How much would you give? – Part Two

Meet Su Min, a final-year dental student who shares her volunteering experience in Peru during the summer of 2019, where she helped provide dental treatment and promote health awareness to the local communities, while opening her eyes to important issues such as poverty, hunger and access to health services and quality education. In this second part, Su Min's story focuses on Sustainable Development Goals 3 (Good Health and Wellbeing) and Goal 4 (Quality Education).

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Goal 3: Good Health and Well-Being Whenever winter is approaching in Scotland, we would know someone or ourselves that have had a flu jab. Visiting a dentist regularly is a norm for urban populations and so is receiving prescribed medication for an infectious disease. Medical treatment is always made accessible to us and in some parts of the world free of charge for certain groups of the societies. However this was not quite the case among the communities residing along the Marañon River and it was a baby that taught me this cold fact.

While working on the floating healthcare project, the medical and dental personnel loved visiting the villages where the vessel docked. We would explore the villages to learn their local lifestyle and tropical plants by speaking to the residents. If it was a schooling day we would organise a brief interactive workshop for the children, educating them to improve personal hygiene and sanitation. During the evening, the boat crew never failed to ask the locals for a friendly match on the football pitch in the village. I’m referring the pitch to an empty land, sometimes muddy, with two wooden poles on opposite ends as the goal posts.

Left: in school, we equipped them with knowledge to fight preventable infection via interactive workshops. Middle: Some quality girl time featuring a puppy in a little girl’s arms. Right: this photo was taken on top of a tree because in return they taught me how to climb fearlessly! Hate to disappoint but I wasn't agile enough to swing from a branch to another.

One morning when we were strolling in a village there came a man asking us to visit his day-old daughter. His wife gave birth in the middle of the night at home, with help from their neighbour who had neither midwifery nor medical background. The labour was completed without any complications and both the mother and child were well when we saw them. According to the man, getting to the nearest birth centre would require them to travel for a few hours on a speed boat and it was not done as the labour came earlier than expected.

Left: how adorable was the newborn baby! Middle: my British lecturer who was fluent in Spanish conversed with the baby’s mother to check if they were okay. Right: we saw a piranha being prepared in their kitchen for lunch!

Two days later when we visited the capital of that region, the healthcare centre was partially shut as the workers were on a strike to protest low wages. Coincidentally the midwife was there and explained to us the severe lack of healthcare professionals in the region. Single-handedly she had to look after around 40 pregnant women from several villages. Her biggest concern was babies in breech position in the womb (which could lead to child death at labour), besides teenagers attempting to abort pregnancy using traditional herbal medicine.

Left: the entrance to the emergency department of the community healthcare centre. Middle: the one and only midwife in the clinic showing us the distribution of the pregnant women under her care on a map. Right: on the map, the different colours of the labels represented women near labour and in their early pregnancy, besides pregnant teenagers. It made me ponder upon our access to emergency healthcare services in greater depth. What should a pregnant woman do when she goes into her first ever labour? Where should you send an old man with a heart attack to receive immediate treatment? How long would you have to wait until someone could fix a broken bone or even tooth of yours? If you are privileged enough to be reading this, I believe the answers are straightforward. We might not be able to help the underprivileged 365 days in a year but just imagine this — what if the day you volunteered there was the day where a woman gave birth safely, a man continued breathing upon recovery and one less person became disabled physically. Just imagine. Goal 4: Quality Education Some put it this way, ‘Did you really go to Peru if you did not see Machu Picchu?’ Oh yes, you guessed it — I succumbed to this unwritten rule and signed up for a 5 days and 4 nights long Salkantay Trek which culminated in a spectacular view of the ruins of the Inca Empire. This tour was one of the optional activities offered by the elective company and was the most physical demanding adventures I have ever embarked on. Nevertheless, if I were given the chance to make the decision again, I would not change it. The journey was arduous and saw me catching my breath every now and then but the views were absolutely breathtaking and worth the effort.

Left: during the trek, we started our daily journey as early as 6am. Middle: my trekking group consisted of 12 members from 7 different countries — many of whom I still keep in touch with now. Right: without my group members the ‘Pumas Calientes’, I wouldn't have made it to this one of the new seven wonders of the world. Muchas gracias, Pumas!

Cusco is the mountainous territory of Peru and while I was there, I also conquered the summit of the Rainbow Mountain, elevating at 5,200m above sea levels. However that was completed within a day and I took it as a rehearsal for the much-anticipated Salkantay Trek. This trail was less diverse but no less taxing due to the low availability of oxygen at such a high altitude. Throughout both expeditions, I saw Peruvian children scattered along the treks — some were wrapped in a cloth and piggy-backed by their mothers, some were guarding toilets built for hikers and some were walking llamas or donkeys of which purpose were to carry the hikers’ belongings.

Left and right: two different boys taking care of their llamas along the trek and at the peak of Rainbow Mountain respectively. Middle: these two girls giggled as they shouted ‘1 Sol!’ (Peruvian currency) to me when I was approaching the toilet that they were guarding at 3,800 metres above sea level along the Salkantay Trek.

Meanwhile the pair of eyes that saw and opened by all of them belonged to this girl who took formal education since young for granted. Yes, I meant me. If I have never gone to school, I wouldn't be writing this piece using this language that is not my mother tongue. If not for the teachers I have met, I wouldn’t have made it to where I am today academically. If I wasn't presented with a vast array of reading materials all my life, maybe these perplexing thoughts wouldn't stand a chance to near me. Looking back at the photos taken during the treks, I wished the children could receive at least some rudimentary education, just like many of us did.

Education opens doors to opportunities and I cannot agree more. Following this trip, I expressed my concern on social media about the unschooled children and someone said to me ‘I’m glad that civilisation has not corrupted their mind.’ That was exactly what I was told, word by word. I hate to say that there was the tiniest part of me who would agree with that statement just because we all had stressed-out days at school. However there was another voice in me, as loud as thunder, saying ‘no’ to that reply. Every child has the right to go to school. They deserve to learn, to grow and to fulfil their potential. Only when they have received quality education, in my opinion, they can then choose to allow ‘civilisation to corrupt their mind’ or not.

Thanks for reading till the end. I can only tell you so much about my experience in Peru and perhaps now you are intrigued to do the same when the pandemic settles and it is safe for us to travel again. If I were to re-do this mission, it might offer me an entirely different depth of insight into life. If you were to follow my path exactly, you might not gain the same perspectives. However, please keep in mind that I would never change my initial decision of signing up for this 5-week-long expedition.

This trip added value to my life such that it made me reflect not only during my time in Peru but also regularly after I left, up until today. Thinking back, did I really need to travel that far to learn these lessons? Why was I not that observant or reflective towards what was already happening around me in Scotland and Malaysia? Now that I’m not in Peru, what can I do to enrich the lives of my local community? Right here, right now.

The first two are the companies that I worked with, followed by two other organisations that my friends recommended: • Vine Trust https://www.vinetrust.org/volunteer/medical-expeditions • Mundo Verde https://www.electiveplacements.com • Work The World https://www.worktheworld.co.uk

• Off The Trail Missions https://www.offthetrail.net

If you would like more details on the dental work that I carried out in Peru, please email me at smlai@dundee.ac.uk. For now, stay safe.