Kayla's Medical Relief to Cambodia

Hello! My name is Kayla Jenulis. I'm a nursing student coming to the end of my program at the Denver School of Nursing. I am a member of the Global Health Perspectives (GHP) organization at my school where I learn about the community health needs of people locally and globally. As a member, I have been participating in service learning and volunteering in my community for the entirety of my nursing program. GHP offers us students the chance to apply to participate in international medical internships to help people in communities across the globe. I have been selected to be part of a service learning internship to Cambodia to provide medical relief to the people living in that community. The people of Cambodia are working together to heal their community after their brutal past filled with the destruction that the Khmer Rouge brought. During their time in political power, Cambodia lost all of their access to healthcare and education, among other things. I will be traveling and working with International Medical Relief (IMR) to provide medical services to the people of Cambodia. We will be traveling to various regions around the country who have invited us to come and help. We will be setting up a clinic where we can see those who need medical attention for a variety of concerns. The United Nations Millenium Project estimated that only 13% of the people in Cambodia seek medical attention, and 22.9% of children in that country die before the age of 5. (More information can be found on the IMR website)

Some of the most important work we will be doing is community education. One of GHP's values, and my favorite, is sustainability. As part of our service learning outreach goals, we want to provide the people we reach with a way to take something from our interaction that they can carry with them. Providing patient education in nursing is so important because the information we give our patients empowers them to be able to take control of their illness. Many of the diseases that affect these people are treatable and preventable, including malaria, cholera, intestinal parasites, and diarrhea. I will be assissting with teaching them about hygiene including handwashing, the importance of drinking clean water, and drinking fluids when you're sick. With this knowledge, we can not only treat their illness, but also teach them how to avoid getting it again once we've left. 

I am so honored and excited to have been selected to be a part of this mission. It has always been a dream of mine to participate in medical relief missions to other countries throughout my nursing career, and I am so lucky this can begin while I am a student. In order for that to happen, I need to raise the money to go on the internship. The total donation is $5,000, which includes the donation to IMR for my food, lodging, and clinic supplies; my plane ticket; and the costs for traveling necessities (visa, vaccinations, etc.).

I need to raise the money by June 23, and I will be on the internship from June 24-July 4. Please partner with me to send me to Cambodia with IMR! I thank you for your time and your donation. I am more than willing to answer any questions about my internship and would love to share about my experience when I return!