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| Dental Hygiene Instruction for Refugees | | Community Health and Well-Being
Poverty always brings with it a cost to those suffering. So often it is the children, the elderly and the widows who fail to overcome the trauma of preventable and treatable disease.
Effective Aid International is doing its part to assist the health and well-being of the people on the Thai-Burma border. Through the provision of clean water, sanitation and hygienic facilities to those who participate in our projects, we are partnering with other NGOs in the region in the provision of preventative health programs.
In our schools, educational programs on nutrition, hygienic living, preventing malaria and other mosquito borne disease, dental care and family planning are bringing positive results to the families and communities who participate.
Our Social Workers also address these issues on a daily basis as they embark on their task of identifying the needy and visiting homes in our target communities. They distribute soap, detergent for washing clothes, nutritious food parcels, mosquito nets and blankets as needed to the families. They both advise and assist in the building of hygienic toilets and wash facilities. Structured counselling programs are producing evident change in the mental health among the communities.
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| Food Aid for New Refugee Mothers | | One success story came from our school in Maela Oon Refugee Camp. In 2010 the camp was struck by a ‘flu epidemic. The children at our school were given instruction on hygiene and preventative measures to be adopted by them and their families. Most schools in the camp had more than half their children away sick – Effective Aid’s school of 500 children had less than 20 students absent!
Health and well-being is also being addressed through visiting medical and dental teams who give priority to our school students, staff and their families.
The Mercy Houses assist the poor and sick from North Thailand’s minority groups who have to travel to regional hospitals for specialist medical care. Situated adjacent to major hospitals, they provide accommodation, cooking facilities, counselling services and other assistance to patients, out-patients and their immediate families.
In Maela Refugee camp a Mercy House provides a similar service to the refugee community who access medical care at the camp hospital. Food is not provided to patients by the hospital, so our Mercy House provides cooking facilities to enable family to cook for patients. Over worked hospital staff also use the Mercy House as a centre for rest and meals.
In an average year more than 7000 nights of accommodation are provided through our Mercy House program in Chiang Mai City.
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