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The Church on the Way, in Van Nuys, California, sends numerous humanitarian teams to third world countries, working closely with the Warm Blankets Orphan Care International organization. The mission of the Warm Blankets organization is to restore the lives of orphans in partnership with churches, corporations, organizations and individuals who have a desire to help needy, parentless children. For the last four years, Warm Blankets has been focusing on providing ongoing care to orphans in Cambodia. The tremendous need of the Cambodian people, along with the profound number of orphaned children warrants such attention. Their numerous orphan homes are now operating throughout Cambodia, with nearly fifty-two thousand children having lost both parents from disease or injury.
The emphasis for the 2005 World Team is directed towards Sri Lanka and their needs during this post tsunami period. A small humanitarian team has recently returned from the country providing emergency services and making arrangements for a visit by a larger scale team this summer.
In August 2004, forty-eight individuals from around the globe joined The Church on the Way's World Team headed to the northern Cambodia village of Anlong Veng. The mission of this evangelist/medical team was to provide a beneficial service and support to the people of this suppressed third-world area. For most of the inhabitants around Anlong Veng, this could be their only experience with medical or dental care.
Anlong Veng is where the Khmer Rouge retreated, in the late 1970's, during the conflict in Southeast Asia. Their oust from the capital city of Phnom Phen was a direct result of the atrocities they inflicted on the approximately two million inhabitants. This period of barbaric acts involving slavery, torture, and murder became known to the world as the Killing Fields. The Khmer Rouge dominance ended in 1998 with the death of Pol Pot, their leader. To this date, the area remains the world's most infested area of unexploded land mines, with encounters occurring almost weekly.
Our medical services were intended to treat poor nutrition, pain or inflammation, and infections. Nearly three tons of assorted medications were provided, either donated or purchased to treat the inhabitants of Anlong Veng and the surrounding villages. During our six days of clinic operation, 14,301 patients were treated for diseases or conditions encompassing malaria, typhoid, dengue fever, scabies, lice, cholera, leprosy, elephantiasis, pregnancy, lacerations, and lost limbs. Amputees were prevalent causing us to deplete our supply of crutches early.
Life expectancy is short in the third-world conditions we encountered. The people live in grass roofed structures without any protection from mosquitoes or proper sewage systems. Child mortality is high until five or six years of age. The Cambodian people maintain strong family ties. Education is minimal with exhausting manual labor the dominant livelihood.
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Thank you Dr. Betts, for speaking to our club, and sharing some of your photographs here on our website!