Pictures in Sarawak

CPR workshop pictures

BAKTISISWA

To all participants who wants to contribute their pictures, stories , etc , you can submit it to Sharen or Khalidah.. Thanks to all of you for making this project successful.

Medical Mission

This coming August, we, the medical students from the University of Malaya will be dropping our books and leaving the classroom to go on a charitable mission to Bintangor in Sarikei, Sarawak. Termed “Baktisiswa”, this is the biggest annual community service project held by the Medical Society of the University of Malaya. In continuing with tradition, the Society has once again organised Baktisiswa 2008, with the theme “Soaring towards a Healthier Horizon”.
This year’s event will last for one week; from the 28th of July to the 2nd of August. A total of 110 third year students led by Dr. Mohazmi Mohamed from the hospital’s Primary Healthcare Department will make the trip to Sarawak during their week-long break. This visit is targeted at rural places to increase health awareness there as well as to help the community in its fight against common endemic diseases such as malaria. We want to provide the local community with accurate and relevant information on the importance of a healthy lifestyle, as well as forge stronger relations between the locals and the medical community. We want to help them establish proper healthcare values that are in line with scientific rationale, and not with traditional beliefs.
During the early stages of planning for this project, a common question often directed at us was, why Sarawak? Why not other areas nearer to the University? While there also are rural areas near the city, we decided that Sarawak would be ideal as the people there have different cultures from those of us in the Peninsula. While this is first and foremost a community service project, the organisers decided that it was also important for the medical students to gain something from the experience. We felt that it will be an eye opener for many of us who are going there for the first time to experience firsthand the different cultures, peoples and lifestyles. While we are used to the healthcare system in the Peninsula, many of us have not had a chance to witness for ourselves the system in Sarawak. To produce holistic doctors, we realised that as medical students, we needed to be aware of the vastly different factors affecting healthcare in our country, be it in terms of resources, types of diseases, religion or cultural sensitivities. We needed to be exposed to the healthcare system of our country on a larger scale and not just to that of the cities.
Among the many activities planned, a medical check-up for the local community as well as a healthcare awareness talk are among the highlights of our visit. Tests such as Body Mass Index (BMI) test, blood pressure test, glucose level test as well as eye sight tests will be conducted for the benefit of the locals completely free of charge. A Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) demonstration will also be conducted to increase CPR knowledge and abilities among the local population. On a more personal level, each participant will be assigned a foster family from the local community. During the entire length of the event, the participants will live in their foster families’ homes. Besides enabling the participants to get to know their hosts better, it also provides great insight into the lives of the local community. Participants will be exposed to the lifestyles, culture and traditions of the locals in Bintangor. As these families are housed in long houses, this also means that for nearly all of us, it will be the first time living in a long house, despite having heard and learning of it ever since we were in primary school.
Having said all that, this project will only take off if it receives the support of the public. Conducting free medical check-ups is no easy task, and it certainly does not come cheap. We have conducted donation drives since early this year, and came up with programmes such as washing cars for charity. Despite having over a hundred medical students washing cars under the scorching sun for days, and despite the kind support we have received from concerned members of the public, we are still in need of support, either in cash or kind. We are in need of equipment such as anti-sera, glucose strips and lancets to conduct our medical check-up and are hoping that individuals or companies especially those in the medical industry will come forward to help out. We are also in need of financial support to enable us to buy daily necessities that can help relieve the economic burden being faced by the local community in Bintangor.
We appeal to members of the public, companies, government agencies and all other interested parties to support a sincere effort by a group of students to do their part for society. In order to help others, we in turn, need your help. However small this effort may seem, it is indeed our first step of many to come on our journey to make this world a better place to live in. Once again, let us appeal to all of you out there. Help us make Malaysia a better place. This is our effort for our beloved country, what is yours?Contact us at 0125312686

List of activities

MEDICAL CHECK UP
blood pressure
BMI
Blood group
glucose level
fat analysis
Snellen chart

HEALTH TALK
dengue fever
Hand, foot, mouth disease
malaria

CPR DEMONSTRATION AND FIRST AID DEMO
fractures ( bandaging and dressing)
poisoning
bites and stings
bleeding

HAND WASHING DEMO

POSTER EXHIBITION
Kenali badan kita
Diabetes
Hypertension
Heart attack
Asthma
Hand Hygiene
Dengue fever
Malaria
Hand, foot, mouth disease
Food Pyramid

BINTANGOR...

Our senior baktisiswa website :)

Visit this website www.geocities.com/HotSprings/8576/baktisiswa.html.