Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
We know that an incredible territory and is going to
be well, leading a team heading across to help remove
cataracts and provide other treatment to restore vision to hundreds
of residents in Cambodia. Now, Helen somers Am joins me
on the line. Oh, dear, I think I'm having an
issue there with the phone line. Hopefully I've got a
(00:22):
good morning, Helen.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Oh hi is that you, Katie?
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Yes it is. Can you hear me?
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Yes? Thank you?
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Oh, it's lovely to have you on the show. Now, Helen,
you and a team are organized to head across to
Cambodia to remove cataracts and provide other treatment to restore
vision to hundreds of residents. How many are heading across
as part of the team to go to Cambodia, We have.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
It about fifty professionals Allied Health, nurses, doctors, ALAID Health,
plus probably another fifty some of who will live in Cambodi,
which shows support adding as meals, transport for the patient
to the hospital, setting up there, bedding and things like that,
feeding them, interpreters which are very valuable registrations. So it's
(01:11):
probably about one hundred and the whole team over the
eight days and we'll see over four thousand people.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Wow, Helen, so are you over there yet? Well, Wendy,
you head across.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
I go tomorrow evening tomorrow. We go earlier to help
set out And how.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Many of that team of around one hundred of Territorians.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
There's two of us going this year. We've got two
optometrists from Darwin. We have a team of twelve, which
is the largest group we've had. I organized the optometry team,
four authopters, nine surgeons, twenty five nurses and so on.
But most of them are spread across Australia. But it's
great to have the Northern Territory represented.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Yes, Helen, that is incredible. What made you start doing
this and how long have you been doing it?
Speaker 2 (01:58):
This had been my fifth year. Yeah, it is a
huge need over there. These people are incredibly humble. They
wait for twelve months sometimes to see us if they've
missed out the previous year. They'll wait patiently all day.
We start at six thirty in the morning and there'll
be six hundred people waiting to see us. So we
(02:18):
make up six hundred glasses. We'll do over six hundred
cataract surgeries, will give away over eighteen hundred ready made glasses.
It really is the gift of site and impacts their
life so much because if we don't get their cataracts out,
and these cataracts are more advanced than the cataracts we'd
(02:39):
see in Australia, as in we have them done quite
early in comparison, and therefore the surgery itself is more complicated,
and we're talking about doing it with less standard equipment
than we would have in our Australian hospital. So our
surgeons obviously have to be very experienced in very skill,
which they are. But if we don't get the cataracts out,
(03:01):
that grandmother or parent will have to be cared by
their children and those children will not be educated. So
the impact on their lives is huge. And as I say,
they sometimes work for walk for days. They will sit
there all day long until they're seen, and Australians can
learn a lot from this. They're so humble, they just
sit there and wait. There's no phones, they're very, very poor,
(03:23):
they just sit and wait for their turn. They're incredibly grateful.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Helen, what an incredible thing to do to be involved with.
So you coordinate these from the Northern Territory.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
I organize the optometry teams and go over earlier. There's
a small group of us who go over and help
set up, and we'll have a lot of Cambodian setting
up because we'll use a lot of outside areas, so
they'll be putting up marquees and always they make a
beauty with curtains and bows and rhythms and things like that.
And the locals there, you know, provide the fresh food
and bring that in. So it's we also collect well,
(04:01):
besides already made glasses, we collect pre love glasses. So
everybody's pre loved glasses is somebody else's gift of sight. Wow,
So it's you know, we can all give. We do
a lot of fundraising as well. Everyone is a volunteer
and we're totally reliant on sponsors and gifts.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
This is this is blowing my mind, Helen, hearing that
you go across and do this every year, and you know,
hearing what you and a wonderful group of people have
been doing for the last five years. How did you
go across to Cambodia, you know a few years ago
and realize the need or what sort of made you
(04:40):
get this all started?
Speaker 2 (04:43):
This Cambodia Vision were set up about fifteen years ago
and the founders are all you may, survivors of the
Camerouge many years ago, and they're Cambodians. So we have
a lot of Cambodians living in Australia who are involved
in setting it up. And I'm just a volunteer in
(05:03):
that team. So there's you know, it's been going on
for some people have been you know, there might be
their tenth or twelth visit over there lay every October.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
I love that you say you're just a volunteer. You
are literally helping to restore people's site. You're helping people
to be able to see again. Helen, You're a bloody legend,
is what i'd call you.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
I thanks Katie that. It's the impact of vision is
just huge on people's lives. It really is. In fact,
I'll just tell you a little story. We had two children.
We're not set up to see children over there. We
don't have wits. When you have cataract surgery, the eyes
just blocked. You might say you don't feel anything, you
won't remember anything, but it's not a general anesthetic. And
(05:46):
we had two children, so we're not set up for children,
and one child had a nine years old had a
turned eye, so in their world she looked funny and
she would be an outcast and she would not be
able to get married. And the other child had a
white pupil, meaning she had a very mature cataract. But
while when they did when we have a very mature cataract,
they do a scan to see if there's any lesions
(06:08):
behind the cataract to see if it's worthwhile being to
be removed. And in Australia, you know, you wouldn't remove
it if there was something there. Anyway, while are doing
the scans, we lost power, so they didn't have the
final result was it worthwhile taking out this white cataract? Anyway,
they did the surgery anyway, and it didn't restore her sight,
(06:28):
but it did make her look normal because she did
have a retinal attachment there, so she looked normal. And
the other little girl had her eyes straight. And so
these two little girls had huge impacts on their lives
because suddenly they weren't going to be outcasts anymore. They
would be able to live a normal life as their
parents as well. That's incredible, just you know, vision is
(06:50):
not always something funny. Eyes over there is an outcast.
If you're a size twelve over there, you're regarded as
obese and you're probably a diabetic. Trying to get access
to diabetic care is really really hard. You know, our
health standards in Australia we need to be so grateful for.
And so next time we're twiddling and saying, oh, we're
waiting too long to have that appointment, we need to
(07:11):
sort of think. These people wait for days, the months,
and they will sit there all day long. So we've
seen too many people today. They'll come back tomorrow again
at six o'clock and wait again until they're seen.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Well, Helen, what's it like then as well? You knows,
as you're you know, as you're obviously helping people and
they're wearing glasses for the first time, or they're getting glasses,
or you know, they're having those cataracts removed and they're
literally seeing properly for the first time in goodness knows
how long. What's the reaction like from people?
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Oh, it is just incredible because they're suddenly saying, Wow,
I can see my wife for the first time, or wow,
I can see the skies, or I can see my
sister again, so they and they all come with support people.
But it's incredible when you take they're all sitting out
there waiting for us at six thirty in the morning.
We need to have the bandages removed from their cataract surgery.
(08:07):
And then you know, once we take that off and
you know, we're outside doing this and they're just yeah,
they're usually very overwhelmed and they're incredibly grateful.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
Yeah, And what's it like for you? You know, you're
sort of touched on this. We live in a very
you know, we live in a very fortunate place here
in Australia, and sometimes I guess we maybe lose a
bit of that, you know, lose a bit of that
understanding because we just don't realize how lucky we are.
I suppose to be able to, you know, to go
(08:38):
and see somebody, see an optometrist, go and see a
health professional when we need to. You know, what's it
like for you then working in a place like cambody
are volunteering over there with a group of others and
being able to help people in this way.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Well, I think you realize that you can't not go back.
There's no reason why the need is there. I can
go back, and I must go back, you know, and
we need to bring more people on this journey. So
it's you know, obviously we you come away totally appreciative
of our standard of care in Australia and you know
(09:16):
the fact that we can get an appointment with a specialist.
It might be in two months time, but we can
see a specialist where these people they don't have access
to anything. You know, our surgery is next to the
maternity hospital, and if you don't have fifty dollars, then
you won't have a bed to have a baby, which
means if you don't have help, maybe you know, that
(09:37):
baby may not make it or the white the mother
doesn't get the assistance she needs if you need if
you need to have a cesarian or surgery and you
don't have us dollars, then again it might only be
one hundred and fifty, but you're not going to have
access to the care and even just the basic you know,
sanity product products and just totally total basic hygiene they
(10:01):
just don't have access to.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
Helen is there, you know. I know for some of
our listeners this morning, they're going to be hearing this
for the first time and they're going to be thinking,
oh goodness, me, is there any way that I can
donate or is there any way that I can help
in some way? And it may be too late for
these troops, but you know, but is there somewhere where
people can go for a little bit more information if
they are thinking.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
That way, well, they can follow certainly follow the Journey
of Cambodia Vision on Facebook. It isn't a charity organization,
totally nonprofit. All of that money, you know, goes to
helping others over there. We have some very generous Cambodians
you know, with us and we do three fundraisers, but
it'd be great to do with some sort of fundraiser
(10:43):
in Darwin. But otherwise we can also just make sure
if your pre loved glasses are no use to you anymore,
they could be someone else's gift a site, So it's
really important to be able to give. And there's plenty
of areas of where they can drop off their glasses
as well.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Now Wendy's message through and she said, Hi, Katie, I'd
love to know were in Cambodia, Helen is. I'm just
curious as I go there often and it is truly
the Kingdom of Wonder, says Wendy.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
We're going to Camponchang again this year. They have been
to different areas around Cambodia, and then the discussion was, well,
if we've helped all these people, give them the site
in one eye, because sometimes you know, they come in
with total blindness, total blackness, they're living in blackness. To
give them the site in one eye, should we be
doing the other either following year, or should we go
(11:35):
to another area and giving someone the gift of sight
in one eye. So the discussion will be depending on infrastructure.
We're relying on what that local council can offer us
as far as we're working out in a school for
our our vision side. And then we have the hospital
with the surgery at an old hospital there. If they
(11:57):
decide to do renovations, then we need to find another venue.
We're at the side of another hospital which was used
in Cove and that was empty, but then it was demolished,
so we had to find another site because it became
a hotel. So you know, each year it's not like, oh,
we know this is permanent. We will be assessing each
time where we will be Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
Well, Helen, it is wonderful to speak to you this morning.
I love hearing about territori Ands doing incredible stuff and
I tell you what you absolutely are. How fantastic to
speak to you and to hear what you're up to.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
Thank you so much, Katie. Thank you for your listeners
as well.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
Thank you, thanks so much for your time and all
the best. And yeah, it be interested to hear how
it goes.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
Want you back, sure, I'd love to tell you about
it yet.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
Thank you, Helen. Lovely to talk to you this morning.
Really appreciate your time.