Introduction: Handmade Back Board

When you are injured in an accident, it is crucial if your neck is fixed while you are rescued from the scene of accident. If you get damage on your neck and people move you without fixing your neck, you may get additional damage or, in the worst case, it kills you.



The back board is one of the rescue tools which can make a patient's body be fixed and stable during evacuation and transferring by an ambulance.



The back board is currently not available in Cambodia; we need to import it from outside. It costs around few hundred dollars if you purchase a back board in some countries like USA, Japan etc. We decided to produce handmade back boards in collaboration with TICO Cambodia. We provide piece of woods and TICO Cambodia make back board from them.

[Handmade back board (Left); photo taken at TICO Cambodia Office]

It cannot last long compare to the plasitic commercially produced ones. But our handmade back boards already saved many victims from accidents.

Introduction: Community Ambulance

Today, we would like to introduce Medic 42, our community ambulance.

There was a so-called "Ambulance" in the community. We heard it was a donation from a Rotary Club. Unfortunately, community didn't have proper management system to maintain this ambulance.


When this ambulance was seriously broken and nobody in the community could cover the cost for repair, we suggested that we can pay for the cost but we would like to supervise the management of this ambulance. Since then, we have been keeping our eyes on this ambulance so that the ambulance is properly maintained and used as "Ambulance" but not for any other purpose. We have also been paying for ambulance driver's salary.

[Community Ambulance; Before TICO's modification]

It used to equip a stretcher only. We could transfer patients but could not do much to keep patients stable. TICO, a Japanese NGO, our good partner in Cambodia, modified and equipped this community ambulance with necessary Basic Life Suport equipment in this year. Now we can provide at least basic prehospital care before and during transferring patient to a hospital.

[It used to be like this; had only stretcher]

[Now our community ambulance can provide Basic Life Support]

Our Health Center has not yet started operation, but we have been transferring number of patients from our area to Phnom Penh.

Since we started cooperation with TICO, we have been working together on patients' transfer from National Road No.4, where our site locates, to Phnom Penh. It takes at least 1 hour in emergency drive from our area to Phnom Penh. If we transfer a patient to Phnom Penh by our ambulance, we cannot respond to any other case for next 2 hours. There is no other ambulance available in 30 km radious of our area. Also, fuel cost for 2 hours round trip was a big burden.


In order to minimize those negative factors, TICO and we established link-up system. When we receive a patient, we communicate with TICO and TICO arrange a public ambulance in Phnom Penh and it comes along the National Road No.4 towards our area. We meet in the halfway point and pass the patient to the ambulance from Phnom Penh.

[Working together with TICO "Life Saving Project" team]

In this way, we can share the travel distance and travel cost. We can return to the base within an hour and can prepare for the next response. Cooperation with public ambulances through TICO "Life Saving Project" significantly ameliorate Emergency Medical Response along National Road No.4.

Emergency Medical Response System in Phnom Penh City is currently dramatically improved with the effort of Cambodian Government and also guidance from TICO. Now we can communicate with Phnom Penh City Emergency Call Center and they dispatch appropriate public ambulance from Phnom Penh.

After our Health Center starts operation, we will be able to improve our emergency medical response system more.

Construction up-date

From May till November, Cambodia is rainy season. We could not do much on the construction of the Health Center.

We have finished columns and connected them on the ground.

We made columns 1.5 times thicker than Cambodian current standard. In Phnom Penh, lots of construction work is going on (now slow down because of global economic crisis) but many of them are poor quality.

We don't want our Health Center having crack in the walls or any other inevitable damage within few years.

We are monitoring progress in every stage carefully.

Unfortunately, we had too much rain in October / November and it washed cement away from the last two columns before it dried. We needed to demolish those two columns because it's too sandy and not solid enough. After this, we decided to stop construction until rain stops.

Now, we enter dry season and we are ready to catch up with construction schedule!

Community is looking forward to seeing the Health Center starts operataion. Also, GRAPHIS, the donor of the Health Center is coming to celebrate the Health Center Opening Ceremony. We need to complete the construction by March 2009!!!