD, my concern was with the Tylenol as it comes in so many different strengths &amp; I don't know if the doctor in Koh Ker reads English.

I am always running into Americans (many of them foreign born) who are not aware that &quot;Nyquil&quot; contains acetomenophin &amp; that you can't take that w/ Tylenol or with a cough syrup that also contains acetomenophin... as you risk liver damage.

If you need me to bring medical supplies to your MD in Koh Ker, let Ponheary know.

I am so thrilled with everyone here who has jumped in and contributed to this specific cause.

lcuy, I'm with you on your sentiment. It may be a drop in the bucket in the greater scheme of things, but it's a big pool of water for these kids! :-)

Lori-let us know how we're doing here, ok? I'd really like to see if you get enough contributions to cover a year's medical expense for Koh Ker.

AskOksana:

<i>I explained to Ponheary that unlike pharmacies in Asia, France &amp; Polynesia, where you can just walk in &amp; buy antibiotics &amp; other Rx, in the US we need a doctor to write an Rx.
</i>

I don't really see how this is applicable given that everything being donated is OTC. Unless I missed it, no one mentioned antibiotics.

Furthermore, they have medical staff at Koh Ker. I am 100% sure that no one is just handing out acetaminophen to children without considering dosage.

As Lori and Ponheary know, Tim is a pharmacist and could assist with dosage. However, his assistance is unnecessary because of the quality of care they are receiving from experts in the field.

First of all, let me apologize for incorrectly phrasing the situation in Koh Ker at the outset. When we were in Siem Reap in early January, it was my impression that this was a new and potentially critical situation. By no means did I intend to make it sound like people should not visit Koh Ker. Because it is SO remote,they need all the visitors they can get to bring the situation into the forefront.

Since we have been home I have been in touch often with Lori and Ponheary, and thought others who share their passion and dedication might want to help with Koh Ker. I knew there were some obstacles to using funds donated for education supplies toward medicine and such, since that was not part of the original tenets of the foundation. I am happy to hear that Lori and the board were able to resolve that issue...

That being said...I am very happy that so many of you are as interested in helping as I am. I have signed on to help with the breakfast program at Koh Ker, and will join Kristina and cruisinred and Krismom and pledge the $420...

I made a presentation to my middle school students yesterday, and they have already raised $50 since yesterday! I am quite proud of them...

To quote the back of the foundation t-shirts...

&quot;I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.&quot;

Lori, Might have good news re: Doctors Without Borders. Will contact you later today or tomorrow.