Interdisciplinary student placement team supports community in Cambodia
In August 2024, 14 staff and students from the Department of Audiology and Speech Pathology, and Department of Optometry and Vision Sciences travelled to Battambang, Cambodia as part of our commitment to helping international communities. The students shared their experiences of working and supporting the Battambang community in a series of reflections below.
Nurturing communication skills in local school with the Speech Pathology team: Tanya Chen, Anna Yuan, Whitney Liu, Andie Shi and Alexis Shiu supervised by Dr Georgie Johnson.
Reflections by Tanya Chen and Anna Yuan.
After 2 weeks of hot weather and incredible street food, our international student trip to Battambang, Cambodia, will remain a highlight of our university journey. Accompanied by our speech pathology supervisor, Dr Georgie Johnson, we embarked on our adventure, slightly nervous but excited for what was to come!
Our first few days were an immersion into the rich Cambodian culture with Khmer language lessons and community engagement. Across the 2 weeks, the Speech Pathology students supported a local Battambang supplementary education setting to deliver English Literacy workshops as part of their school curriculum for over 200 primary school students. We developed resources for a phonics-based instructional model. Our days were filled with interactive games, such as treasure hunts, and lots of dance breaks to ‘Baby Shark’! We were so impressed by the students’ dedication to learning and engagement in our sessions despite having just finished a full day of learning at their government school. Given the language barriers, we paired our kindergarten-level Khmer and non-verbal communication to build fun and informative lessons for the students. Truly putting our speech pathology skills to use!
We were also privileged to deliver training workshops and develop resources for the local teachers to continue to use in their English curriculum. We wanted this to be part of sustainable impact on the community and worked alongside teachers to develop these materials. Additionally, we participated in a trans-disciplinary model of care, contributing to the hearing and vision screenings supported by our interdisciplinary colleagues and peers in Audiology and Optometry. We also had the honour of leading some classes at the Preah Sihanouk Raja Buddhist University, sharing about Australian culture and English language. Our time at the education centre concluded with an insightful panel discussion with the Director of the local district hospital, regarding our work at the education centre and strategies for ongoing care and health education.
However, our trip was definitely not without fun! Our jam-packed days were filled with impromptu coffee runs for Cambodian coconut coffee, shopping trips to the local 4-story supermarket, and a weekend away in Siem Reap to explore the majestic Angkor Wat.
What will we take away? Well, our experience in Battambang with Challenges Abroad and the FutureSense Foundation was truly a once in a lifetime opportunity. In our initial program orientation, we discussed global citizenship, global healthcare, and our personal goals for the program. Now, at the other end of our adventure, reflecting on how much we have learnt and grown in our short time away is truly special. Orkun (Thank you) Cambodia and all the staff who made this trip so incredible!
Students in Cambodia for their placement experience in partnership with Challenges Abroad and FutureSence Foundation.
Audiology team: Innovative Hearing Screens in a School Bus and Playground Otoscopy with students Bella Richardson, Aardra Kuniyil, Ian Lim, Madison Wilson supervised by Patrick Bowers.
Reflections by Aardra Kuniyil, Bella Richardson, Ian Lim, Madison Wilson
The University of Melbourne’s Master of Clinical Audiology students had the opportunity to spend two weeks in Battambang, Cambodia from August 3 - 17. Their mission was to conduct hearing screenings and perform otoscopic examinations on over 350 children. Accompanied by audiology supervisor Patrick Bowers, this was a joint interdisciplinary venture with colleagues from Speech Pathology and Optometry.
Over nine days, the audiology crew set out to screen as many children as possible at the Supplementary Education Centre (SEC) for children aged between 3 and 15. This task was challenging due to the language barrier.
To prepare, the team scoped out their primary testing sites and planned how to run the morning and afternoon sessions. Case history, otoscopy, and tympanometry took place in the playground, while hearing tests were performed in a bus parked outside the school. Understandably, a bus is not very soundproof, and in busy Battambang, motorbikes, and tractors often revved past as they battled for thresholds at 500Hz. The students noted that it was incredibly hot, both on the bus and in the playground, so keeping up the energy and enthusiasm while testing the children was essential.
The most prevalent finding among the children was earwax occlusion or canals very near to being occluded. Many children reported using chicken feathers to remove wax, which made the students curious if this was a cultural practice. Other findings included ear drum perforations, fungal infections, and foreign bodies such as rice, bugs, and paper. Some children were also suspected of having sensorineural hearing loss.
FutureSense, the program hosts, organised a panel of doctors and invited school teachers to attend a session on the final day at the school, where the students shared their findings and discussed how the school students could receive the extra help they needed. The students learned that the local healthcare system relies heavily on grassroots campaigns, with doctors depending on the community and teachers to promote preventative medicine and teach proper hygiene practices to children.
The audiology students conducted a simple workshop with the school’s teachers, focusing on how to identify children who may have hearing loss and the appropriate steps to take if such issues are detected. The workshop also addressed the critical issue of avoiding the insertion of foreign objects into the ears, a common problem observed among the children at the school.
The students expressed that the trip allowed them to re-shift their thinking around diagnostic audiology, and how these fit into making a difference in peoples' quality of life: “I was always under the impression that rehabilitation and rehabilitation audiologists are the people who can make the most profound impact on people since they can both diagnose a hearing loss, but also provide a solution. It was insightful to find that there is power in being able to diagnose and deliver information that alters someone's life for them to make impactful change. Even if that only means taking the next step in seeing a GP, or going to a hospital, the change you have made for that person is profound.”
Audiology students conducting hearing screenings and otoscopic exams at the Supplementary Education center in Cambodia.
Optometry: Screening Vision in the Principal’s Office with students Aaron Au and Ali Mohammed supervised by A/Prof Andrew Metha.
Reflections by Aaron and Ali.
Alongside Speech Pathology and Audiology, two final year Doctor of Optometry students, Ali Mohammed and Aaron Au, under the supervision of Head of the Department of Optometry and Vision Sciences Associate Professor Andrew Metha, went to Battambang, Cambodia and we had the privilege of conducting vision screening at the Supplementary Education Centre.
The trip began with a few days of settling into Cambodia with cultural orientations and assessment planning. We were graciously given the principal's office as our testing space, which had reasonable lighting and plenty of space to do vision assessments. Two vision charts meant two lanes of testing, and there was even a couch where kids could wait for their turn. We took measures of the childrens' vision quality, eye coordination and development, colour vision, and ocular health. Across eight days of testing, we screened well over 300 children and the results were pleasantly unsurprising.
Several Asian countries are experiencing a growing myopia epidemic including neighbours of Cambodia, but our results show a low number of myopic children. Just like the kids themselves, their eyes appeared happy and healthy and we found normal rates of colour vision deficiencies. We also conducted a very basic history with the help of translators, and several children reported itchy eyes. With such healthy eyes, our advice to the local teachers was sharing our knowledge on how kids behave when they cannot see clearly, and they were especially interested in learning how to tailor their classroom to accommodate for children with colour vision deficiencies.
Communication was the first issue we faced, and initially the translator was giving every instruction to the children. Quickly, we learned some key phrases and non-verbal communication and by the end of our experience we were able to conduct a majority of the tests without the translator's assistance. We were also assisted by several of the other University students on the experience who helped us measure colour vision and stereoacuity of several children. Another issue we faced was that despite placing several electric fans in our testing room, the Cambodian climate and the body heat inside made for the warmest eye tests we've ever done. This we did not get used to, and lots of iced drinks were purchased to get us through the day.
The overseas placement is a great experience offered by the Doctor of Optometry degree, and we are incredibly happy that we spent it in Battambang. There is always something that can be done to provide eye care and it is very meaningful to us that we did our optometric screening but also left behind knowledge that will continue to help this community in measuring and accounting for all kinds of vision. It is extremely rewarding to work with NGOs and watching and collaborating with the other faculties was also a great interdisciplinary experience.
Optometry students Aaron and Ali, alongside A/Prof Andrew Metha, conducting vision screening at the Supplementary Education Center in Cambodia.