Ba Mak Village Update – 25th February 2017 Copy

Background on Ba Mak Village
Ba Mak Village is located in the Kuri Buri National Park area of Prachuap Khiri Khan Province near the Myanmar border and is home to about 700 people including approximately 200 children. Electricity and clean water are not widely available and most villagers use candles for light and boiled water from the nearby river for cooking and drinking. Sources of income include selling coffee, textile weaving, basket weaving and working in the local rice plantations. Jungle Aid has been actively supporting Ba Mak for over 5 years. We have held regular medical clinics, supported hospital visits, given oral and visual instruction on personal hygiene and contraception, supported village children to attend school and provided school supplies, and other personal items to the village residents.
Jungle Aid Trip to Ba Mak on 25th February
A team of 7 volunteers met at 6:45 am at Market Village and introductions were made. The team members consisted of the following volunteers: Terry – Driver/Area Manager/Assessor, Emma – Driver/Medical/Assessor, Thu – Interpreter/Medical, Aysa – Medical Journal, Jason – Interpreter, Beck and Marcus – Medical and Dave – Video/Photographer.
Upon our arrival, we were met by Chom-phu and K. Tid. And later by village leader K. Ming
Fresh Water Supply and Distribution:
K. Tid went with the Jungle Aid team around the village mapping where existing water
supply lines were constructed several years ago. There is an area at the highest point of the village where four 10,000 litre concrete water storage tanks are located. This distribution network is currently inoperable because there is no method to move river water up to the storage tanks. K. Tid said that it had only been used for one year. He suggested bringing water from the waterfall located 4 kilometers away through a network of PVC piping.
Medical Treatment:
Emma and the medical team treated 11 patients for a variety of ailments and injuries. Several exercises were given to patients to be able to improve their health problems.
Personal Hygiene:
Demonstrations on personal hygiene were shown to the children and adults who had gathered. Simply performing thorough and frequent hand washing can prevent many of the skin, intestinal and respiratory infections that we see in the clinics.
School:
We were informed that all children from 6 to 12 go to school; they go to the “police” school in the village. We unable to learn anything about sponsorships for older students.
Mosquito Nets:
Emma and the medical team dispensed 50 mosquito nets to the villagers
Clothing and Shoes
The team organized and handed out many donated clothes, shoes, blankets, towels and the knitted hats by the wonderful ladies at “Stitch n Bitch”.
Dog Assessment
Marcus and Beck conducted a survey of dogs counting approximately 150 dogs with about 90 being males. They also observed 4 new litters of puppies.
Items for Follow-up:
* Bring reading glasses, pediatric paracetamol and more analgesic balm next trip.
* On an ad-hoc trip bring an engineer to study the cost and feasibility of the water supply line from the waterfall to the village storage tanks.
* Conduct neutering on all the male dogs
* 3 ladies have requested training in Osteopath techniques to treat patients in the village. Booked for 29th April