“At the end of life we will not be judged by how many diplomas we have received, how much
money we have made, how many great things we have done, what religion we belong to. We
will be judged by “I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat, I was naked and you
clothed me. I was homeless, and you give me shelter”.
‘Where There Is No Doctor’ in the hill-tribes is started in 2003 by Dr David. It is initially started in a one-single tribal village in Chiang Rai sub-district region, that is grown into a few couple more villages in a year, which then grew into a few more villages in a couple of years.
A lot more villages were added in a few years and in 2019 we have covered 43 villages. And right now we are covering 50 or more villages as well as a huge number of Myanmar war refugees and displaced people sheltering along Thai-Myanmar border.
Initially, it was just a solitude medical mission, seeing and treating sick villagers. But life in the tribes was not that simple.
What did happen in those days is that all the sick villagers those were seen and treated all got back to the same sicknesses; enteric-parasitic infections; diarrhea, worms and vomiting, whenever I left.
It really annoyed me seeing all the villagers I had seen and treated well came back with the same sicknesses. That forced me to reconsider my-way of health application in the tribes, seeing their present needs, which led me to a more sustainable way of health approach; meeting the underlying-cause that make villagers sick: lack of sanitation and running water.
Tribes in the past used bushes around for toilets and village raised animals like dogs and chickens consumed human waste, and villagers ate those animals. Kids and children in the villages poo around on the ground.
So, I started a more sustainable way of health approach in the tribe communities by asking villagers digging a hole where their poo is collected and buried. And I also made sure it is a daily practice especially among kids and children in the villages.
The outcome-result is dramatic and encouraging.
The enteric-parasitic infections dropped to 50% in a few weeks. I came across much less diarrhea, vomiting and food poisoning in the villages.
I then started volunteering program a couple of years later.
Through volunteers and funding, I could bring spring water to the villages. The water fall and nature spring are our source of water that we pipe down to the villages.
Initially there was no running water in the tribes. Villagers walked many kilometers to fetch water and take shower in the water falls.
We then started building proper running water toilet in the villages and now the villagers can take a good shower and wash their hands every time their poo.
Nowadays, we don’t usually come across diarrhea cases and food-poisoning. Babies and children as well as adult become healthier. Moreover our volunteers don’t get sick.